The Irish ecclesiastical record

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THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

JANUARY, 1889.

MAN OR MONKEY?

" Que I'liomme s'examine, s'analyse et s'approfondisse, il
reconnaitra bientot la noblesse de son etre, il sentira V existence de
son dme, il cessera de s'avilir ; il verra d'un coup d'oeil la distance
infinie que PEtre supreme a mise entre lui et les betes.'' — BUFFON.

FAITH alone can teach man his true position. Whenever
left to determine this question for himself, he invariably
errs by excess or by defect. In byegone years it was
customary to- exalt human nature beyond all limit; to raise
corruptible men to the position of gods; to build altars to
them and to offer incense at their shrines. We find pagan
temples filled with the images of heroes and heroines, who
were honoured with supreme worship, and treated as divini-
ties. Now, the changing pendulum of human judgment has
swung to the opposite view. If in past centuries men were
placed among the gods, as in the Olympus of the Greeks or
in the Walhalla of the Scandinavians, there to receive
divine honours, now, woe to any man who dares to aspire to
be anything better than a beast. He would be denounced as
behind the age, and strangely ignorant of the important
disclosures of modern science. Like the guest at the wedding-
feast, who began by incautiously seating himself too high,
and then through very shame proceeded to take the lowest
place, man, who began by claiming divine honours now thinks
it necessary to renounce even those which are human. He
professes to be nothing more than a developed monkey — an
orang-outang or a baboon — or at least a descendant of one
of their remote ancestors, with whose plastic form the pass-
VOL. x. A

2 Man or Monkey ?

ing ages have taken strange liberties, moulding and kneading
it until it has reached its present human condition !

It is a clever child that can narrate its own early history
from conception to birth, and recount all its experiences,
impressions, and feelings, when living within its mother's
womb. Yet this would be a trivial task, compared to that
undertaken by a certain class of modern scientists, who have
written detailed accounts of the very first of our race, and
who have undertaken to trace every step in his develop-
ment, with all the confidence and minuteness of an actual
observer, from a mere dab of protoplasm to a simple cell,
from a cell to a mud-fish, from a mud-fish to a ring-tailed
spider-monkey, and so on and on, till at last we find him
seated in the professor's chair at the university, clothed with
cap and gown, lecturing on his own descent.

Here we may listen to him, as he solemnly informs his hearers
tli at the present race has sprung from an elder branch of the
anthropoid apes, and that so far from being created " a little
lower than the angels," men have by dint of much labour and
suffering succeeded in raising themselves a trifle higher than
the brutes. In fact man is but a brute. His nature and
character are indistinguishable, except in degree, from that
of the lowest and loathsomest animals that inhabit the plains
or range through the great forests. Man's highest faculties
and capacities are mere acquisitions, and the fortuitous
results of " a favourable environment," of " the survival of
the fittest," and of " the general struggle for existence," and
so forth. Except for such accidental circumstances he would
be no better than the beast that perishes, and even now, he
can only be considered as " primus inter pares."

What a debased condition of mind such a doctrine, calmly
proposed and eagerly accepted, indicates ! What an illustra-
tion is its marvellous diffusion, of the materialistic tendency
of the age ! Men seem to have lost the power of throwing
their thoughts beyond the limits of mere. sense ; and are quite
ready to argue an identity of nature and essence, from a mere
external and wholly unimportant organic resemblance.

The superstition of man's ape-descent, which unhappily is
gaming ground in some quarters, though we are glad to find

Man or Monkey ? 3

a reaction setting in in others, arises from neglecting and
despising the very basis and only essential condition upon
which man's real greatness rests ; viz. his soul.

Material-minded scientists, with mere sense perceptions,
notice a resemblance between man's corporal frame — his mere
external envelope — and that of the ape. They study with
infinite pains the morphological and physiological formation
and growth of the material part of the man and the beast ;
and, noting the close similarity in some respects, conclude
an equally close similarity in all respects. Upon the only
really vital distinction, namely, the soul, they lay no stress
whatsoever; probably because its presence cannot be verified
either by the scalpel or by the microscope.

Yet, the likeness of man's material part to that of the
beast, is no recent discovery. Has he not always been con-
sidered, in all that relates to- his physical being, an animal as
truly as any other ? Does he not live by food, and breathe
the air, and feel the cold of winter and the heat of summer
as truly as others ? Will not the water drown and the fire
burn one as readily as the other ? And when death comes
and arrests the action of the heart, and stiffens every limb,
does not the body of the king and the philosopher corrupt
and fall to pieces like that of the lowest beast and resolve as
surely into the same gases and primordial elements ?

No one — be he saint or theologian — denies the animal
nature of man's body. No ! It is not that which we have in
view, when we extol and celebrate his grandeur and nobility.
It is rather the great and immortal principle that animates
that body, — that stirs in every limb, that throbs in the over-
burdened heart, that strives in the seething brain — that
immaterial essence that looks out of its prison house of clay,
and gazing beyond this puny earth, interprets the signs
in the heavens, measures the distance and magnitude of the
stars ; traces their paths through sideral space, or turning to
earth, reads its history in the very rocks, robs the seas and
the mountains of their hidden treasures, and compels the
powers of nature to serve its purpose and to do its will.
Yes, it is this active, energetic secret principle of life, of
thought, of love, that we have in our minds, when we think

4 Man or Monkey ?

of man's greatness, not the corruptible vesture of vile clay,
with which it is momentarily encumbered and which may be
thrown away to-morrow, and made to feast the worms. " On
earth there is nothing great but man," says the poet, " and
in man, there is nothing great but soul."

It is true that even though our examination were confined
to bodily structure we should still discover many and impor-
tant contrasts between man and all inferior animals. This
is undeniable. Yet, it is not a matter of any great importance,
nor a point we need waste any time in discussing. The
most advanced scientists have pointed out a number of
striking differences — especially in the size, weight, and con-
volutions of the brain ; in the form of the skull, and the
relative proportions of certain parts of the skeleton, etc.

These are some of the chief points of divergence. Many
others might be mentioned, but there is not the slightest
need, in fact my whole purpose is to show that the very
foundation of the distinction between man and beast is wholly
independent of all such physical differences, which so far as
our argument is concerned, might, or might not exist.

I may here, however, call attention to a very common
objection, urged with considerable effect by our opponents.
They endeavour to cut the ground from under our feet by
assuring us with an extraordinary arrogance of superior
authority, that no one without an intimate knowledge of
anatomy, physiology, and morphology, is in a condition to
lorm any opinion whatsoever, as to whether there be
sufficient grounds for believing in man's development from the
ape or not. That, in fact, unless a man has passed through the
schools of medicine, and has every artery, nerve, bone, and
articulation at his fingers' ends he has no business to form a
judgment of any kind ; that, to speak plainly, his only
proper attitude is one of silence and respectful attention to
the oracles of science.

This may be a very convenient way of forcing down our
throats a hostile creed, and compelling orthodox believers
to hold their tongues, but happily it is in no way a contention
we are bound to respect. And why ? Well, for this reason,
that the question is rather a question of philosophy than

Man or Monkey 5

comparative anatomy ; and further, because we may grant,
even without examination, all the close physiological resem-
blance that is supposed to exist on the authority of scientists
alone, and still be more than ever persuaded of the infinite
and wholly impassable gulf that separates man from the
most cultured ape that ever scrambled up a cocoanut tree,
or swung by its tail from a bough of the baobab or (in
scientific language) the Adansonia digitata ! Nay, we are pre-
pared to go further than even the most exacting man of
science. We will allow, not merely all that he asks, but a
great deal more, and will prove that, notwithstanding, man
is something more than a developed gorilla.

For many years past it has been the ambition of natural-
ists to discover some creature that should resemble us more
nearly than any yet known. Let us suppose such hitherto
fruitless searches, to be at last crowned with complete
success, and that in the year 2000, the perfect remains of an
extinct race of monkeys are discovered in some land just
raised by " a freak of nature " above the level of the sea
beneath which it had been till then submerged. During an
indefinite number of centuries they had lain entombed and
hermetically sealed in some convenient recess, like the famous
pre-historic toad (20,000 years old, and, in September last?
still living!) of the London Times (see Sep. 25, 1888),
and at last they are brought to light and submitted to a
most careful and. exhaustive examination. Every nerve?
artery, muscle, bone, articulation, gland, duct, fibre, and
cellular and other tissues, has been preserved and is now
made to submit to the most delicate and exquisite tests. Not
the smallest fibre or microscopic cell, (we will suppose)
escapes observation. We will suppose — what has never yet
been shown, and what never will be shown — that the
discovered bodies resemble the body of man in every
particular. Let us assume that they are even indistinguish-
able, nay positively identical with the body of the most
highly cultured and intellectual man that ever lived.

What then ? Does that prove man's bestial origin ?
Does it even tend in any measure to give weight to the
theory of man's identity with the ape ? Prove it ! Just

6 Man or Monkey ?

the reverse. For — if two creatures — say a Shakespeare and
an Orang-outang be exactly alike in body, we can no longer
seek in the material structure of either the secret cause of
their extraordinary difference in character, in disposition, in
faculty, habits of life, tastes, preferences, and moral nature.
The underlying cause — and a cause, there must be — cannot
be in the body, since the bodies ex hypothesi, are co-equal
and similar, therefore it must lie in what is distinct from
body — in what is immaterial and spiritual.

Thus a discovery which agnostic naturalists think would
serve to clench their argument, would in reality only supply
us with a fresh proof of the existence of man's reasoning
soul ; and would render yet more emphatically necessary the
hypothesis, that man possesses a spiritual substance, as the
principle of life and thought, not shared by the lower orders
of creation.

Man's life is essentially different from that of the brute.
Man speaks, the brute is without articulate speech. Man
has a sense of right and wrong, of true and false, of justice
and injustice, of virtue and vice : a sense of responsibility ;
a perception of the ludicrous, of the incongruous, of abstract
ideas, and of beauty, of harmony, &c. Man can think, argue,
deduce consequences, feel genuine shame, remorse, and can
exhibit pure affection and generous love : not so the brute.

In a word, a cursory glance enables us to detect a vast
number of psychological and moral differences. It will not
much interfere with the strength of our argument even if we
admit for the moment the absurd contention that the differ-
ences are but differences of degree, and not of kind ; for the
extraordinary differences even of degree, which all must admit,
requires an explanation as peremptorily as differences of kind.1

But whence do such differences arise? Not from any
difference in the organism, or nervous structure, or convolu-
tions of the brain, since we suppose (ex hypotliesi) that no
such corporal divergence exists. Then it must be in some-
thing distinct from organism, in something which man pos-

1 Darwin writes :—" The difference in mind between man and the
higher animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree, and not of
kind." — Ihe Descent of Man. Such doctrine is of course contra jidem.

Man or Monkey ? 7

sesses and the beast lacks, in something independent of
matter — in a word, we are compelled to admit, as the only
conceivable explanation, a rational, intelligible, spiritual
substance, or, in plain words, a human soul as distinct from
a bestial soul.

Thus, so far from similarity in physical structure proving
man's identity with the monkey, it proves more forcibly
than ever the validity of his claim to the possession of an
invisible and immaterial principle such as no other visible
creature possesses. We are constrained either to admit this,
or else to leave the difference of life and conduct in the two
beings wholly without an explanation — i.e., to assert an effect
to exist without a cause, quod est ridiculum.

No ! Let us look the fact straight in the face. The
glory and dignity of man lies not in his body, however
comely and beautiful. His pre-eminence is due to that mar-
vellous intellectual principle to which we give the name soul.
It was only when God had breathed the spiraculwn vitae into
the prepared clay that it became man. That is the seat of his
royalty and the secret of his greatness. Blot out man's soul
and you blot out the image of God; deny that and you
strike the sceptre from his hand and the crown from his
head. It is the gifts inherent in the soul — above all, the
gifts of immortality, of reason, of memory, and of free will —
that raise him up and set him on a pinnacle above the rest of
the visible creation.

Time and space alike forbid me to attempt to dwell upon
each of these gifts in detail. A word on the most important
and the most difficult will sufficiently help us to think out
the rest for ourselves. Let us, then, say a few words on the
attribute of immortality.

Man's soul is immortal. Once produced by the omnipo-
tence of God, it must endure for ever. The body will
crumble away, disease will plough deep furrows in the cheek,
the limbs will totter and sink beneath their burden, the
entire organism at length falls to pieces, and disintegrates,
but the soul lives on. All else will decay and pass ; not the
soul. Death comes and mows down the bodies of man and
of beasts, as the sickle cuts the poppy with the corn; yet

8 M<m or Monkey ?

death's dart cannot pierce or penetrate the soul. While all
else corrupts, and changes, and falls away, the soul remains
unaffected. As delicious music to the ear, so is this thought
to the heart of the way-worn pilgrim of earth, so let us still
speak on. The soul witnesses changes in all else, but it does
not share in them. It is like the rock in the midst of the
restless ocean, the tide of events rolls by, but it remains un-
moved. Peoples come and go, generation follows genera-
tion, as the waves of the sea; empires spring up, rise to
eminence, and crumble away when their day is done; but the
soul is ever young and knows no decay. Amidst the unfold-
ing of new planetary systems, as well as amid the crashing of
falling worlds, the soul is still the same. Its life is endless
and eternal. Centuries cannot measure it, nor can numbers
represent it. The longest earthly life compared with it is
less than a single instant, or the smallest fraction of an
instant. There is indeed no proportion between time and
eternity; and yet it is for eternity we are made. This would
scarcely be a fitting statement to make in this connection
were it merely the teaching of faith. It is because inde-
pendently of all supernatural revelation, we have witnesses to
this truth stirring and palpitating in our own hearts, that I
now briefly refer to it, as an evidence of a spiritual and
superior nature unknown to any other inhabitant of earth.

Our whole being feels the inspiration of immortality. It
forces itself upon the mind of even the untutored savage.
The very pagans exclaim, "non omnis moriar," "I shall not
wholly die " — no, not my mind, not my spirit. The unfledged
bird feels not more instinctively that it is not destined to
dwell for ever within the narrow circle of its nest, than we
feel that we are not made to dwell for ever within the con-
fines of earth. What is the interpretation of all these yearn-
ings that rise within our hearts, those longings for better
things, those strivings after an impossible ideal ? What are
they but indications of the reality of a life beyond the narrow
limits of earth — limits both as to time and as to space? Why
will man's spirit never rest, never feel fully satisfied, never
be wholly filled while in the corruptible flesh, but because he
is made for something brighter, fairer, and far more beautiful

or Monkey? 9

than anything that earth has to offer him ? How else, indeed,
account for our present deplorable state ? There is no other
solution possible but that which faith suggests or declares.

We have lived but a few years, and already have we
learned the vanity and emptiness of all worldly joys, and
how absolutely incapable they are of satisfying our hearts
for more than one brief instant. AY ere this the only life, we
should be the most wretched instead of the most en-
viable of beings. Other beings of more limited capacities
are content with their lot ; not man. The birds sing
gaily through the limpid air, and there is no note of
sadness in their song, and with joy unchecked by grief
the sparkling fish dart in merry shoals through the summer
seas. But man has not yet reached his full perfection, and
therefore is still a stranger to perfect happiness. Never does
he pause amid the bustle and strife of life, to listen to the
secret beatings of his heart, but he hears it murmur of a
home of peace and joy which he knows it is vain to hope for
here, and which must therefore await him hereafter : for nature
does not speak in vain : nor does it speak falsely ; " vox cordis,
vox Dei.5' All assures us that we are not as the flower that
fades, nor as the butterfly which unfolds its beauty to one
bright summer and is heard of no more. On the contrary
our whole naturej demands a future in which our capacities
may receive their full development, and every wish its com-
plete satisfaction. As well distrust the hunger that craves
for food, or the thirst that seeks the cooling waters, as
mistrust the deep and fervid language of the heart. He who
has implanted these longings within us is God, the author of
our being and the infinitely Wise. And does infinite Wisdom
create without a just and holy purpose ? If he fills our
hearts with insatiable yearnings after an eternal life of light
and love, are we to suppose He has made no provision for
their realization ? Impossible ! The same God who instructs
the new-born infant to seek its nourishment at its mother's
breast, ordains also at the same time that it shall not seek it
there in vain : and shall we dare affirm that God who plants
the irresistible desire of eternal life in our souls, plants it
there in mockery and derision ? A thousand times, no ! It

10 Man or Monkey ?

is as certain as we live, that if He has so constituted our
nature that it clamours for the eternal joys of heaven, it is
simply because He intends to stay the cry He has raised, and
to grant us one day the desires of our hearts. Did God give
to the great whale its colossal proportions and prodigious
strength that it might be confined like the amseba in a
miserable rain drop, or left to find' its home like the loath-
some frog in some stagnant pond ? No ; since its nature
demanded a wider field of action, in which to sport and
gambol, a wider field was provided for it in the boundless sea.
And shall we nevertheless say, that the soul of man has been
given its fathomless depths, and its limitless capacities for
happiness, to be starved, or left to languish, on such vain pomp
and idle pleasures as this life has to offer. Perish the thought !
It is as insulting to God as it is outrageous to sound reason.
Such dealing would be out of harmony with every lesson
that nature teaches us of the wisdom, the goodness, and the
providence of the Divine Creator and contrary to all analogy.

All shows us that we possess the inestimable treasure of
immortality, and will live for ever. Eternity awaits us; and
even now stretches out its arms to enfold us. We are children
of eternity, not of time. Such a truth is not merely most
consoling but it is one which must, when realised, exercise a
most marked influence on our lives.

Jf made for eternity, then we must Jive for eternity ; and
not entangle ourselves in the interests of time. If we are
destined to live for ever then we must not sacrifice every-
thing for the vain and empty pleasures of a day ; nor make
any temporal pursuit whatever the end and supreme purpose
of our life.

Darwinism has helped considerably to intensify the
general apathy of men in the pursuit of the higher aims of
virtue, and it is tho duty of us priests to point that fact out.
Look out upon the world around. Witness the lives of the
multitudes. For what are they living? What is their great
purpose in life ? What thoughts are seething arid swelling
up from the secret recesses of their hearts ? For the most
part their thoughts are bent upon riches, honours, distinct-
ions, influence, position, comforts, pleasures and amusements.

Man or Monkey ? 11

The sight of so much folly should force from us scalding
tears. For what is this life? A moment; a brief instant ;
a mere point of time trembling on the confines of eternity :
a veritable nothing : utterly valueless except in so far as it
is related to eternity, and wholly vain except in as much as it
is the seed of future glory. Such is the true view. But let
man but once persuade himself that he has been derived from
a mud-fish, and that he is nothing nobler or better than a
developed ape or a refined and improved monkey ; that the
distinction between him and the arboreal inhabitants of a
Brazilian forest or an Indian jungle, is one only of degree —
of more or less — then, but one more step remains to be
taken, and that is to lead the life of a beast ; to eat, to
drink, to sleep : to indulge every sensual passion, and to
follow every IOAV and brutal instinct: to seek pleasure and
delight in the indulgence of gluttony, intemperance, and
impurity.

By destroying the belief in our high and exalted nature,
and denying any essential difference between ourselves and
the senseless beasts, we destroy the strongest, if not the only,
motives for self-respect and self-restraint. Once inoculated
with this virus, men will speedily return, at least in disposi-
tion and character, to the condition of the beasts from which
they are now pleased to boast their descent.

Let us draw the curtain over such revolting theories and
such unsavoury doctrines, and listen rather to the voice of
God, " our Father who is in heaven," who, with ineffable
love, informs us that we are made but " a little lower than
the angels,"1 crowned with glory and honour, and set over
the works of His hands (Heb. ii., 7). Only in proportion to
the manner in which we realise our high estate, and keep
the memory of it] ever before us, shall we live up to the
high standard set by Jesus Christ. Noblesse oblige. The ten-
dency of modern science is to overlook our highest interests,
and to induce us to forget what is in reality alone worth
remembering; Quod Deus avertat.

JOHN S. VAUGHAN.

1 Allioli remarks regarding this text, " Die menschliche Natur unter
die englische, namlich nur so lanye sie auf Erden wallt ; denn im andern
Leben sinddie Menschen wie die Engel des Hirnmels" (Matt. 22-30), vol. ii.,
p. 10.

ft' 12 ]

IRISH MISSIONARY TYPES.— II.
THE RIGHT REV. DR. MULLOCK, O.S.F.

religions and political history of the colonies has
always largely reflected the story of the lands from which
their most active popular elements are derived. Circumstances,
however, which no Imperial influence could hinder or con-
trol, have enabled the newer Ireland to spring, as it were at
a bound, from oppression and neglect to freedom and pros-
perity. Within half a century from their settlement, most of
the colonies reached the goal of self-dependence and self-
government. The mother land still strains towards it,
painfully, " tanquam in agone" after centuries of suffering and
misrule. But the political continuity of the race — the oneness
of its aims, its methods, and its destinies, remains unbroken.
The enforced dispersion of the Gael is more than compen-
sated by his rapid and momentous rehabilitation. The
scattered, yet undivided, groups of the family have cast off
their political shackles. They have freed their hands and
hearts, not merely for their own upraising, but for that also
of the mother land to which they owe the instinct and the
faculty of freedom, progress and right.

Reflections such as these come unbidden at the memory
of the great Irish Missionary Bishop, Right Rev. Dr. Mullock,
O.S.F. In one important colony he renewed the glory of
Irish religious history. He carried out, moreover, to splendid
issue, the struggle the race everywhere maintains for free-
dom, self-reliance, and self-rule. There is scarce a parallel
in our days to his masterful influence on the destinies of his
adopted land. Should we seek one in the past we must
return to the palmy days of Ireland's great message to the
nations and its magnificent fulfilment by the missionaries and
the monks of the West. Among these, his compatriot,
Firghill of Salzburg, is his true prototype, as being not
only a great Prelate, but also a daring innovator in the realm
of science and discovery. The memoir from which this
paper is condensed abounds in facts and incidents,
from" personal observation, that reveal the great soul of the

Irish Missionary Types. 13

man, and his power in every function of his office. Our task,
however, is to present only the main points of his illustrious
career. Too long has this task been neglected. We shall
try to paint his portrait (till the fuller picture be exhibited)
as a great Pastor, a bold and successful political reformer,
and the very originator of the greatest scientific enterprise
of our age — the Atlantic telegraph cable.

Right Rev. Dr. Mullock came to the colony of Newfound-
land in 1848 as Coadjutor Bishop to Right Rev. Dr. Fleming.
Thenceforward till his death in 1869, the great impulse given
to religion and progress in the island sprang almost entirely
from his splendid intelligence, concentrated energy, and
devoted patriotism. He belonged to the same Franciscan
family as all his predecessors in the spiritual government of
the Island. At the time of his appointment as Bishop he
was Guardian of the Franciscan Church and Convent, com-
monly called Adam and Eve*, Dublin. He was a native of
Limerick City. He made his chief studies in Seville, Spain,
but completed them at St. Isidore's Convent, Rome. The
writer well remembers Dr. Mullock's first appearance in New-
foundland. The Bishop was then little over forty years of
age. He was of middle stature, with sturdy robust frame,
but with delicate hands and feet, His features were strongly
marked. The forehead just above the eyes was prominent
and full of force. His thick black hair, ajid complexion of a
deep uniform brown, with dark eyes to match, gave him the
appearance of a native of Southern Spain. His expression
in repose was stern, almost forbidding. But when he smiled
a perfect sunshine of mirth and kindliness beamed from his
face. Every feature became illumined by it, and nothing
could be more winning than his expression.

Such, outwardly, was the man who came to Newfoundland
to shape the channel of the history, and sway the destinies of
the country. This is not saying too much of his extraord-
inary influence upon every social and religious movement
of his epoch. His was a mind that would have ranked among
the very first in any land or in any condition of civilization.
In this yet unfashioned colony it stood forth portentous.
Having lived and thought much amid nations hoary wita

14 Irish Missionary Types.

the greatness of the past, his judgment on men and measures
were not those of experiment, but of experience.

If a man could be too great for such an office as that of
Bishop, no matter how primitive or how narrowed the scene
and scope of his authority, then Dr. Mullock was too great a
Bishop for Newfoundland. However, he accommodated
himself to the circumstances, or rather accommodated the cir-
cumstances to himself. He was not impressed by his surround-
ings, but they were impressed by him, and they bear his impress
to-day, and will bear it for ever. He set his high energy and
cultivated taste to work, at once, in the service of religion.
Finding the Cathedral built, but not by any means finished,
in a very short time he furnished it on the style of the great
temples amongst which his earlier life had been passed. The
towers soon echoed to a chime of bells unrivalled at the time
on this Atlantic side. The high altar was erected and faced
with malachite and other rich stones which his Roman ex-
perience had taught him to value, and qualified him to select.
It was soon surmounted by a colossal group in marble re-
presenting the Baptism of St. John, and by a bronze cruci-
fixion that had erst adorned the high altar in the Cathedral
of Ypres. Underneath reposed a dead Christ, a masterpiece
of Hogan. A beautiful mural tablet in relievo recorded the
memory of his predecessor. Paintings and sculptures — in
number and excellence unknown in that colony — perhaps in
all America at that day — adorned the church,. and even the
grounds outside it. Conspicuous among them are life-size
statues of the Blessed Virgin, St. Patrick, and St. Francis,
the founder of his order. Instead of the little wooden house,
called " The Bishop's Palace," a fine substantial stone dwell-
ing for himself and priests soon stood beside the Cathedral.
A new stone church — and a very fine one — dedicated to St.
Patrick, rose from its foundations in another quarter of the
town, and was so far advanced towards completion by him
that, as he once said to the writer, it would have to be finished
after his death. Schools were founded broadcast over the
land in every cove and harbour. Convents were established
wherever they could be supported . His indefatigable activity
knew no repose. He procured the division of the island into

Irish Missionary Types. 15

two Dioceses, and fixed a new see in the North, and an
Apostolic Prefecture in the West of it, after having visited
the whole himself time after time.

One of the objects dearest to him was the encouragement
of priestly vocations, and the formation of a clergy from the
youth of the colony. As early as 1856, when he had not long
been bishop, he spoke most earnestly of this his desire to the
writer, then a student at Rome. And on appointing him
some years after to teach in the college he had erected chiefly
for this object, the Bishop strongly recommended the further-
ance of this project. He said : —

" Since emigration from the old land to this colony has ceased
for a long time, and is not likely to be revived while the great West,
the land of promise for the Irish people, spreads out its more tempting
lures to them, we cannot expect to recruit our clergy from the youth
of Ireland who will naturally follow their people and choose, even
for tlieir own sakes, a more congenial field than this for their
labors. The country, therefore, will have to depend on itself for its
clergy sooner or later, and the sooner we realize this necessity tho
better."

So he commissioned the writer to choose among the youth
of the place who frequented the College of St. Bonaventure,
built by him (a mixed institution for day scholars, a few
boarders, and normal teachers), those who seemed to promise
well for the Sacred Ministry. Means or condition he said
were not the qualifications chiefly to be considered in the
selection — but the more sterling qualities that would fit them
for a humble and laborious life in accordance with the direc-
tions given to bishops by the Council of Trent in reference
to seminaries. (Sess. XXIII. Cap. 18 de Reform.}

Following out the Bishop's instructions the writer selected
seven or eight youths, who already knew something of classics,
and formed them into a class of philosophy. They were all
young men of talent and good conduct, and most of the
number persevered and attained the office of the priesthood.
Their theological studies in most cases were afterwards pur-
sued in the larger institutions of Europe, but here in Dr.
Mullock's college their dispositions received their first decided
bent towards the holy ministry, and a good foundation was

16 Irish Missionary Types.

laid for the marked success that attended the studies of many
of the young Newfoundlanders during their collegiate course
in Ireland, France, and Rome. Out of that class, first formed
at St. Bonaventure's, St. John's, one, Rev. William Fitzpatrick,
be'came himself afterwards President of the College, but died
young and greatly regretted. Another, Rev. H. Kavanagh,
joined the Jesuit Order. He was preceded in it by Rev.
Frs. Ryan and Brown, both also Newfoundlanders, and the
latter late Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Ireland. Father
Bennett, another Newfoundlander, and a former student of
St. Bonaventure's, is now a Redemptorist and Rector of the
delightful retreat oi that order in Perth, Scotland. Very
Rev. M. F. Howley, D.D., one of the early students of the
College, has lately been appointed Vicar Apostolic of AVest
Newfoundland. In Harbor Grace, the second diocese of the
island, splendid success has waited on the fostering care
bestowed on the formation of a clergy from the youth of
the place.

So far, we have been observing what may be called the
material evidence of Dr. Mullock's episcopal zeal. As a
shepherd of his flock — feeding them in person, in season and
out of season, with the bread of life and of the word, he was
no less a great and remarkable Bishop. For nearly a quarter
of a century, up to the very day c/f his death, he might be
seen every morning upon the altar, at the same early hour,
winter or summer, celebrating his humble Mass, "the
Bishop's Mass" as it was called, without ceremony, without
even an attendant priest, except on Sundays to help him to ad-
minister Communion. He always communicated the people
himself, on Sunday, at his own 8 o'clock Mass, and the labor
was not trifling. But it was one he loved, and deemed
particularly his own. Thus, too, he spared the priests who
had later Masses, and out missions to serve. This he con-
tinued to do throughout all his episcopal life.

For the same lengthened period of over twenty years,
besides frequently during the year, he preached every evening
of Lent. Thousands will recall those stirring exhortations
full of fire and energy, and full also of the pathos that lay
deep down in the character of the man, and that flowed out

fi'fx/t, Missionary 7)/^vx. 17

on those occasions to his people. On those Lenten evenings
a stream of people poured in from all points to the Cathedral,
and its immense interior was always crowded. Often there
was scarce standing room. It was the same at the last year
of his life as at his first coming. He had no airs or studied
elegance about him in the pulpit. It was quite evident he
was not thinking of himself. He was the shepherd feeding
his flock and thinking of them. His gestures were quick and
emphatic. His voice wonderfully sweet, sonorous, and far
reaching. His dark Spanish features, always strongly marked,
had an expression, when he was preaching, that was solemn
and awe-inspiring. His diction and delivery were rapid and
forcible. He was at all times impressive, and frequently
rose to a rare pitch of eloquence. The matter of his discourses
was plain and practical, but full of both the spirit and letter
of the Scriptures and the Fathers. Of the latter, St. John
Chrysostom was a favourite study of his when preparing his
thoughts (he never prepared his words) for these Lenten
discourses. He often spoke of the wonderful aptitude
of this Saint's homilies to all Christian times and cir-
cumstances. The " virilis simplicitas " so strongly commended
by St. Charles Borromeo, was the only art Dr. Mullock
employed.

The Bishop was always ready to help his priests in every
way, besides in the pulpit, which, to their great delight, he
monopolized. When the cholera broke out in the city in
1854, he was always one of the first in the hospital to admin-
ister to the sick and dying, and one of the last to leave it.
He could do more and better work in an hour than
another in twice that time. He always retained, and some-
times exhibited, a pocket knife that was most useful to him
in administering the last rites during that visitation. The
poorer classes of the people in Newfoundland, and, doubtless,
also elsewhere, have an inveterate habit of wearing their
stockings in bed. Before indulging in exclamations of
horror at this practice, let the non-colonial reader try the
effect on his circulation of a winter in Newfoundland. He
may not even then approve of the custom, but how often do
we not adopt what we do not approve of. Nothing used to

VOL, X. B

18 Irish Missionary Types.

try our patience more, when we had a long list of calls, and,
only a limited time to give to them, thin to be brought up
short in the act of administering Extreme Unction by finding
the feet encased in long coarse woollen stockings. This is
quite a minor misery of the missioner, but a frequent one,
and in many cases the operation of discalcing falls to the
priest himself. We often spoke against this custom at Stations
and elsewhere, but it was all to no purpose. Well, the
Bishop on the first day of his ministrations to the cholera
patients found his work retarded by the stocking impediment.
He was the last man in the world to brook obstruction of any
kind ; so, after the first day's experience, he provided himself
with the aforesaid pocket knife, as one of the instruments of
his office at the sick bed. When he came to the anointing of
the feet he used very coolly to rip the soles of the stockings,
and so complete the rite of Unction without delay. This
accounts in part for how he did more work than any two
priests in that hospital. It was also a most useful, social,
and economical lesson, and a good hint of hygiene. He
never used words when facts would answer better. He
had that knife in his possession after fifteen years, and
used to produce it, occasionally, as a memento of the cholera
time.

His adventures by sea and land in his visitations would fill
a volume, and, at some early day it is to be hoped they shall
fill one, but the hope will be rendered more difficult of ful-
filment on account of an act of Vandalism by which a great
portion of his documents and correspondence was destroyed
after his death.

Dr. Mullock was indeed a rare man in his ceaseless devo-
tion and noble straining towards what was perfect in the
fulfilment of his high office. He had the special gift of con-
centration of all his powers and endowments upon a given
purpose. That purpose again was focussed upon one only
object, the charge assigned to him, the flock he ruled, and
the land he lived in and loved. There the iron grasp of his
mind was riveted ; thereunto all his energies converged.
His life was outwardly full because it flowed from a full
inward source. His work was rounded and complete because

Trish Missionary Types. 19

the eye that directed it was simple, the hand that executed
it was skilful and strong.

It is hard to select something special amid the wealth of
evidence he gave of devotion to his people. The deepest
feelings of a man are expressed when care and suffering —
above all — the shadow of death, hang heavy upon him.
How did Dr. Mullock speak of and to his people when thus
conditioned? In 1865, when already stricken with the
malady that in a few more years proved fatal, he
says, reply ID g to the condolence of the Benevolent Irish
Society : —

" For your expression of regard towards myself, accept my most
grateful thanks. I have but one object in life, the spiritual as well as
the temporal advantage of the people entrusted by Divine Providence to
my care ; and my greatest earthly consolation is to know that they
faithfully follow the teachings of their pastor, and that we all —
priests and people — are united in one great object, our eternal welfare.
The union between tthe pastor and the flock, * to die together and to
live together' (2 Cor. Q. 7), is the strength and glory of the Church,
and when we look round on the religious, educational, and artistic
monuments which adorn the Capital, and spread in all directions
over the diocese, we see the substantial proof of the value of this

Again, to the same Society, on the occasion of his
departure for Europe in August of the year 1866, he
says : —

': Accept my most grateful thanks for your kind Address on my
departure for Europe. I go not with my own will but by the advice
of my physicians, to whose unremitting attention during my sickness
I owe so much. But I fear that all the resources of science would
have failed, were it not for the prayers of my flock. The knowledge
that so many were imploring the Throne of Grace in my behalf, and
the sympathy of all classes and of every creed were a source of the
greatest consolation to me amidst my sufferings. Prayer is all-
powerful, and the sympathy of friends is the balm of the afflicted.
I leave you, I hope, but for a short time. Should it be the Divine
will to restore me to perfect health, I value that greatest of blessings
chiefly as enabling me to discharge the duties of my oj/ice to the flock
entrusted to me ; to their spintual advantage my life is devoted, while
anxious at the same time to advance, if I could do so, the interests and
ivell-being of every inhabitant of Newfoundland without distinction of
class or creed or nationality. The prosperity of all classes has always

20 Irish Missionary Types.

been my most ardent wish. . , . Praying the Almighty to grant
you every blessing, and hoping soon to meet you all again,
" I remain, Gentlemen,

<b Your ever grateful and humble servant,

" >5< JOHN T. MULLOCK,

" BisJiop of St. John's.
" St. John's, August oth, 1866."

He repeats the same to the Mechanics' Society in the
following words, on the eve of his departure for Europe : —

" . . . I hope our separation will be very short, and that soon
again I shall be enabled to resume as usual the labours of the
Episcopacy. The great blessing of health which I hope to recover by
this journey I value, I may say, altogether, that 1 may dedicate myself
heart and soul entirely to the service of my flock. Begging your prayers
for this object, and wishing for you all every spiritual and temporal
blessing,

"1 remain, Gentlemen,

" Your most obedient humble servant,

" ffc JOHN T. MULLOCK,
uSt, John's, August olh, 1866."

Immediately on his return he speaks to the people through
their representative societies in words, which we must here
reserve, that leave no doubt of his joy in returning to them,
of his deep attachment to them, beyond every love and lean-
ing of his youth to his early home, beyond every enticement
of the beauties and glories of the old lands, beyond all the
respect and consideration extended to him in the great
centres of religion, science, and civilization.

Patriotism was a passion with Dr. Mullock. The day has
gone by when the outrageous expression, " Anything will do
for the colonies," shall be permitted to be uttered and acted
upon, or find a slavish echo in the- spirit of a young but
vigorous civilisation. This was always the idea of the bishop,
frequently and most emphatically expressed. He loved the
country he came to cast his lot in, and was even proud of it-
He was filled with an exaggerated good opinion of it. " It is a
great and noble country"1 he wrote, "of untold wealth, of won-

1 In his Lecturer <JH Newfoundland.

frieh Missionary Types. 21

derful and unknown resources. The people, sprung from the
most energetic nations of modern times, English, Irish, and
Scotch, are destined to be the founders of a race which, I
believe, will fill an important place hereafter among the
hundreds of millions who will inhabit the western hemisphere
in a few ages." If his deeds had not spoken even more
eloquently, such words, repeated as they were at every
opportunity, would tell what the man was, and what the
colony expected and did receive from him.

He was one of those men in whom will was so powerful,
perception so clear, that even death seems no hinderance to
the results of his energy. What he saw and proposed for the
good of the country — though often beyond common ken, and
apparently credited to an improbable future — has already, in
great part, come true, and the rest will also come true. No
one ever will be able to efface his mark from the features
and institutions of Newfoundland.

On account of the remarkable candour and straight-
forwardness of Dr. Mullock's character, manifesting itself
often in words of sternest reproof, as well as from his torrent-
like energy that brooked no obstacle, many might have fancied
that his rule over his clergy would have been rigid, exacting,
and ill-regulated. Nothing could be further from the
truth. No man ever possessed a keener sense of equity
than he, or was ruled by motives more essentially humane.
Should impetuosity lead him, on occasion, to an exercise of
authority too sweeping for the limits of pure justice, he was
ever ready to restore the lost balance. Never did he give
one of us reason to doubt the purity and equity of his
intentions.

It was his custom to consult his priests, all of them, young
and old, in an informal, conversational way, but in a manner
that showed he- regarded their judgment, and had no doubt
of their zeal for the people and of their conscientious regard
for their duties towards them.

We were all deeply impressed with this sense of the
Bishop's trustfulness in his clergy. A stranger would imagine
that he never knew or cared what we were engaged in, or
how we discharged our duties, so perfectly independent did

22 Irish Missionary Types.

he leave us in the management of our proper work. Yet
he knew, and saw, and cared for everything with a wise and
comprehensive care, never stooping to littleness, undertaking
petty burthens, or urging petty inquiries. The man was
large in everything. He watched from the house-top, not
from behind the door. All our relations with the world, beside
our own duties, seemed removed from his ken. He never
sought to influence our private concerns, relations, tastes or
opinions. In all these things we were free as air. He even
fostered a manly freedom of thought and expression among
his priests. He enjoyed contradiction on a free topic if it
were well sustained and respectfully urged. In one word,
Dr. Mullock respected all the rights of his clergy whether as
priests or men, and he was served by a fearless but obedient
and loyal brotherhood. We were not chained to our oars,
but rowed the bark freely and cheerily under the guidance
of our expert and sympathetic helmsman. There were no
dissensions or jealousies amongst us because there was over
us no favouritism, injustice, or caprice.

It only remains, in the brief record here permitted, to give a
short sketch of Dr. Mullock's influence on the temporal and
political progress of the colony. In 1832, a representative
government and local legislation were conceded to the island.
But this was an imperfect and unsatisfactory system, as it
would be in Ireland if it were all she could obtain. It was
simply a transfer of the right of appointment to offices (except
the Governorship) from the Cabinet in London to an agency
in St. John's called "the Governor in Council." This political
concession of 1832 did not work well. The machinery creaked
because it was not fashioned freely. It was, however, a
step, a needless and useless one to the perfect system of
Home Rule to which it had to give place in 1854.
A good lesson, this page of colonial history, for those in
whose hands shall be placed the framing of a Home Rule
policy for Ireland. " Give generously or keep back your
gift," is a royal rule in statecraft as in all else.

By the concession of 1854 real self-government was
established. The executive was made responsible for its
acts, not to the Crown, but to the popular House of Assembly.

Irish Missionary Types. 23

At this time, 1854, Dr. Mullock had been five years
Bishop of the Island. From the very first he was a man of
weight, a power to be recognised and conciliated in every
political movement. The mass of his mind leaned heavily
upon the social springs. They had to be adapted to him.
Home Rule was just the measure calculated to enlist his
sympathies and command his support. He was, in very
truth the father and founder of that system of freedom in
the country. Two years before the granting of " Responsible
Government" he rang the reveille of the popular cause in
the following memorable letter, written officially to Hon.
P. F. Little, on the 7th February, 1852. The agitation for
Self- Government had at that time reached a white heat in
the colony, and the arbitrary rejection of the popular suit by
Earl Grey, then Colonial Secretary, gave occasion to this
magnificent protest of the bishop. The letter is so expressive
of the exalted sentiments and masterly style of Dr. Mullock
that we here reproduce it in full. It has become a rare
document at the present day.

(< HARBOR GRACE,

" 1th Feb., 1852.
" MY DEAR MR. LITTLE,

" I was never more pained in my life than when reading this
evening the insulting document forwarded by the Colonial Secretary,
in answer to the address for Responsible Government. Holding,
as I do. an office of some consideration in Newfoundland, deeply
anxious for the welfare of the country to which I am bound by so
many ties, 1 feel the ill-judged and irritating Despatch an insult to
myself and to my people.

u Nothing, since the days of the Tea Tax which raised the trampled
provinces of the American colonies to the first rank among nations,
as the great Republic, has been perpetrated, so calculated to weaken
British connexion or cause the people of Newfoundland to look with
longing eyes to the day when they can manage their own affairs,
without the irresponsible control of some man in a back room in
Downing-street, ignorant of the country and apparently only desirous
of showing British colonists that they are but slaves to a petty,
mercenary, intriguing clique.

" Acquainted as I am with many forms of government, having
lived and travelled in many lands, having paid some little attention
to the history of despotic and constitutional governments, I solemnly
declare that I never knew any settled government so bad, so weak, or
so vile as that of our unfortunate coii'itry; irresponsible, drivelling

24 Ji'lah Alifixioimi'ii 7///"'x.

despotism, wearing the mask of representative institutions, and
depending for support alone on bigotry and bribery. I see the taxes
wrung from the sweat of the people, squandered in the payment of
useless officials : the country, after three centuries of British posses-
sion, in a great pait, an impassable wilderness, its people depressed,
its trade fettered, its mighty resources undeveloped, and all for what ?
To fatten up in idleness, by the creation of useless offices exorbitantly
paid, the members of a clique.

u A tubular statement of the offices, the salaries, the families, and
the religion, of these state pensioners will show that 1 overstate
nothing.

" I was anxious, however, hoping for a reform, to give the present
government, if it can be called one, a fair trial. As a matter of con-
science I can do so no longer. My silence would betray the cause of
justice and of the people. I hope that all honest men will unite in
demanding justice, and by an appeal, not to the Colonial office, but to
the British Parliament.

'•' Lord Grey's cautious retreat on the Treasury Note Bill shows
that justice must be done, if demanded by a united people. Should
any petition for this object be forwarded before my return, I
authorise you to put my name to it, and to state publicly lo the
people iny sentiments. I do not aspire to the character of a dema-
gogue — every one in Newfoundland knows that in rny position I need
not do so. But it is the duty of a Bishop to aid and advise
his people in ail their struggles for justice, and I have no other
desire than to see justice done to the country, and equally administered
to all classes of Her Majesty's subjects in this colony, irrespective of
denominational distinctions, without seeking, or submitting to, the
undue ascendancy of any class. And the people should know that
government is made for them, and not they for the government.

tk The puerile threat of withdrawing the Newfoundland Companies
merits only supreme contempt. Gross as is the ignorance of the
Colonial Office regarding the colonies, no minister would dare advise
such a suicidal act. Our present Governor, a brave and experienced
soldier, or Colonel Law, 'the hero of a hundred lights,' knows full
well that 500 Americans or French, occupying Signal Hill, one of the
strongest maritime positions in the world, would jeopardise the Naval
supremacy of Britain in these Northern Seas. No, as long as
England can spare a soldier, she will never give up Newfoundland.
It is in all probability the last point of America where her flag will
wave, and should the dark cloud which looms on the political
horizon, burst on England — without a friend or ally on the continent
of Europe, with Ireland biding her time, her colonies impoverished,
discontented, or in open rebellion, and an ambitious and unscrupulous
Republic eager for Canada, the St. Lawrence and the West Indies —
not 300 but 2,000 troops will be stationed in St. John's, if England
can find them, and the people will be solicited to accept what is now
contemptuously refused them.

ixh Missionary Types. "25

" I remain, my dear Mr. Little, with the highest sentiments of
respect for your talents, and thanks for your manly, honest, and
powerful advocacy of the principles of justice, your obedient servant
and sincere friend,

" *fa JOHN T. MULLOCK.
UP. F. LITTLE, ESQ."

Considering his position and the immense influence ho
exercised on all parties and creeds in the community, this
letter placed him at once in in the position of father and
leader of self-government for the colony. Jt removed all
hesitation from the minds of his own people, and stirred up
the whole population to that bold determined spirit which at
all times and in all nations is sure to achieve the ends of
freedom and justice.

Another specimen of his independence of mind and force
of expression is furnished about the same time in an answer
to a charge made against the Catholic clergy of undue in-
fluence exercised by them in the General Election of 1850.
A stronger statement of the rights of Catholic priests to
interest themselves in, and to influence, the body politic
never issued from the pen of prelate or statesman. This
letter was written in 1852 to the Pilot, a paper then in exis-
tence in St. John's. The Bishop says in reply to the charge
made upon the clergy : —

" I cannot see why a priest is to be deprived of his right o
citizenship, more than anyone else ; he pays his portion of the public
burthens ; he is subject to the same laws ; his interests are affected
by the return of a member as well as those of another. St. Paul
claimed his Roman citizenship ; a priest by his ordination does not
forfeit the privileges of a British subject ; every elector under a
representative Government has not alone a right to vote himself, but
to canvas others to vote with him. Deprive any citizen of that right
and he is a freeman no longer. Every man's position gives him a
certain amount of influence. The landlord has it in England ; the
merchant in Newfoundland ; and the priest everywhere. The in-
fluence of the landlord, the merchant, the employer, is exercised by
pressure — vote for me or my friend, or I will stop the supplies, I will
eject you, or I will dismiss you. The priest's is a moral influence —
vote for such a candidate, for he will make the best representative,
he is no jobber, no place seeker, no bigot, he will represent our senti-
ments better than the other ; one appeals to the pocket, the other to
the people's feelings, or prejudices as some would say. The people

26 Irish Missionary Types.

know that individually to the priest, the return is of little importance ;
that he only influences them to do what he considers best ; that his
interests and theirs are identified ; they believe him to be a disin-
terested guide ; they venerate his sacred character ; they respect him
as a man superior in education and acquirements to themselves ; all
this gives him a powerful influence, which they believe has never
been exercised except for their benefit.

" Now, it may riot be very pleasing to the individual possessing an
influence of one sort, to have a counteracting influence opposed to
him ; but we must only accept all these things, as facts, disagreeable
ones it is true, but still stubborn facts. I know this influence has
not been brought to bear at the last general election, therefore the
resolution has no foundation. What may be necessary at the next
election, I know not ; but, while admitting the right of every man,
no matter what his political or religious creed may be, to express his
opinions and use any infliibnce his position may give him, to induce
others to embrace them, and to participate as far as he can in all the
honors "and emoluments of the government, bearing as he does his
equal share of the burthens, I claim the same right for the Catholic
clergy. L know of nothing in the Canon or civil law which pre-
vents it.

" 1 have the honour to be, Sir,

" Your most obedient servant,

11 ffc JOHN T. MULLOCK.
<; St. John's, February 25th, 1852."

We have omitted from this letter a short paragraph
dealing with the facts of the case, and proving that no clerical
influence was exerted upon the voters in that particular
election. That fact was only of local and transitory impor-
tance. But mark the principles conveyed in the letter, and
the bold defiant front maintained by Dr. Mullock against
a class whose dictates hitherto all had blindly accepted, and
before whose threats all had trembled. These are the points
that exhibit the strong character of the man, and prove him
to have been the regenerator of the land. Clearly he had
come to enlighten and to uplift a people enslaved by a cor-
rupt political system and an arrogant mercantile ascendancy.
Here this paper must end. The proofs that establish the
great Irish Bishop as the originator of the project of Trans-
atlantic Telegraphy shall hereafter appear in the RECORD if
this slight sketch should awaken in its readers an interest in
their gifted lellow-coiintryman. R. HowLEV.

A DAY" AT CLONMACN01SE.

A DAY spent amidst the rained treasures of Ireland's
most famous sanctuary has proved so full of pleasant
memories, that I have ventured to place them on record in
the hope that my experience, though rudely chronicled, may
induce some, who wander by mead and stream in the leisure
of summertide, to follow the winding^ course of the lordly
Shannon, and linger for a time beneath those hallowed walls
whose shadows fall across its placid waters.

The morning of our pilgrimage was in keeping with our
anticipations, bright and beaming, and full of promise, as we
launched our little bark close to the site of the old bridge of
Athlone, where once a heroic stand was made in defence of
hearths and homes against the invader.

The picturesque outlines of the war-scarred old town
ranged fully into view, as we slowly pulled away down the
stream, and scanned each familiar feature claiming recog-
nition, Kising high above the surrounding mass of roofs and
turrets, the graceful spire of St. Mary's Church tapers aloft,
the central figure of a scene replete with objects of historic
interest. Near it is clustered a group of buildings comprising
the new Convent of La Sainte Union, placed on a height from
which Ginckle's artillery once belched forth its destructive
fire on the Irish army. Farther down stands out the black
tower of the Dominican abbey, whose sweet-toned bell on a
calm evening in June, 1691, rang forth the signal for the
passage of William's army across the Shannon, and sounded
the knell of the dying hopes of the cause which St. Ruth in
vain defended.

Grim, and dark, dwarfing into mean dimensions the ad-
joining steeple of the Protestant Church, it seems to protest
against the persecution that profaned the altars it guarded,
and banished the white-robed monks who dwelt in peace
beneath its protecting shadow.

Away across the river loom into sight the frowning
walls that surround the old castle, the centre of many a
hard-fought battle. A large flag waving from its summit

28 A Day at Clonmacnoise.

reminds us of the fnritlessness of the heroic efforts made to
preserve in the place it now occupies, a standard of a different
colour, around which once rallied the flower of Ireland's
chivalry. In pleasing contrast to the sad reflections called
up by the associations that cling around those memorials
of a dark past come the sights and sounds of country life,
that steal in upon our senses, and waft our thoughts to more
peaceful scenes.

Scarcely have the last pinnacles of the old town faded
from view, when the tall towers of the seven churches rise up
from the plain and appear to come forth to greet our ap-
proach. Following the circuitous winding of the river which
seerns to encircle the ruins in its ever changing course, we
leave our little craft at the foot of the hill crowned with the
tottering battlements of an ancient fortress, called De Lacy's
Castle.

Ascending a gently rising slope whose summit is dotted
with the gleaming headstones of generations of the children
of Erin, we enter the sacred precincts of the ancient cemetery
by a small gate on the eastern side of the enclosure, and find
ourselves suddenly in the midst of varied groups of towers,
churches, tombs, and crosses.

The principal of the latter — the celebrated Cros-na-
Sceaptru, Cross of the Scriptures, is the first object of our
pilgrimage.

It is one of three erected on a mound called the Cairn of
the Scriptures — the goal of many a procession of priests
and penitents. Two of these monuments remain, and the
shaft of the third is visible. Time has levelled the Cairn, but
its destroying influences have not succeeded in obliterating
the traces of the old causeway connecting it with a venerable
ruin in the distance, which antiquarians tell us was once a
nunnery, where lived for a time Devorgail, the unfortunate
wife of Ruarc, Prince of Brefni. The great Cross of Clon-
macnoise stands opposite the largest of the churches, called
the Cathedral.

Seen from the interior of this ruin, with the old doorway
forming a fitting framework, and having as a back- ground
the undulating plain of King's County, brightened by the

A Day at Clonmacnoise. 29

silver streak of the Shannon, with its outlines softly pencilled
in relief against the clear sky, this beauteous monument of
Irish art seems as fresh and graceful in artistic design as when
eight centuries ago Devorgail, the penitent, wept and prayed
beneath its shadow. On a near approach traces of the
heavy hand of time reveal themselves, and obscure to some
extent the excellence and finish of the carving that has
rendered the monument so famous.

The figure of the Redeemer is clearly discernible in the
central compartment of the western side, arid different scenes
of His sufferings are easily made out on the front of the shaft.
On the opposite face the centre of the cross is occupied by
the representation of a man with arms raised, bearing in
either hand an emblem that has been the subject of various
interpretations.

Canon Monahan, in his Records of the Diocese of Ardagli and
Clonmacnoise, which, with its accurate map of the locality,
proved to us invaluable as a guide and instructor, gives the
opinion of Dr. Ledwich, an eminent archaeologist, in reference
to the signification of those objects.

The learned Doctor writes : —

" The other ornamental cross is at Clonmacnoise. The stone is
fifteen feet high, and stands near the western door of Toampull
Mac Diarmuid. Over the northern door of this church are three
figures : the middle, St. Patrick, in pontificalibus ; the other two,
St. Francis and St. Dominic, in the habits of their Orders. Below
these are portraits of the same three saints and Odo, and on the fillet
is this description : — ' Doms. Odo, Dean of Clonmacnoise, caused this
to be made." This inscription refers to Dean Odo's re-edifying the
church, and must have been about the year 1280, when the Dominicans
and Franciscans were settled here, and held in the highest esteem as new
Orders of extraordinary holiness. The figures on this cross are com-
memorative of St. Kierau, and this laudable act of the Dean. Its
eastern side, like the others, is divided into compartments. Its centre
or head and arms, exhibits St. Kieran at full length, being the patron
of Clonmacnoise. In one hand he holds a hammer, and in the other
a mallet, expressing his descent, his father being a carpenter. Near
him are three men and a dog dancing, and in the arms are eight men
more, and above the saint is a portrait of Dean Odo. The men are
the artificers employed by Odo, who show their joy for the honour
done their patron. On the shaft are two men, one stripping the other
of his old garments, alluding to the new repairs. Under these are

30 A Day at Clonmacnoise.

two soldiers with their swords ready to defend the church and religion.
Next are Adam and Eve and the tree of life, and beneath an imperfect
Irish inscription. On the pedestal are equestrian and chariot
sports, &c."

At variance with this explanation of the sculptured
portion of the Eastern face of the Cross, is another interpre-
tation that I have received from Mr. Kieran Molloy, whose
name is familiar to every visitor to Clonmacnoise, and whose
memory is stored with valuable information, obtained from
such men as Graves, O'Donovan, and a host of others, who
found rest and hospitality beneath the shelter of his cozy
little cottage which nestles in a grove of trees close to the
entrance of the enclosure.

He states that some thirty years ago an antiquarian
named McNeill made a minute examination of the large cross,
and as the result of his researches, asserted that the Re-
deemer, and not St. Kieran, was represented in the central
compartment of the east, as well as of the west side. In the
one respect He is the Christ of the Scriptures, dying for love
of mankind, in the other He is the Judge, bearing in one
hand the sceptre, in the other the cross, emblems of His
power and justice. The figures on either side reprebent the
reward of the just, and the punishment of the wicked, the
former in an attitude of exultation, the latter departing to
their doom in despair, driven by the devil in the shape of an
animal described as a dog, by Dr. Ledwich.

The carvings in the face of the shaft are intended to
designate the different chieftains in friendly intercourse, thus
denoting the work of reconciliation effected by Kieran
amongst his people. Instead of Adam and Eve and the tree
of knowledge, is suggested by this authority the more appro-
priate interpretation of Kieran and King Diarmid clasping
the first pole of the structure which afterwards became the
Cathedral of Clonmacnoise, a view adopted by Canon
Monahan, who advances it as a proof of the foundation
of the churches sanctified by Kieran the Blessed, and guarded
by Diarmid the Powerful.

Turning from this monument of ancient skill to the
remains of the Cathedral with whose erection it seems to be

A Daij at Cl&nmacnoise. 31

inseparably connected, we are confronted with a sad scene
of desecration and decay. There is no roof on the sacred
edifice except the blue expanse of sky. The floor is
paved with tombs of every age and form. The walls
are clad with ivy, while high above from the grass grown
summit a young tree springs forth, joyous in its wealth
of foliage. Traces of the space occupied by the High
Altar are clearly visible, and a tablet placed in the adjoining
wall tells us that " Charles Cochlan, Vicar-General of
Clonmacnoise, at his own expense restored this ruined
church, A.D. 1647."

Here have rested the ashes of Roderick O'Connor, after
his troubled life of bitter fight and vexatious toil. Here
also lie

" Muirich, the son of Fergus,

The son of Roedh, with hundreds of shield bearers,
Cathal the Great, the son of Ailill,
Cathal, the son of Finnach Fiachra,
Donncaith of the curly hair, from Breag Moig,
The powerful and noble King of Etar."1

In this precious soil the best blood of Erin was interred-
Every foot of earth <l bright with dew and red rosed'' was to
the men of old more valuable than gold and precious stones.

To be laid at rest beneath these hallowed walls, near as
might be to the relics of St. Kieran, was the last prayer that
trembled on the lips of dying chieftains and kings.

Adjoining this temple of the dead is a chapel or sacristy,
whose arched ceiling and strongly built walls, are in good
preservation. It is a treasure house of interesting relics
reverently laid aside and guarded with jealous care. Tombs
of priests and scholars with the Irish inscriptions wonderfully
fresh and legible, parts of architectural ornaments, stones
with Ogham letters, those mystic characters so simple and
apparently so settled in phonetic value, yet so difficult of
interpretation, lie around in picturesque confusion.

From the midst of the sacred pile rises a primitive altar
constructed of the flat stones that once covered the remains
of the holiest of Erin's sons. Here once a year on St. Kieran's

1 Irish poem translated by Professor O'Looney.

32 A Day at Clonmacnoise.

feast, the Holy Sacrifice is offered, and the same mysterious
words are uttered that centuries ago fell from priestly lips
now sealed in death.

It is a hopeful sign, this annual atonement for the years
of spoliation that have passed away, and for the desecration
that has culminated in the erection of a temple of heresy
in the soil, consecrated by a thousand sacred associations.

No wonder that one of Kieran's most distinguished suc-
cessors, whose brilliant career was cut short in recent years by
an untimely end, should exclaim : " Our holy places have come
into the hands of strangers, our temple has become as a man
without honour. What sin have his people done that their
father's grave should become the dishonoured temple of
heresy ?" No wonder that this foul blot on the fairest
spot of his diocese should cause many a painful moment to
him who now rules it with firm and gentle sway. May his
years not fail until he has seen this vestige of a hateful op-
pression swept away, and replaced by a structure whose
glories may rival, if not surpass, the splendour of other days,
whose walls may re-echo with the once familiar sound of
sacred psalmody which, mingled with the murmur of the
waters against the shore, may rise in fitting harmony to
lieaven.

Another valuable collection of relics is grouped together
in a small church called Temple Dowling, to the south of the
Cathedral. Prominent amongst these stands the shaft of the
ancient Cross of Banagher, commemorating the death of
Bishop O'Diiffy, in the year 1297, by a fall from his horse.
The history of this monument forms the subject of a very
interesting article in Canon Monahan's Records. The out-
lines of the bishop and the horse are traceable, but the
remaining features are indistinct. Opposite to this church
stands the second large cross. It is in fair preservation,
covered with ornamental tracing of varied character, but
bearing no sculptured figures.

Passing through a wilderness of headstones in every
variety of shape and state of decay, all Bearing evidence
of the faith that once burned in the hearts that have
smouldered beneath their shelter, we find ourselves close to

A Day at Clonmacnoise. 33

the large tower of O'Ruarc, situate on the north west of
the cemetery, beside the flowing river. Outlined boldly
against the sky, with a scarce perceptible incline it raises
its aged head full sixty feet aloft, arid stands revealed
in all its dignity one of those favorites of time whose
history is shrouded in a cloud of obscurity that has baffled
the researches of the most eminent antiquarians.

Without daring to enter into the controversy dealing
with the date and purpose of the erection of those " puzzles
of the past," it may not be considered presumptuous to hazard
a remark suggested by simple observation regarding the
indications presented by this tower of O'Ruarc as well as by
its less stately companion, which takes its title from the
McCarthy family, of construction previous to the erection of
the surrounding buildings. The former stands alone without
vestige of connection with any other structure. The latter
bears traces on the surface that go to prove that the adjoining
church was an addition made, perhaps, after the lapse of
centuries.

Again, the larger of those pillar temples is constructed
of fine sandstone, skilfully prepared for building, knitted
together with a scientific skill and masterly finish seemingly
quite distinct from the style of execution with which the
adjacent churches were built.

There is no feature in their appearance, and no fact in
their history, to disprove the theory which asserts that, liko
the other towers, that

" In mystic file, through the isle lift their heads sublime "

these venerable structures were once the temples of for-
gotten gods, and the shrines of Pagan worship, and that
they awaited the advent of the Apostle of Erin, who
preserved and purified everything most beautiful in the
refined idolatry of Pagan Ireland, to change them from
pillars of " error and terror " into centres of love and
truth.

"Where blazed the sacred fire, rang out the vesper bell,
Where the fugitive found shelter, became the hermit's cell.'*

VOL. X. C

34 A Day at Clonmacnoise*

From their summits, instead of the hoarse summons of
the " Stuic1 " calling the multitude to greet the luminary of
the day as his silver rays first shone on the trembling waters
of the river, the sweet sounds of the stocc filled the plain with
its joyous melody, inviting priest and scholar to hasten and
proclaim the glories of the Heavenly Sun whose brilliancy
had banished the darkness of other days.

Though their past has been a mystery, they have been the
standing witnesses of a bygone civilization, and refinement
of the country they adorn. May they prove " prophets of the
future " and pillars of light brightening the pages of Erin's
history, and guiding her children to a destiny worthy of her
former reputation.

But the lengthening shadows that steal along the plain
and darken the face of the majestic stream remind
us that our day is closing, and that we must hasten
homewards leaving unvisited the holy wells, the nunnery,
the crumbling mass of ruin, called De Lacy's Castle, and
many other relics of the buried past, each with its own record
of glories dimmed by oppression and desecration.

Swiftly and silently we glide out on the river of " dark
mementoes " in the solemn hush of eventide, when even
insect life is still, and there is no sound save the ripple of the
wavelets as they dash against our little craft.

Suddenly the musical peal of a dinner bell in a neigh-
bouring mansion is borne upon the breeze, and its echoes
seem to set again a-ringing the famous silver Cloccas that
ages ago called to praise and prayer the crowds of priests
and students who now sleep beneath the grassy mounds of
Clonmacnoise. We would fain fancy the solitude once more
filled with a busy throng hurrying forth from cell and cloister
to add their voices to the flood of sacred harmony which
once rose and fell across the tranquil bosom of the waters,
but the stern reality of the city of the dead that we had
just left with its dark history of plunder and desolation forbid

1 " The stuic or stoc was used as a speaking trumpet on the tops of our
round towers, to assemble congregations, to proclaim new moons' quarters,
and all other festivals." — Memoirs of the Irish Bards — WALKER.

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 35

the pleasing vision. Yet, there is consolation in the thought
that even in its decay and fallen splendour, Clonmacnoise
is the treasured shrine of a nation's faith as strong, as fresh,
and as pure as when Kieran and Diarmid in loving union
grasped the first pole of its Cathedral, and laid the foundation
of its imperishable glory.

THOMAS MCGEOY, Adm.

THE DIOCESE OF DUBLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

LY.

THE OLD CHAPELS OF DUBLIN.— (CONTINUED).

SS. MICHAEL AND JOHN. — The Parish of St. Michael, or
Union of Parishes formed under the title of ^SS. Michael
and *John, next challenges our attention. In one sense
it might claim precedence, inasmuch as it included the
larger half of the city proper, which was jthickly in-
habited, and mostly too, by Catholics of good means
and position. The English priest, Paul Harris, who gave
such trouble to Archbishop Fleming, describes it in 1631, as
" locus primarius in civitate, et parocliia spatiosissima" Few
wrill be inclined to question the accuracy of this latter super-
lative once they glance at its boundaries, which may be most
readily conceived by adding to the present Parish of SS.
Michael and John the entire Parish of St. Andrew, for, at the
time we write of (1700). they were one.

This spacious area, previous to the great apostasy, com-
prised no less than seven distinct parishes and parish churches
within the city, and four parishes and ^churches, with
four religious communities, beyond the walls. The city
parishes were : — The Deanery or Close of Christ Church
Cathedral, St. Michael's, St. Olave's, St. John's, St. Mary del
Dam, St. Werburgh's, and St. Nicholas Within. The
suburban district included — St. Andrew's, St. George's,

36 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

St. Stephens, St. Peter's, with the ruined Church of St. Paul,
and the (Calced) Carmelites, the Hermits of St. Augustine, the
Priory of All Hallows (Canons Regular), arid the Nuns of St.
Mary le Hogges.

Let us briefly trace the history of each, and account for
the disappearance of most of them.

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL. — Founded by Sitric the
Dane, in 1038, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, as it was
always called in Catholic times, ranks as the oldest and most
honoured church in Dublin. The old Church of St. Michael
le Pole, in Ship-street, in its round (belfry) tower, gave some
evidence of a pre-Danish structure, but, as practically all traces
of this church have disappeared, the cathedral holds undis-
puted claim to highest antiquity. Donatus, a Dane, was its
first Bishop. He built an episcopal palace close to the
cathedral, and the chapel of the palace was dedicated to St.
Michael; so that the title of St. Michael, with a distinct
chapel, was contemporaneous with the cathedral itself. In 1152
the see became metropolitical, and Gregory, its first arch-
bishop, received one of the palliums brought by Cardinal
Paparo. The cathedral at the time was served by a Chapter
of secular canons. When St. Laurence succeeded to the
mitre of Dublin, his first care was his cathedral. He changed
the condition of the canons by making them Regular Canons
of St. Austin, according to the rule of Arroasia, and he him-
self became one of the community, wearing the religious
habit under his episcopal dress, and in every other way pos-
sible conforming to the rule. Henceforward the community
of clerics serving the cathedral was a religious body, and was
always quoted as the " Prior and Convent of the Most Holy
Trinity." With the help of some of the Anglo-Norman chief-
tains, St. Laurence beautified and enlarged the cathedral,
the transept and chancel of which still bear some traces of
his work.

The earliest enumeration of the emoluments of the
Cathedral is contained in two contemporaneous documents,
one the Bull of Alexander III. in 1179, defining the posses-
sions of the See of Dublin, after its extension southwards to
Bray, aad the other a Charter of St. Laurence, issued about

Diocese of Dublin m the Eighteenth Century. 37

the same time confirming and identifying the several posses-
sions of the cathedral acquired to it both before and after the
arrival of the English in Ireland. I select the latter document,
because amongst the witnesses we have the first available
list of the Dublin clergy. It is dated 24th of May, year
uncertain, but either 1178 or 1179, and is preserved amongst
the archives of Christ Church.1

" Lawrence, Archbishop of Dublin, grants to the Canons of Holy
Trinity of the Order of St. Augustine, in frankalmoign, the Church
of Holy Trinity, with the Churches of St. Michan, St. Michael, St.
John the Evangelist,2 St. Brigid and St. Paul, their gardens and
houses without the wall, the mill near the bridge, the fishery an 1
tithes of salmon and other fish on both sides of the Anilyffy, the lands
of Rechrann [Lambay], Portrechrann, [ Portraine j , Rathchillin
[Clonmethan], and Censale [Kinsalyj, third parts of Clochuri
[St. Doulogh's] and Cellalin [Killeigh ?], Lesluan [unknown],
Cellesra [KillesterJ, Duncuanagh [Drumcondra], Glasnoeden
[Glasnevin], Magduma [unknown], Celidulich [Grangegormanj,
Ballcmecc-Amlaib [unknown], Cluaincoein [Kill of-the-Grange],
Talgach or Kalgach fin Kill], Tulachcoein [near Kill],
Celiingenalenin [Killiney], Celltuca [Kiltuck, on the road from
Loughlinstown to Bray], Rathsalchan [Rathsallagh juxta Bree, near
Rathmichael ; see Proctor Andowe's account in Monck Mason's His-
tory], Tillachnacscop [Collis Episcoporum, Tully], Drumhyng [not
known unless Drimnagh or Dundrum], Ballerochucan or Ballenchn-
rain [not known], half of Rathnahi [not known] , Tivadran,
Ballerochan (or Ballyogan between Leopardstown and Kill) and
Ballemoaelph [unknown.]

Witnesses — Edanus the Bishop ; Malachy, Bishop of Lubgud ;
Euaenius, Bishop of Cluainirairt ; Nehemiah, Bishop of Celdarch ;
Thomas, Abbot of Glendalacha ; Radulphus, Abbot of Bildwas ;
Adam, Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin : Patrick, Abbot of Mellifont ;
Christinus, Abbot de Valle Salutis (Baltinglass) ; Torquil, the Arch-
deacon (a Dane, and the first name procurable on the List of
Archdeacons of Dublin,) ; Joseph, Priest of St. Brigid's ; Godmund,
Priest of St. Mary's, (del Dam) ; Edau, Priest of St. Patrick's ;
Cenninus, Priest of St. Michael's ; Peter, Priest of St. Michan's ;
Richard, Priest of St. Columba's (Swords) ; Gillibert, Priest of St.
Martin's, Hugh de Lacy, Constable of Dublin, etc."

In a Charter of King John3 confirming these grants we

1 See 20th Report Public Records, Ireland. Appendix vii.

2 In Urban Third's Bull confirming this grant in 1186, this Church is
styled of "St. John the Baptist."

See 20th Report P. R. I., Ap. vii., p. 103,

38 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

have enumerated for us the names of the donors, Natives and
Ostmen, from which it would appear that most of these
endowments were conferred upon the cathedral, prior to the
arrival of the English. In 1190, Malchus, Bishop of Glenda-
lough, "reciting a deed of Raymond le Gros, patron of
Kilcullin, institutes the Canons of the Holy Trinity, into the
said church ; and all through the history of the cathedral
grants of lands, houses, churches and tithes were being con-
stantly made, the most considerable of which were Balscaddan,
which was taken in exchange from St. Patrick's for Rath-
sallagh and Ballyogan, and Rathfarnham, about which there
was much litigation between the two Chapters. St. Bride's in
Archbishop Comyn's time passed also to St. Patrick's. Walter
Rokeby, Archbishop in 1504, again confirms by charter all the
possessions up to that time acquired and retained, and from
this deed we are better enabled to identify some of the
localities as well as learn the titles of the churches. Thue>
" the Church of Balgriffin with the Chapel of St. Doulagh's :
the Churches of St. Fyntan of Clonkene, St. Brigid of
Stalorgan, St. Brigid of Tyllagh (this last was not of St. Brigid
of Kildare, but of Brigid, one of the daughters of Lenin, to
whom Killiney was dedicated and whence it got its name) »
Chapel of St. Brigid near Carrickmayne (Carrickmines) ; St.
Begnet of Dalkey, etc."1

The change of St. Patrick's from a collegiate into a
cathedral church in 1219, somewhat disturbed the quiet and
uneventful history of the Prior and Canons of Holy Trinity.
Every vacancy of the See on the death of an Archbishop
and the election of his successor furnished an occasion for
arousing the jealousy of the older chapter, and forcing it to
an assertion of its ancient privileges. Up to this event it was
the cathedral and the only cathedral, but Archbishop Henry,
as Dr. Reeves surmises, " wished, without destroying the old
mother church, to have a cathedral in which he should be
supreme." Whatever may have been his motive in changing
the condition of St. Patrick's, a spirit of rivalry very soon
developed itself, and continued more or less marked

1 See 20th Report P. "R, I., p. 109.

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 39

throughout the ensuing centary. Archbishop Luke, Henry's
successor in 1230, made an award, " that, when the See is
vacant, the Prior and Canons of Holy Trinity, and the Dean
and Chapter of St. Patrick's shall assemble in Holy Trinity
Church, and in due form proceed to unanimously elect n
Pastor." (Archives of Christ Church.) But in 1253, the dispute
broke out afresh, and was referred to Innocent IV., who
commissioned the Bishops of Eraly and Limerick, and the
Dean of Limerick, to hear the matter if the parties acquiesce,
otherwise to remit the trial to Rome. What the immediate
outcome of this investigation was, we know not, but
Nicholas 111. twenty-five years later, had the case again
before him, and his Decree maybe read in Theiner,1 practically
confirming the award of Archbishop Luke. Again the vacancy
of the See in 1285 renewed the friction, and Honoring IV.
interfered, confirming the award of his predecessor.2 Still
the chapters were not happy, and in 1300, Archbishop
Richard de Ferrings drew up the so-called compositio pads
which is given in Number VI. of the Appendix to Monck
Mason's history. By this it is agreed that the Consecration
and Inthronization of the Archbishop should take place in
the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. That both churches
should be cathedrals and metropolitical, " ita quod Ecclesia St
Trin. tanquam major, matrix et senior, in omnibus juribus Ecclesiae
sen negotiis praeponatur." Likewise that the cross, mitre and
ring of each Archbishop as he died should be delivered to
the custody of the Prior and convent. That the body of
each Archbishop deceased, should be buried alternately in
either cathedral unless otherwise determined by will. That
the consecration of the chrism and holy oils, and the reception
of the penitents should take place in the Cathedral of the

1 Monumenta Vetera Hib. et Scotorum, p. 119.

2 On this occasion the number of electors from either Chapter was
was very small and the Pope felt bound to issue a special Bull to protect
the rights of the Chapter of Holy Trinity : — " Quamvis in electione super
celebrata, quatuor de canonicis ecclesiae S. Patritii et duo duntaxat de
canonicis SS. Tririitatis interfuerint, juri tamen ejusdem ecclesiae 8. Trin.
non derogetur in aliquo quin juxta ordinationem Nicolai Papae III. in
electione Dublinensis Archiepiscopi facienda pro tempore procedatur.
Datum ad S. Petrum, 30 Maii, 1285." Vide " Registres d'Honorius IV."
par Maurice Prou, p. 31,

40 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

Holy Trinity. Finally that the said cathedral and metro-
political phurches be considered one, and equal in all their
rights and liberties. This carefully detailed arrangement
F.eems to have settled the question as to respective rights and
privileges, but did not effect that happy union of sentiment
so much desired, for though both Chapters met to elect on
the occasion of the next vacancy, the election proceeded on
strictly party (chapter) lines, Richard de Havering, Pre-
centor of St. Patrick's (a sub-deacon) being elected by the
Dean and Chapter, and Nicholas " le Butiler," by the Prior
and Convent. Clement V. declared both elections void and
proprio motu appointed Richard, who strangely enough
though he administered the Diocese as Archbishop (or
ordinary) for over four years and then resigned it, never took
Holy Orders higher than Deaconship.

Finally, the last struggle in this unbecoming contest had
rather a tragic ending. On the death of John Leech, who
succeeded Havering, Walter Thornbury, Precentor of St.
Patrick's, and Alexander Bicknor, Prebendary of Maynooth,
were both elected. Both left for Rome to get their nomina-
tions confirmed ; but three years having elapsed without
AValter's appearance, either by self or proctor, it was then
ascertained that the night after he had sailed, he, with one
hundred and fifty-six other persons, were drowned in the
harbour of Dublin. On confirmation of this news, Bicknor
resigned his claims, whereupon the Pope appointed him from
himself (A.D. 1317), and commanded both chapters to receive
and to obey him. This tragic mishap seems to have effected
what decrees of archbishops and Papal confirmations failed
to do, for after this incident we hear no more of the quarrel
of the chapters beyond a slight breeze concerning the conse-
cration of Walter Fitzymons towards the end of the fifteenth
century ; but the right of precedence was always accorded
to that of Holy Trinity, as appears from the Decree of
Archbishop Richard Talbot (1421), in which, after reciting
" that in solemn pro cession sjJia^Pi'ior of Holy Trinity and
the Dean of St. Patrick's/rog&m^&^ook the principal place
after the archbishop, ftSfa cameA^Ae Sub-Prior of Holy
Trinity and the Precenttefdf'BIAFMriik's together, and after

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 41

them the canons of the churches, two by two, directs the
Prior and Canons of Holy Trinity to wear cloaks with grey
fur outside and rnenyver inside in solemn processions. Dated
at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, 1 March, 1421."
In I486, Lambert Simnel the impostor was crowned king in
this cathedral ; but all that were concerned in it had to do
ample penance very soon after. In 1537, Wm. Hassard,
prior, resigned, and in the same year we have the following
entry : " William Power, Archdeacon of Dublin, declares
that, in pursuance of a mandate from George, Archbishop of
Dublin, he has installed Robert Payneswyke, late Canon of
the monastery of L an thony, as Prior of Christ Church. 4th
July, 1537." This is the first time we find it called Christ
Church, and hereby hangs a tale, and a very doleful one.

In July, 1534, John Allen, Archbishop of Dublin, was
brutally murdered by the agents of Silken Thomas at
Artane, whither he had fled for refuge. This untoward event
afforded an opportunity to Henry VIII. of testing what
blessings might result to the Irish Church by setting aside
the privilege of the Roman Pontiff and filling up the see
himself. Wherefore, early in March, 1535, Henry appointed
Dr. George Brown Archbishop of Dublin. A few days
later, without waiting to receive any^ confirmation from Rome,
Brown was consecrated by Cranmer, and in compliance
with the schismatical act lately passed in the English Par-
liament, received the pallium, not from the tombs of the
Apostles, but from the married Archbishop of Canterbury.
Brown was an Augustinian friar— indeed, he was provincial
of his order both in England and Ireland, for at that period
they formed but the one province. He was, moreover, con-
fidential agent of Cranmer, enjoyed the friendship of
Cromwell, and was a favourite courtier of the monarch for
whom he obligingly condescended to perform a secret mar-
riage with Anne Boleyn in January, 1533, even without
waiting for Cranmer, in the might of his assumed authority,
to pronounce the divorce from Catherine.1 A man of such
great parts and promise could not be overlooked by Henry.

1 See Henry VI II. and tJ/e English Monasteries, vol. l,byF. A. Gasquet,
p. 151

42 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

Moreover he was an excellent Protestant, having rejected,
as Ussher tells in his sketch of his early career, " the doc-
trines of Rome;' and was a man, as Dr. Mant describes him,
" happily freed from the thraldom of Popery." No better
agent could Henry have selected for his intended Reforma-
tion [?] in Ireland. And this is the man we are asked to
regard as the successor of St. Laurence O'Toole ! The Holy
See, when confirming the nomination of the next Archbishop,
Cur wen, ignores George, and appoints Hugh as succes-
sor to John (Allen) " of happy memory." So George remains
the first Protestant Archbishop of Dublin. These few facts
make us look with suspicion on the character of the late
Canon of Lanthony, who by mandate of George was
installed Prior of Christ Church. He was not long in devel-
oping his views. The suppression of all monasteries and
religions houses had been decreed by the king, and notwith-
standing many influential protests, the Decree was extended
to Ireland. Cistercians and Dominicans and Franciscans
and Canons Regular, all went down before the storm; but
Prior Paynswick, alias Castell, and his community, whom
doubtless he had influenced, thought well to adopt the inspired
suggestions of certain commissioners (John Alen, chancellor,
George, archbishop, and Win. Brabazon, sub-treasurer), and
petitioned Henry VIII. to make them under letters patent
secular priests, to change them into the Dean and Chapter of
Holy Trinity Church, " and that Robert Payneswick, the prior,
and Richard Ball, Walter Whyte, John Mosse, John Curraghe,
John KerdifF, Christopher Rathe, Oliver Grant, William Owen,
and Nicholas Owgaan, canons thereof, should become secular
priests; that Payneswick should be dean, Ball, Whyte, and
Mosse precentor, chancellor, and treasurer" respectively, and
so forth. They were wise, perhaps, in their generation,
but they were basely wise, as if a licentious king, who had
no respect for any vow, could dispense them from the solemn
vows they had made to God when they first entered
religion.

This petition was of course complied with, and " Robert
Payneswick," the Decree goes on, "shall be dean, and he and
his successors shall enjoy Clonkene for his dignity and the

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 43

Church of Glasnevin for his prebend, with the temporalities in
Glasnevin and Clonmell (near Drumcondra), tithes being
excepted ; Drumcondra, with its tithes ; Clonkene, Dalkey,
Killiney, Balleloghan and Hayhurter, Ballybrennan, Bally-
tipper, Ballyogan, Ballymoghan, Farnicoast, Kilmahyoke, the
spiritualities in Ballyfinch and Ballycheer, the temporalities
of Balscadden and Smothescourt (Simmonscourt), Priorsland
and Ketyngesland, near Carrickmayne, Tullagh, Stalorgan,
Clonkyne, Kilmahyoke, Dalkey, Killiney, Ballybeghan,
Rochestown, Cornellscourte, Kylbegote, and Newtown, with
their chapels and tithes, etc." And so forth, the other digni-
taries in proportion.

The change in religion, which at best could not extend
beyond the limited boundaries of the Pale,1 did not proceed
quite so rapidly as George Brown could have wished.
Though strongly opposed to the Mass, which a contemporary
wrote, "he doth abhor," he had still to put up with ;< Mass-
ing ;" and the Act of the Six Articles affirming transubstan-
tiation, celibacy of the clergy, private Masses for the dead,
and auricular confession, with the known terrible penalties
with which Henry enforced its observance in England, kept
him prudently reserved on these points. Moreover the Lord
Deputy Grey and the Irish judges were most hostile to
Brown. They had heard of the king's claims to be head of
the Church with dismay, but a prelate icith a wife and two
mistresses* they would not tolerate. His fanatical zeal there,
fore had to be confined at this period to denying the
authority of the Pope, and waging war upon images and relics.
In this latter achievement he distinguished himself. He
proceeded to demolish the statues that adorned the interior
of St. Patrick's. He removed the valuable religious paint-
ings and whitewashed over the decorations of Christ Church
Cathedral, and collecting all the relics into a heap, including
that most venerable and moist venerated of Irish relics, the

1 The Pale at this time extended from Dublin to Dundalk, about fifty
miles to the north of Dublin; from Dublin to Kilcullen, about twenty
miles west ; and from that round under the Wicklow mountains to Dalkey,
about eight miles south of Dublin. That was the whole extent of country
in which Henry's writs could rim.

2 See Historical Portraits of Tudor Dynasty, vol. i., p, 509.

44 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

crozier of St. Patrick, said to have been given him by onr
Lord himself, and hence called " Bacillus Jesu" burnt them
to ashes. In 1540 Sir Anthony St. Leger succeeded the
unfortunate Leonard Grey as Lord Deputy, and Lockwood,
Archdeacon of Kells, in 1543 succeeded Paineswick as Dean
of the Holy Trinity. This Lockwood was the most conform-
able of men; nothing came amiss to him. Whether it was
royal supremacy under Henry, or religious chaos under
Edward, or restored Catholicity under Mary, or rank Pro-
testantism under Elizabeth, like the historic " Vicar of Bray,"
Lockwood remained Dean of Christ Church, in 1547, on the
death of Henry and accession of Edward VI., he was
afforded an opportunity of displaying his manysidedness.
The first official establishment of the English Liturgy in this
country may be said to date not from any Act of
Parliament, but from a Royal Order of Edward VI.,
issued February 6th, 1551, and promulgated by the Lord
Deputy on the 1st of March following. Immediately
after the arrival of this order St. Leger summoned the
clergy to meet him in Dublin. Here the order was read.
" For the general benefit of our well-beloved subjects," the
king was made to say, " whenever assembled and met
together in the several parish churches, either to pray or hear
prayers read, that they may the better join in unity, hearts,
and voices, we have caused the Liturgy and prayers of the
Church to be translated into our mother tongue of this realm
of England."' " Then," interrupted Primate Dowdall, "shall
every illiterate fellow read Mass," and threatening the
Viceroy with the clergy's curse left the hall with all his
suffragans, except Staples, the Bishop of Meath. St. Leger
then handed the order to Brown, who received it standing,
and promised to have it carried out faithfully. St. Leger did
not like the duties cast upon him in this matter. He had no
fancy for the office of forcing the reformed doctrines on the
reluctant Irish, and in an interview with Alen the Chancellor,
one of the most zealous of the reformers, undisguisedly ex-
pressed a preference for an appointment in Spain or any other
place where war was being waged. He disliked Brown even
more than his predecessor, and Alen who after the interview

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 45

went straight to sup with Lockwood where he found the
Archbishop and Basnet,1 was not slow to communicate its
substance. Whether on account of Alen's and Brown's re-
presentations, or for other reasons, St. Leger was soon after
recalled, and Sir James Crofts appointed his successor.

This latter wrote to Primate Dowdall, who had remained
at Mary's Abbey, inviting him to a conference on religion.
Dowdall refused to attend the Lord Deputy at Kilmainham,
though agreeing to the conference, whereupon the Deputy
resolved to go to the mountain, and the conference was
held in the great hall (most probably the still existing
chapter house) of St. Mary's Abbey. Nothing, however,
came of it. Dowdall fought valiantly but unavailingly in
defence of the Holy Sacrifice, but the Royal Order had gone
forth — " Delenda erat Missal A few days later Dowdall left
the country, and Armagh was declared vacant, as if by
resignation.

On Easter Sunday therefore of that same year 1551, the
English service was first read in Christ Church in presence of
the Lord Deputy, the Mayor, and Bailiffs, and the Arch-
bishop was the preacher. What a profanation ! The relics
and statues and pictures had been long before removed, the
Holy Rood representing Our Lord crucified with the Blessed
Virgin and St. John had been taken down from over the
chancel screen, and in its place was set up that holier emblem
of supremacy, the Royal Arms ; little more than the altar now
remained. Dr. Martin, at Oxford, thus reproached Cranrner

1 Sir Edward Bassenet, late Dean of St. Patrick's. St. Patrick's
was suppressed in 1517 by Henry just before his death, the chapter
strongly protesting and refusing to surrender; but Bassenet imprisoned
them, and kept them locked up until they yielded. He was a Welshman
from Denbighshire who came over in St. Leger's train on his first visit.
The see being vacant at the time (l^Sl) the King gave him the Vicarage of
Swords, and on the death of Geoffrey Fyche in 1537 promoted him to the
Deanery of St. Patrick's. He was a thorough reformer in the sense of having
taken a wife, and on the suppression did not quit the deanery empty
handed, but largely enriched himself with the spoils of the suppressed
chapter. Out of them he bountifully provided for his four sons and one
daughter, and of Deansrath executed a lease to his brother. This deed
falling into the hands of Dean Swift he wrote on the back of it, " this
Bassenet was related to the scoundrel of the same name who surrendered
the deanery to that beast, Henry VIII."

46 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

in 1556 : — " The devil's language agrees well with your
proceedings. For mitte te deorsnm, cast thyself downward
said he, and so taught you to cast all things downward.
Down with the Sacrament, down with the Mass, down with
the altars, down with the arms of Christ, and up with a lion
and a dog."1

Lockwood made a contemptible effort to fall back upon
the Roman (Latin) Ritual at the consecration of Bale — " the
foul-mouthed Bale " — as Bishop of Ossory. He feared in-
validity, or at least illegality, but Bale told him he was " an
ass-headed dean," and insisted on the rite being gone through
in English.

The boy-king Edward VI., died in July, 1553. His
remains were buried on the 8th of August following in West-
minster Abbey, in accordance, it would seem, with ancient
funeral ceremonies, and in the following November "a dirge
was sung in Latin, and the Masse on the morrowe."

Heretical worship therefore profaned the cathedral only
for the short space of two years and a few months, at this
time, and the extent to which heresy was pursued in worship
is still an open question. Of course Divine service or cele-
bration of the Holy Mass (if that was what was intended) in a
language other than what was authorised by the Church was
distinctly wrong and schismatical, but in Edward's first
prayer book, which was the only one adopted in Ireland at
that time, " what is commonly called the Masse," was pre-
scribed, and the consecration of the elements was spoken of,
and the use of holy water, and the sign of the Cross, and
lamps before the sacrament, and anointing of the sick, and
prayers for the dead. These things did not harmonise with
the views of the more advanced English reformers, and so a
second prayer book was issued cancelling all the doctrines
practices, and injunctions of the first, and substituting
talles for altars, the Lord's Supper for the Mass, and abolish-
ing all anointings whether of baptism or of the sick. This
second prayer book however had not had time to get intro-
duced into Dublin before Queen Mary ascended the throne,

1 II. Cranmer, 227. Parker Society.

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 47

who resolved to re-establish the Catholic Faith in all her
dominions.

Goodacre, appointed by Edward to Armagh, had just
died,and Mary nominated the exiled Dowdall for the Primacy,
which nomination was confirmed by the Holy See in consider-
ation of his valiant defence of Catholic doctrine in Mary's
Abbey, and his first schismatical appointment under Henry
was condoned.1 Then steps were taken, both in England and
Ireland, to proceed against such bishops as favoured the
Reformation, the ground of offence put forward being their
having married. This struck at Brown directly, who, as
we have seen, was very much married. He was accordingly
deposed, and withdrew, it is thought, to England whence
he came, and where he appears to have got the grace of
repentance, Cardinal Pole absolving him from all censures}
and to have died reconciled to the Church. Such was the
end of the first Protestant Archbishop. JRequiescat in pace.

On the 18th of February, 1555, " Philip and Mary require
the Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitan Church, Dublin,
to elect Hugh Corren (Curwen), LL.D., to be Archbishop of
Dublin" (archives of Christ Church). This was the customary
conge d'elire ; and 011 the 21st of June following, the Pope, on
the petition of Philip and Mary, appointed this Hugh Curwen
Archbishop of Dublin, vacant by the death of John (Allen)
of good memory. He was consecrated in St. Paul's by
Bonner, Bishop of London, and on the 15th of September
Mary issued a mandate from Greenwich to the Dean and
Chapter of Christ Church, to obey the Archbishop of Dublin,
lately appointed. The dean (always Lockwood) respectfully
received the mandate, and obeyed it.

Dr. Curwen celebrated a Provincial Council in Christ
Church, in order to re-establish Catholic worship and restore
obedience to the Pope, and once more the walls of the
cathedral re-echoed to the psalmody of its ancient Liturgy,
and were again blessed with the presence of the Most Holy.

1 The Pope never recognised his first appointment by Henry, and
actually appointed Eobert Wauchop archbishop in succession to
Dr. Croiner. In the Bull confirming Dowdall he is named as successor
to Robert.

48 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

In a manuscript chapter book of the cathedral, pre-
served in the Library of Trinity College, we have a detailed
regulation of the order to be observed in the celebration of
Masses and the Divine Office, signed by Hugh Curwen, chan-
cellor (he was lord chancellor as well as archbishop),
T. Lockwood, dean ; Christopher Rathe, chauntor ; Jo. Harmau,
chancellor, etc.1

In the third year of the Queen's reign a parliament was
convened at Dublin, when a Bull from Pope Paul IV., pro-
nouncing absolution for the temporary separation from
Rome, was read by Archbishop Curwen to the Lords Spiri-
tual and Temporal. It, however, confirmed the dispositions
of benefices, dispensations, and other ecclesiastical regula-
tions. One of the first cares of the Queen was to restore the
suppressed Cathedral of St. Patrick, with its dean and
chapter, and for its first dean under this new charter, she
appointed Dr. Leverous, who afterwards became Bishop of
Kildare, suffered so much in Elizabeth's time, and died in
the odour of sanctity near Naas in 1577. On the 2nd of
July, 1556, the new Lord Deputy Sussex was received in
great religious state in St. Patrick's the ceremony of his
installation ending with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
(See Monck Mason.)

Catholicity thus restored, affairs proceeded tranquilly
during the few, too few, alas ! remaining years of Queen
Mary's reign. The disturbances in England did not extend
to Ireland, and many English Protestants were induced by the
peaceful condition at least of the Pale to come and reside in
Dublin.

But this peace was short lived. In 1558 Queen Mary died,
and was succeeded by her step-sister, Elizabeth. She delayed
sometime before she took any step. Eventually she revived
the policy of her father and brother, and once more severed
the realm of England from Rome. In Ireland the Act of
Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy did not become law
until after the Parliament of 1560. The Earl of Sussex who
was for the second time appointed Lord Lieutenant in this

1 See Obits and Marlyrology of Christ Church, by Dr. Todd, p. cxiii.
of Introduction.

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 49

year received a letter from the Queen " signifying her
pleasure for a general meeting of the clergy of Ireland, and
the establishment of the Protestant religion through the
several dioceses of the kingdom," in other words, the people
were to discard the religion taught to them by Christ and
his Apostles and their legitimate successors, and accept
the gospel of the daughter of Anne Boleyn. All had to
be therefore undone, and, worse than all, the pastor in
charge of the flock in Dublin was found to be no better
than a hireling. It is not easy to understand why Mary ever
destined him for the See. His previous record should not
have recommended him to the daughter of Catherine of
Aragon. When Henry appeared in the Church of the
Observants at Greenwich with Anne Boleyn as his wife,
Friar Peto denounced him to his face, and told him such
marriage was unlawful.1 The King did no violence to Peto,
but the next Sunday, being the 8th or 18th of May (1533),
Dr. Curwen, by order of the king, preached in the same
place, and sharply reprehended Peto, calling him a dog,
slanderer, a base, beggarly friar, rebel and traitor.
Elstow, another of the friars, took Peto's part, and,
interrupting the preacher, denounced Curwen as one of
the four hundred prophets into whom the spirit of
lying had entered. Curwen was first a canon of Hereford.
On the death of Bishop Fox he was appointed by Cranmer
to administer the diocese sede vacante. He was made Dean
of Hereford in 1541, and from that promoted to the mitre of
Dublin in 1555.

No sooner had Elizabeth commenced operations than
Curwen at once sought to accommodate his conscience and
conduct to suit her fancy. His first care, after submitting
to her decrees, was to remove the statues and ornaments
with which he himself had re-adorned the cathedral and paro-
chial churches, to newly paint the walls of St. Patrick's,
effacing the beautiful fresco paintings that still remained,
and to order that in Christ Church all remains of Popery
should be removed. I need not further particularise the

1 Stow, Annals, ed. 1615, p, 561.
VOL. X. D

50 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

career of this apostate, except to mention that in 1567 he
petitioned the Queen to remove him to the See of Oxford,
where in 1568 he died. Thus the cathedral was once more
and finally profaned. The lamp was extinguished, the Pre-
sence removed, the Sacrifice forbidden, and the consecrated
pile given over to the cold and comfortless ceremonial of
the Reformers.

For a short time under James IT., who made it his chapel
royal, it was restored to Catholic worship, when Dr. Stafford
(who fell at Anghrim) was made Dean, and Dr. Dempsey
(afterwards Bishop of Kildare) Precentor ; and during this
brief period the learned Dr. Michael Moore pronounced the
sermon which offended the king. But from 1690 it remains
alienated from its original purpose. The wooden Tabernacle
used on the High Altar in James the Second's time is still
preserved in the storeroom of the synod house adjoining, but
the door of it was secured by the late Dr. Spratt, and now
forms the door of the Tabernacle on the High Altar in
Whitefriar-street Carmelite Church.

The material edifice underwent many changes from the
time of St. Lawrence. The most extensive alteration and
repairs, previous to recent restorations, were first those effected
in 1350 by the Archbishop John de St. Paul, who at his own
cost built the choir. But his work was sadly at variance
with the other portions. For the north wall of his choir he
utilised the then existing south wall of the Lady Chapel, which
deflected at an angle from the transept, and thus gave his
prolonged choir an appearance of not being in line with the
nave. This architectural anomaly existed until Mr. Street
recently brought back the choir to its original shape as
indicated by the foundations.

In 1562, owing to the bad construction of the piers, the
massive stone-groined roof gradually spread the walls of the
nave asunder, and on the 3rd of April it came with a crash to
the ground carrying with it the greater portion of the south
wall of the nave, and most of the western front, leaving only
the north wall standing, but sadly shaken and out of the per-
pendicular as it may still be seen. It was in this catastrophe
Strongbow's tomb was broken, Great efforts were made to

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 51

repair the disaster, and it is during the course of the work
that we learn of the fidelity of the Dublin artisans to the faith
and ordinances of the Church. One of the devices to root out
Popery was to command all workmen under heavy penalties
to work on the Catholic holidays. The Proctor reports that
notwithstanding threats and menaces the masons would not
work on Corpus Christi or the Feast of the Assumption, and
the only ones he could get to work on those days were Thady
Helier (the tiler) and his three assistants putting on slates. At
the end of the seventeenth century the courts of law were
erected on the site of the old priory and cloisters, and around
them were grouped several alleys and passages called Christ
Church yard. Amongst those passages was the slype, a dark
passage running alongside the chapter-house, and from its
obscurity denominated Hell, wherein apartments were
advertised to let and recommended in the newspapers of the
time, as " suitable for lawyers." On the completion of the
new Four Courts all these buildings including the remains
of the chapter-house were demolished and the space cleared
in front of the cathedral.

The munificence of a single citizen enabled the dean and
chapter quite recently to effect the restoration which now
forms such a beautiful coup d'ceil both externally and
internally ; and casual employment in a season of distress
two years ago brought to light the foundations of the
chapter-house which are now exposed to view.

I fear that this paper will be regarded as a formidable
digression from my original purpose, but the subject of the
mother church of the city was one too interesting to pass
over without some, however compendiated, historical details.
One lamentable fact may be elicited from what we have been
considering, namely, that from the murder of Archbishop
Allen in 1534, and the unrecorded disappearance of his
bishop-assistant, Richard Gamme, a Franciscan, down to the
appointment of Archbishop Mathews in 1611 — a period of
seventy-seven years — except for the four short years that
Curwen remained faithful, Dublin was without a resident
Catholic bishop. By way of consolation we may also recall
that with the exception of the Dean (Lockwood) and one of

52 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

the Vicars Choral, William Dermott, who was made
Chancellor in 1562, no member of the Chapter of Christ
Church, as it was in Mary's time, remained in it after 1560.
Cotton in his Fasti, tells us that Rathe the Precentor resigned
in that year, for his death did not occur until 1565. In the
introduction to the Obit. Book there is an entry of money
given by Mayor (Fyan) in 1565 to have the month's mind of
Sir Christopher Rathe celebrated. We may presume that the
others followed Rathe's example, for the list for 1561 with
the two exceptions mentioned, is quite new.

In the calendar of Christ Church documents given
in Appendix VII, to the Twentieth Report of the Public
Records in Ireland just issued, there is one that attracts
attention at page 122, No. 466. It recites that " Pope
Innocent X. directs the Archbishop of Dublin, and the
Bishops of Leighlin and Ferns, or their Vicars-General,
to admit Patrick Chaell (Cahill), vicar of St. Michael's,
Dublin, to the office of dean of Holy Trinity Church, vacant
by the death of William Beorrex." This is dated 3rd
November, 1644. From this it might appear that the deanery
and chapter of Christ Church were continued titularly by the
Catholics as well as that of St. Patrick's. D'Alton's reason
for such not being the case is scarcely sufficient, for although
originally it was the exclusive creation of Henry VIII., yet
it was acknowledged and ratified by the Pope as we have
seen under Mary. However, some doubt may be thrown on
this document. Cardinal Moran says that the counterpart
is not to be found in Rome, and it seems strange how
a Papal document of 1644 could come among the archives
of Christ Church. William Beorrex is clearly a mistake
for William Barry, was Dean of the Metropolitan Church of
Dublin in 1623. (See Dr. Moran's Archbishops, etc., page 287).
But .may it not be St. Patrick's that is thus described as the
Metropolitan Church ? In any case the document is curious
as the Cahill in question was some years previous (1629)
deprived by Archbishop Fleming of the parish of St. Michael's,
and it is not quite clear that he was ever restored thereto.

The Deanery or Close of Christ Church, forming the
parish of the cathedral, was extremely limited. In 1818,

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 53

when Whitelaw's History of Dublin was published, it only
numbered four houses on the east side of Christ Church-lane
(now expanded into Michael's-hill), 15 in Christ Church-yard
(demolished), and four in Hell (this also happily has been
swept away). To these should be added two houses in
Fishamble-street, all containing a population of only two
hundred and thirty-three souls. In 1871 this number had
shrunk to ten, and in 1881 to nine, all Roman Catholics. Not
much of a parish according to modern ideas, and even that
little is now entirely gone, and changed into the handsome
open space that at present surrounds the cathedral.

N. D.

DE MONTAULT ON CHURCHES AND CHURCH
FURNITURE.

1 — ALTARS.

MONSE1GNEUR de Montault's excellent volumes on
churches and their decorations correspond in many
ways to Mgr. Martiuucci's well-known work on Ceremonial.
He gives us a practical description of the materials required
for the proper execution of the Clmrch's ritual prescriptions.
His long experience of the best Roman traditions, and his
accurate acquaintance with the legislation of the Church on
the matters which he treats make him a writer of very high
authority. Besides the authentic ritual books of the Church,
he makes use of St. Charles Borromeo's two treatises on the
building and furnishing of churches, and of Benedict jXIIFs
" II rettore ecclesiastico instruito nelle regole della fabrica e
della supellettile ecclesiastica" (Benevento, 1729) ; he also
uses the more recent writers who have treated these
topics.

It has been thought that the readers of the RECORD
might be glad to have their attention called to some of these
subjects, and to have the benefit of Mgr. de Montault's

54 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

learning and experience. We will begin with the matter of
altars.

THE HIGH ALTAR.

The high altar may be placed in two positions ; either
standing out by itself towards the front of the sanctuary, and
this is the earlier practice, or else against the wall, according
to the method most in use since the sixteenth century. In
either case the church should be so placed that the celebrant
and the altar may be turned towards the east. The altar
now used for the Chapter Mass in St. John Lateran has been
turned towards the people, during the restorations recently
carried out by Leo XIIL, and the Pope's throne is per-
manently fixed at the end of the enlarged apse. Even when
placed near the wall, the altar should be detached from it, as
is that of the Sistine chapel. Benedict XIII. insists on a
space of at least two feet and a-half between the wall and
the altar, so as to allow room for passing round it. This
space is required on the one hand by the very rite of con-
secration, and on the other, for the convenience of the divine
service. In Rome, a wooden stair-case is added behind the
altar terminating in a platform which runs the whole length
of the super-altar; this is necessary for the purpose of
decorating the gradines, and prevents the necessity of the
sacristans standing on the altar itself, which is extremely
unseemly and is calculated to give scandal to the faithful.

The Congregation of Rites decided for the Cathedral
of Troia, in 1610, that the altar which was at the extreme
end of the apse, should be brought forward to the entrance
of the choir, so that the celebrating priest should face the
people ; the throne then resumed its original place opposite
the altar at the further end of the apse, and the canons'
stalls were arranged on the right and left of the throne.

The altar is made of stone or marble, because it should
be consecrated. Wooden altars, condemned by St. Evaristus,
are only allowed in exceptional cases. It is to be hoped
that cast-iron altars, one of the results of modern industry,
will never be admitted into a church.

The high altar must be raised by at least three steps
above the pavement of the sanctuary ; if the existence of a

DC Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 55

crypt necessitates there being more, they should be of un-
equal number ; there are seven at St. Peter's in Rome. These
steps are of wood or stone. The lowest must, according to
Benedict XIII., be at least six feet from the balustrade. The
two first extend beyond the altar on each side. Their depth
is two feet 8 inches and their height 6 inches. The pradella
is made of wood, in order to prevent cold, and is of the same
width as the altar. The Ceremonial prescribes that the steps
should be covered with carpet, at least on solemn occasions.

The following are the dimensions of the high altar in the
Cathedral of Benevento, consecrated by Cardinal Orsini in
1692 : — Length, 10 feet 4| inches ; height, 3 feet 5£ inches ;
depth, 2 feet 4 inches ; gradines, height, 6| inches ; depth of
the first, 7i inches ; of the second, 2 feet.

The table* of the altar is supported by a base, stipes^ the
form of which admits of four different types.

(a) The solid altar is the one commonly used in Rome.
It is rectangular, built of stone, and closed on all sides. The
corners are rectangular. This kind of, altar lends itself best
to the use of a frontal. Benedict XIII. recommends that a
cross should be placed in the front ; in Rome this is of inlaid
marble or gilded metal. This cross reminds us that the altar
symbolises Christ.

(&) The altar which is hollow inside is the sepulchre altar.
It has inside the stonework a leaden coffin, containing the
body of a saint, whose name is inscribed on the front. Here
are some examples from Rome of these commemorative
inscriptions : at the Church of St. Balbina, on a wheel of
alabaster : —

CORPORA • SS.

BALBINAE • V. M.

ET • FELICISSIMI • M.

At the Church of St. Clement, in letters of gilded bronze^
on red porphyry : —

FLAVIUS • CLEMENS
MARTYR

Hie

FELICITER
EST ' TUMULATUS

*6 De Montanlt on Churcliex mnJ Church Furniture.

At the Church of San Marco, in letters of gold, on violet
porphyry :—

Ix • Hoc • ALTARI

QUIESCIT • CORPUS • SANCTI • MARCI
PAPJE • ET • CONFESSORIS

Sometimes the inscription concerning the relics is placed
away from the altar.

At the Baptistery of the Lateran, in the Oratory of St.
Justina : —

DD. CYPRIAXO • DIAC. ET • IUSTIN^E

VIRGINI • MM.
QUORUM • CORPORA • ARA • COXDIT

At the Church of St, Eustace, on a white marble slab
under the porch, we read these words in praise of Cardinal
Nereus Corsini : —

Nereo tit : S. Eustachij diac : card : Corsino
dementis XII. pont. opt. max. fratr: fil :

quod aram maximam

elegantissimis marmoribus

ceterisq. praeclaris ornamentis

ad corpora SS. Eustachij et socior. martyrvm

tegenda

ingenti liberalitate construxerit
cap: et canonici huiusce basilicae

nomine suo devinctissimi
mem. pos. anno MDCCLIX.

(c) The shrine altar is so arranged that the whole space
between the table and the sides is filled by a shrine of wood
or metal, in which rests the body of a saint, which can be
seen through glass. This plan is modern: the saint lies
with the head raised on a cushion, and is clothed in his vest-
ments. Such are in Rome the bodies of St. Paul of the Cross,
St. Leonard of Port Maurice, and of the Blessed Cardinal
Tomasi and the Blessed Crispin of Viterbo. In the case of
martyrs taken from the catacombs there is added to the relics
a waxen statue, artistically worked.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 57

(J) The empty altar rests at the four corners on small
pillars, or, as at the side altars in the Cathedral of Benevento,
on two brackets, which join the table to the stone on which
the altar stands.

The table of the altar covers the base, and protrudes
a little beyond it. It is rectangular on every side. Nothing
is more inconvenient than the altar tables cut out in a
crescent in front, like that of the high altar of the
Cathedral of Angers, constructed in the last century, or
rounded at the edge, for then it is not easy for the priest to
hold his fingers as the Rubric prescribes.

The high altar in the great basilicas has no gradines.
In isolated altars more than one is scarcely possible, for two
or three would prevent the officiating priest from being seen.
.For those placed against the wall, the number is not limited;
it is generally two, three, or more. One would be enough,
if there were only to be a crucifix and six candlesticks, but
then more candles are needed for Benediction and Exposition
of the Blessed Sacrament. The gradines are made of wood,
painted and gilded, or of stone or marble. Their width is
generally the same as that of the altar table, on whch they
must not encroach ; nevertheless, it is not unusual in Italy,
to see them protruding on each side, and then this prolonga-
tion is supported by a bracket or by masonry. Add a frontal
and a baldaquin, and the altar is complete. In parish
churches a tabernacle is also necessary.

The altar may not be built over a tomb or a mortuary
vault; the prohibition extends even to the steps, which
must not cover the body or bodies of one or more dead.
Benedict XIII. condemns "holes, cupboards, &c., in the
altar to keep the cruets " or other things necessary for its
decoration or service. The altar should under no pretext be
converted into a cupboard ; the mere respect which we
should have for the table on which the Holy Sacrifice is
offered requires this. In all that concerns the high altar,
the Sacred Congregation of Kites makes it of strict obliga-
tion to conform to the Ceremonial of Bishops, and to obey
its own injunctions which contain the interpretation of the
same.— (Comen., 30 Sept., 1628).

58 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

The high altar in a Cathedral is reserved for the bishop
and chapter, for public and solemn functions. It would
therefore not be befitting to use it habitually for the
celebration of Low Mass, especially should the canons be in
choir lor the recitation of divine office. In a parish church,
the high altar should be appropriated exclusively to public
and solemn offices, such as parochial Mass, high Mass,
burials, weddings, &c.

In churches belonging to the religious orders, especially
those of the friars mendicant, the altar has a particular form,
It is joined to the side walls by a partition- wall, panelled
and ornamented, and there is a door on the right and left
leading to the choir. When it is not possible to have this
partition-wall, an iron rod is used, on which curtains run, as
at the Minerva. The doors are closed with a portttre, which,
on solemn occasions, is of the colour of the day. As the
choir of these religious orders is behind the altar, a square
opening is sometimes made in the middle of the gradine, so
that the celebrant may be visible. This opening is sometimes
filled with a gilt grating as at S. Maria del Popolo. This is
also done in convents, when the nuns' choir is in the same
situation, as at San Cosimato.

SIDE ALTARS.

In the construction and ornamentation of the side altars,
the same rules must be followed as for the high altar. Never-
theless there are some differences to be noticed ; they should
have only one step and one gradine. The proportions are
also smaller, excepting the height, which should usually be
the same. St. Charles gives the following dimensions :
height, 3 feet f inches : width, 6 feet ; depth, 2 feet 8 inches.
At the Chiesa Nuova in Rome, these are the measurements :
height, 3 feet 8 inches ; width, 7 feet 3J inches ; depth, 2 feet
4 inches ; height of the gradine 9f inches. All the side altars
of this church date from the sixteenth century. Here are some
more measurements, taken at Bologna, At St. Isaias, height,
3 feet 3f inches ; width, 7 feet 9J inches ; depth, 1 foot 10
inches. At the Madonna di S. Luca, height, 3 feet 8 inches ;
width, 7 feet ; depth, 2 feet 1} inches. At S. Catarina, height,

De ALontault on Churches and Church Furniture. 59

3 feet 4 inches ; width, 7 feet 2| inches ; depth, 1 foot 10 J
inches. At Civita Vecchia at the Conventuals, height, 3 feet

4 inches ; width, 7 feet ; depth, 1 foot 9} inches.

These altars should be less decorated than the high altar;
but they may have two or four candlesticks, a frontal, a reredos
and a baldaquin. Each altar has its own titular, who is given
to it by the bishop in the ceremony of consecration, or by the
simple fact of its erection. The dedication is indicated by a
picture on the reredos, and by an appropriate inscription.
The titular once in possession, it is forbidden to substitute
another, as long as the altar remains morally the same.
Such a change would only be allowable in case the altar
were completely reconstructed. In France, too often the
caprice of a parish priest or of some devotee changes the
titular, setting aside right and tradition.

Benedict XIII. willingly conceded the right of patronage
over an altar, when an agreement was made to provide for
its maintenance by an annual rent. If the rent was not
paid, after a warning from the Ordinary, the patron was
declared to have forfeited his right, by virtue of which he
could otherwise choose the titular, and put his coat-of-arms
on the reredos and on the frontal, and an inscription
stating his privilege ; he had also the power of naming the
chaplain attached to the service of the altar, and of having
it privileged to the exclusive profit of the deceased members
of his family. It may be useful to give the formula em-
ployed by Cardinal Orsini for the assignment of these
endowments.

u E. D. N. Vicarius generalis sedens, et viso supplici libello
porrecto pro parte N., petentis facultatem et licentiam erigendi intus
ecclesiam sub titulo S. N., oppidi N., altare S. N. ; viso consensu
Rmi, D. N. rectoris praefatae ecclesiae ; visa infrascripta assigna-
tioue dotis pro manutentione ejusdem altaris, quae dos consistit in . .
licentiam et facultatem erigendi altare in honorem S. N. intus
dictam ecclesiam concessit et impertitus f uit, servatis tamen de jure
servandis et cum obligatione quod dos praedicta omni futuro tempore
per procurators cleri administretur, ut ipsi de ea rationem reddant
huic nostrae curiae, salvisque semper et reservatis juribus episcopali-
bus et non alias nee alio modo.

u Datum . . . die , . .

" N. vie. gen."

60 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

The Council of Trent desires that, in remembrance of
churches which are destroyed for any reason, there should
be erected in the church, built on the same land as many
altars as they contained, and under the same invocations.

When altars have been dedicated to saints of the Old
Testament, the tradition can be left undisturbed ; but there
is no reason to erect others under their invocation. (S. R. C.,
3rd Aug., 1697.) Neither can altars be set up in honour of
the Beatified, for they do not enjoy the universal worship
winch is accorded only to the saints. It is necessary, should
occasion arise, to ask for an apostolic iudult from the Holy
See, in order to keep within the law.

No altar can be demolished, or moved from one place to
another, without the previous permission of the ordinary.
Before profaning it, certain rites, accompanied by prayers,
must be observed.

A certain hierarchy ought to be observed among the
altars, which is regulated according to the relative dignity
of their titulars. The Litany of the Saints fixes the order of
precedence, The first in dignity should be nearest to the
high altar, the right hand having precedence over the
left. Thus the Lady altar should be, if not behind the high
altar, in an apsidal chapel, for this is not always possible,
at least on the right hand side, as understood in the Liturgy,
and not at the right of the spectator.

In many places a special altar is erected to the titular of
the church in order to honour him more particularly. This
is clone from want of reflection, for it would seem to be for-
gotten that the whole church, with its high altar, is already
dedicated to the saint, as follows from the ceremony of bene-
diction or consecration itself: — Ut hanc ecclesiam et altare ad
honorem tuuni et no men Sancti tui JV. purgare et benedicere dig-
neris. The Congregation of Rites has therefore condemned
such an abuse.

If an altar which already has a titular is required for some
new devotion, a smaller picture may be placed for this pur-
pose on the gradine under the crucifix. Benedict XIV., in
a dissertation on these sottoquadri, ordains that they should
not be allowed to interfere with the conspicuous size and

Gleanings in Science. 61

position of the crucifix. When the title of an altar is changed,
and the picture of the titular moved elsewhere, the altar does
not thereby lose its consecration. (S. R. 0., 7th July, 1759.)
During the last twenty years there are to be seen in
France casings for altars made of repousse and gilt metal,
of very good style arid execution. AP, however, they are a
sort of rich frontal, it would be best to keep them for solem-
nities, and to use a more simple form of decoration habi-
tually.

J. ROUSE.

GLEANINGS IN SCIENCE.1

IN a popular scientific lecture, clear exposition and
simplicity in experimental illustration are, of all things,
essential ; both these characteristics are conspicuous on
nearly every page of the interesting volume of popular
lectures before us. The author has acted wisely in retaining
the form in which the lectures were originally delivered ;
for with the aid of copious illustrations, the intelligent reader
will be able to follow each special line of thought with
nearly as much ease, as if he heard the living voice of the
speaker, and saw the experiments performed in his presence.
The two kindred subjects — Heat and Electricity — are those
mainly dealt with : they are the subjects which, more than
any others, have occupied scientific men for many years
past ; and they are likely to engage a still larger amount of
attention in the future. The two first lectures are devoted
to Latent Heat — the great stumbling block of the Physicists
and Chemists of the last century. It is well known that
when a vessel filled with ice is put on the fire, although
many hours may elapse before all the ice is melted, no increase
of temperature can be detected, even with the most delicate

1 Gleanings in Science. By Gerald Molloy, D.D., D.Se. London :
Macmillan & Co".

62 Gleanings in Science.

thermometer, until the last ice-particle disappears; and a
corresponding phenomenon is observed in the conversion of
water into vapour. Were any one to ask, a hundred years
ago, what became of all the heat — he would be told it was
latent, owing to water having a greater capacity for caloric
than ice, and vapour a greater capacity than water ; and a
similar explanation served to account for the development of
heat which takes place when a liquid solidifies, or a vapour
condenses. There were a few sceptical people, indeed, who
shook their heads, yet said little ; for so long as heat was
regarded as a distinct kind of matter, it was difficult to
suggest a more satisfactory answer. But as experiments
multiplied, the old theory proved altogether inadequate to
account for the phenomena ; and when it was found that the
amount of heat produced by friction, or other mechanical
means, always bore a fixed relation to the energy expended
in its production, the new theory, which regards heat as
motion, and not as matter, was established on a firm basis.
It was then seen that the heat-motion which entered into
the melting ice was entirely expended in shaking asunder
the solid particles and freeing them from the bonds of their
mutual attractions, so that none was left to increase the
temperature. We would strongly recommend a careful
perusal of these lectures on heat to the writers of our text-
books in a different department of philosophy. It is painful
to read, even in some of the most recent, that Heat and
Light are "imponderable matter ;" as well might the singing
of a bird, or the sound of a drum, be called imponderable
matter. A Materialist of the present day is not likely to be
much influenced by arguments deduced from such state-
ments. The Gleanings in Science will have done good
service if it help in preventing a repetition of such blunders
in the future.

Closely connected with the lectures on Heat are two on
The Sun as a Storehouse of Energy. The subjects treated
under this head are (a) the vast amount of heat which the
sun is constantly sending forth into space ; and (b) the
means by which, notwithstanding this great expenditure, its
temperature has been preserved so long, practically un-

Gleanings in Science. 63

changed. In the present state of knowledge, it is impossible
to form any exact idea of the actual temperature of the
solar mass ; we know, however, that it far transcends any
attainable by human contrivance. The spectroscope fur-
nishes evidence that substances such as iron, copper, and
several others with which we are familiar on the earth,
exist as glowing gases in the sun's atmosphere ; and iron
requires a temperature of fifteen-hundred Centigrade degrees
to melt, and a still higher temperature to pass into vapour.
But the dark absorption lines, which the spectroscope reveals,
prove that even this metallic atmosphere is cold, compared
with the hot nucleus or central body of the sun. Kegarding
the condition of that central body, very little is known with
certainty. A solid or liquid state seems hardly compatible
with the high temperature ; and the density is such as might
easily be produced in a gas subjected to the pressure arising
from the sun's enormous mass. In whatever state it exists,
one would think that a white-hot globe of matter, eight-
hundred-and-fifty- thousand miles in diameter, and having a
temperature of many thousand degrees, must possess an
inexhaustible store of heat. Yet, when accurate methods of
measurement are applied, the solar radiation is found to be
so immense, that in a globe, having the dimensions of the
sun, and composed of any solid or liquid terrestrial sub-
stance, a few centuries would suffice to detect a diminution
of temperature. And notwithstanding this, in the unaltered
condition of the vegetation at known parts of the earth's
surface during the last two thousand years, we have
evidence that no appreciable change has taken place in the
solar radiation during that time. Of the many theories
proposed to account for this remarkable phenomenon, two
only have survived.

Following in the footsteps of Kant and Laplace, Helm-
holtz has given to their theory an extension hardly
contemplated by its authors. The condensation of gaseous
particles which once^filled the realms of space, and out of
which the solar mass was originally formed, he considers is
not yet completed in^the [sun. The collisions of these
particles in falling together under the influence of their

64 Gleanings in Science.

mutual attractions, generate an amount of heat which, while
it retards further condensation, fully compensates for the
loss sustained by radiation ; and as many million years must
elapse before condensation ceases, owing to the immense
mass of the sun, not till then can any great change of
temperature be detected.

Mayer, and after him Thomson and others, have traced
the uniformity of the sun's temperature to a different cause.
It is well known that countless myriads of meteors are flying
with almost incredible speed through the realms of space.
The earth, in its annual path about the sun, encounters over
a hundred distinct swarms of them. When they enter the
earth's atmosphere, the friction raises their temperature to
vivid incandescence, and many are wholly converted into
vapour, presenting the familiar appearance of " falling
stars." The speed of others is so diminished by the resist-
ance they encounter that they are pulled down by the
earth's attraction, and fall on its surface. An approximate
estimate, resting on unimpeachable data, gives the number
which fall to the earth every twenty-four hours as twenty
million, and this is only a fractional part of the total number
which enter the earth's atmosphere during the same period.
They vary in weight and size from the two ounce ' elf-
stone,' which the humble peasant regards with superstitious
awe as the harbinger of future misfortune, to the large
meteoric masses, weighing several hundred pounds, pre-
served in the museums of both hemispheres. In the absence
of proof to the contrary, it is not unreasonable to assume
that, equally with the spaces traversed by the earth, the
regions in the neighbourhood of the sun are peopled by
those mysterious bodies. Drawn gradually from their paths
by the sun's mighty attraction, they fall, one by one, to its
surface, and by their impacts produce the heat and light
which warm and illumine our earth. We think that the
author goes a little too far when he states that this latter
theory is now practically abandoned. No doubt it requires
modification. But quite recently it has been dressed in a
new garb, and at the present moment is engaging the atten-
tion of some of the best-known authorities in astronomical
science.

Gleanings in Science. 65

ILI one of the concluding paragraphs the question is
asked : —

" What has become of that vast quantity of energy which has
gone forth from the sun during the long ages of past time ?"

And in a subsequent paragraph the answer is given : —

" You know that there are stars in the heavens so distant that
the light by which they are now visible to us, the light that enters
our telescopes, night after night, and announces to us their exist-
ence in far off space, has been thousands of years on its journey
hither. May we not suppose, then, with some reason, that the light
which went out some thousands of years ago from the sun, which is
the fixed star of our system, is, in like manner, still pursuing its
career in distant space ?"

For our part, we would prefer to go some distance
further, and follow in their progress the waves of heat and
light till they reach the rock-bound coast of the ethereal
ocean in which the sun and stars, the earth and planets, are
immersed. There, striking against the impenetrable barrier
which absolute vacuity presents, we should see them
reflected back, widening out as they pursue their return
journey through the vast expanse of occupied space, and
gradually diminishing in intensity owing to the internal
friction of the medium, until finally, under their influence,
the universe assumes a state of uniform temperature
throughout.

It would be difficult to find a book in which any depart-
ment of electricity is discussed without some allusion to
Thales' amber, Galvani's frog, or Franklin's kite. We have
searched in vain for the two first ; but, as might be expected
in a lecture dealing with " Lightning and Lightning
Conductors," the kite has received the usual amount of
attention. For the last hundred years physicists have been
experimenting with electricity and lightning rods, and yet it
sometimes happens that spires are rent and chimneys shat-
tered, as if Franklin had never lived nor Richman died, it
is also true, however, that since the days of Watt engi-
neers have been improving the steam engine and its boiler
without being able to prevent an occasional explosion.
Defective construction and neglect to maintain in proper
VOL, X. E

66 Gleanings in Science.

condition are the usual causes of catastrophe in both cases ;
and so long as the erection of conductors is intrusted to
builders or architects having little or no knowledge of the
fundamental laws of electricity, lightning rods will continue
to be a source of positive danger to the structures they are
intended to protect. But the statistics of injuries from
lightning furnish instances where even conductors erected
under the best scientific guidance have been found ineffi-
cient; and some recent experiments seem to show that the
most approved plan of construction at present in use is far
from perfect. In a treatise on lightning conductors by a
practical electrician of some name, published only a few
years ago, we read of the Hotel de Ville, in Brussels, that
" probably no other building is so completely guarded from
the dangers of thunderstorms ; " and yet this same building
suffered much damage, last June, from a fire caused by light-
ning. It is stated in our text-books that with a half-inch
copper rope, well soldered and riveted to a stout, branching,
and pointed terminal rod, and having, above all, a good
earth connection, there is nothing to fear, care being taken
that all large masses of metal in the structure are connected
with the conductor. And it can hardly be questioned that
in most cases such an arrangement will afford protection.
During the discussion, however, which took place on this
subject at the last meeting of the British Association, the
pertinent question was asked — How has it happened, in
buildings injured by lightning, that the electricity left the
conductor, where the resistance was less than a hundred
ohms, to follow a different path through a resistance amount-
ing to several thousand ohms? It may, no doubt, be
answered that the electricity which caused the injury was
only a part of the entire discharge, the remainder having
passed harmlessly through the conductor to the ground.
But even if the ordinary law by which an electric current
divides itself were followed, the very small fractional part
which flowed through the greater resistance, in some cases,
at least, would hardly suffice to produce the disastrous results
observed. The author wisely, we think, abstains from
hazarding an answer to this difficult question till further data

Gleanings in Science. 67

are obtained. And in reading the accounts furnished of
accidents which have occurred great caution is always
necessary, for in philosophy, as in medicine, when a patient
dies who has been attended by several independent physi-
cians, the cause of death is found to vary with each one's
diagnosis of the symptoms.

A lecture on the dynamo would be very imperfect which
made no reference to Faraday. Every modern form of
Electric Generator is as much his offspring as the Lightning
ilod is the child of Franklin. More than this, if we except,
perhaps, the principle of the Bell Telephone, it would be
difficult to point out even one really new discovery made in
electricity, since Faraday's death. The last twenty years
have been fruitful chiefly in extensions and practical applica-
tions of principles discovered by him, or known before his
time. But these have been extensions and applications,
which have converted the simple apparatus of the laboratory
into complicated and ponderous machines capable of driving
tramcars, lighting cities, and doing an endless variety of
other useful work. Looking back, with our present know-
ledge, one easily sees how even Faraday's most brilliant
achievements might have been anticipated, had Oersted's
chance discovery, of twelve years before, received its full
interpretation. A little acquaintance with the Convertibility
and Conservation of Energy would have shown that the work
done in moving Oersted's magnet, if expended in bringing it
back again, should reproduce the current which caused the
displacement. This was Faraday's experiment — only slightly
altered ; and the steam-engine which rotates the armature of
the modern dynamo a thousand times per minute, does little
more than repeat the same experiment in a greatly exag-
gerated form. For years past, the dynamo has been the
property of the machinist rather than of the physicist ; and,
like its twin-brother the steam-engine, it has undergone
many changes of shape and size to suit each special purpose.
With its construction, the general reader will not trouble
himself much more than to learn that it consists of a bar, or
ring, of soft iron, or a bundle of thin iron plates, covered with
several layers of insulated copper wire, and the whole —

68 Gleanings in Science.

technically called an armature — kept rapidly revolving
between the poles of one or more powerful electro-magnets.
When a steam-engine, turbine, or other motor, is employed to
rotate the armature, an electric cut-rent, suitable for lighting
and many other purposes, is produced ; and when an electric
current flowing from some other source, is already
available, and is sent through the wires of the dynamo, the
latter may be used sometimes with advantage, to replace
the steam-engine.

But it is as a generator of electricity, especially for
lighting purposes, that the dynamo is most likely to
receive its full development. The production of an intense
light, by sending a strong electric current through two
stout carbon pencils, has been known since the commence-
ment of this century. Owing to the expense involved,
however, it is only 011 rare occasions that it has been
seen outside the precincts of the lecture-hall. The intro-
duction of the dynamo, by cheapening the cost of the
current, has already shown that the adoption of this method
of illumination is, in many cases, commercially feasible. But
it is only for large areas and open spaces that the Arc Light —
as this arrangement has been called — is suitable. Besides
the unsteadiness of the light which they emit, the white
hot carbons heat and vitiate the air even more than gas does.
The Incandescent Light, on the other hand, is entirely free
from these inconveniences. It is produced by means of a
thin filament of carbon which is enclosed in an exhausted
glass vessel, and made white-hot by the passage of the
electric current. The advantages of such an arrangement
are obvious. The light is both brilliant and steady; and
there is no consumption of oxygen, and no noxious gases
produced to vitiate the air. When it is remembered that a
common fish-tail burner, with average pressure, consumes as
much oxygen as five men, the superiority of the Incandescent
Light over the ordinary means of illumination, where pure
air is of great importance, will readily be admitted ; and, as
matters stand at present, the greater cost which, in most
cases, it entails is the only obstacle to its supplanting gas as
an. illuniinant for domestic purposes.

Gleanings in Science. 69

To what extent the dynamo will hereafter serve as a
substitute for the steam-engine, it would be premature to
predict. The ways of trade do not always lie along the lines
traced out by science. But on the cost involved in producing
the electric current required to work the dynamo, its future
progress as a motor must depend. No form of galvanic
battery yet invented, or likely to be invented, can be used
with economy for that purpose. A second dynamo, employed
as a generator, gives the only prospect of success. Here,
again, however, a difficulty arises ; for if steam be used to
rotate the armature of the generator, loss and not gain, will
necessarily follow. Nature has established an immutable
law which forbids more work being got out of any combina-
tion of machines than the equivalent of the energy, in what-
ever form supplied to them. A given weight of coal, acting
directly through the steam-engine, will do a greater amount
of useful work than when one or more dynamos are inter-
posed; for additional friction always involves additional loss.
But when water-power is available, the case stands differently.
The kinetic energy of the mountain-stream — too often allowed
to expend itself uselessly, if sent through a turbine or other
form of water-wheel, would do all the work of which the
costly fuel of the steam-boiler is capable ; and a well insulated
copper or iron rod, not thicker than one's finger, would
transmit the electric current from the generator to the motor-
dynamo — several miles distant, with only slight diminution.
The current which propels a tramcar would suffice to drive
a saw, throw a shuttle, or turn a lathe ; and many a town,
and distant village, with inexhaustible stores of energy
within easy reach, now languish silently in decay, which,
if Nature's resources — as pointed out by Science — were fully
utilized, would long since be all astir with the busy hum of
many industries.

F. LENNON.

ANTWERP CATHEDRAL.

THE traveller who visits Antwerp by train, and who hopes
as he approaches to see the cathedral with its graceful
tower rising above the public buildings of the city is doomed
to disappointment. Its pious founders in the middle of the
fourteenth century laid its foundations on the low ground
adjoining the river, and it is thus hidden away in what is
practically the centre of the old town. It has to be sought
out therefore through a labyrinth of narrow streets ; but the
streets with their quaint architecture are interesting. They
witnessed the pageants of Alva, and they also witnessed his
expulsion, and the triumphant vindication of the liberties
of a nation. And those statues of our Lady, which you notice
on most of the street corners, seem to greet you from their
niches as you pass. And long before your pilgrimage to the
cathedral can grow wearisome, you hear the unrivalled
music of its carillon floating in magical sweetness through
the air —

'f Low and loud and sweetly blended,
Low at times and loud at times,
And changing like a poet's rhymes."

When at length a view is obtained of the historic pile,
one's feelings are apt to be those of impatient surprise. The
view of the transept and choir from the <: Place Verte,;' is
disappointing. The front view from the " Grande Place,"
though much better, is not quite satisfactory. It is pain-
fully evident that the spoiler's hand had been busy here,
though the work of restoration is progressing. There are
still some crumbling buttresses, shattered pinnacles, and
niches to which the statues have not yet been restored. The
deeply recessed doorway, though much injured, is very
striking ; but still more striking is the richly traceried
window by which it is surmounted. On either side of the
entrance the towers rise, having the different stages of their
elevation marked by galleries of rich and delicate tracery.
Were both towers complete they would form a front unique

Antwerp Cathedral. 71

in its beauty. The southern tower has, however, reached
only the third gallery; while the other reaches the extra-
ordinary height of four hundred feet. But from so near a
view it is impossible to realize its height, its proportions, and
delicacy of design.

From any view which one can have of the church from
the exterior, it is difficult to form an exact idea of its outline,
It is in fact disfigured or partially lost by what are correctly
designated in the guide books as " the mean houses " clustered
against it. It is, however, a cruciform church,with transepts,
and triple aisles running round the nave. Its style is
decorated Gothic ; though at the intersection of nave and
transepts a Byzantine dome forms a very conspicuous
feature, and strikes one by its singular incongruity.

The richness of the interior compensates in a great mea-
sure for the somewhat disappointing character of the
exterior. But even the richness of the interior can scarcely
reconcile one to the absence of harmony manifested even
there, between the general design, and matters of detail.
Immediately on entering we are surprised at finding that the
rich marbles of the porch speak of classic architecture. The
designs of the prominent monuments in the church are
classic also. Even the high altar, with its beautiful reredos,
which forms a striking setting for Rubens' altar piece, and
was designed for the purpose by the gifted master's own
hand, is but another specimen of the Renaissance. Yet all
seem willing to admit that this arrangement, with its incon-
gruities, is glorified, nay, rendered sacred by the artist's
fame, and the recognized merit of his great painting. Indeed,
one's whole attention is soon concentrated on the magnificent
altar piece ; and other feelings are quickly lost in the admira-
tion of its beauty. In the " Assumption " one has all the
marvellous colouring for which Rubens is so justly celebrated.
A light almost dazzling pours its golden glory upon our
Lady as she seems to soar upwards to the skies. Her hair
floats loosely on her shoulders, and the face and features
seem to have regained the beauty of her early years.
Angelic forms are visible amidst the bright clouds by
which she is enveloped. On the earth below her, the

72 .Antwerp Cathedral.

apostles and ^noly women are grouped around the^tomb —
some engaged in prayer, some conversing in wonder — pro-
bably at finding thatthe sacred body of our Lady was no longer
there ; while others with arms raised are looking intently
towards heaven as if entranced by the vision of her Assump-
tion thither, with which they seem to have been favoured.
On the marble canopy immediately surmounting the painting
is a richly sculptured representation of the Trinity as if
awaiting to introduce her into heaven, who was henceforth
to be heaven's queen. In a church dedicated to our Lady,
as is Antwerp Cathedral, the Assumption must be re-
garded as an appropriate subject for an altar piece. Yet the
altar piece cannot be regarded by those familiar with the
works of Rubens as his greatest work. His " Crucifixion,5'
•which is at present preserved as a priceless treasure
in the ancient Art Gallery of the city, is, perhaps, a far more
wonderful work. It is difficult to realize anything more
suggestive of what is touching and awe-inspiring in the
" Crucifixion." The figures on the canvas are few; for the
artist has selected for representation a moment when the
multitude may be supposed to have dispersed. A soldier
having found our Lord already dead, is engaged in the
brutal work of breaking the limbs of the dying thieves. On
the other side the centurion has just buried his lance in the
Redeemer's sacred heart. On his eyes, then sightless, thera
is stamped a strange expression of malignity. But across
the neck of his spirited charger, and towards those sightless
eyes, the blood and water gushes on its errand of mercy
from the Sacred Heart.

Magdalene kneels at the foot of the Cross with all that
peculiar beauty with which Rubens loves to represent her.
Her head leans towards the feet of her crucified Lord ; but
her hands and eyes are raised in eager and horrified protest
against the centurion's sacrilege.

The figures of our Lady and St. John complete the
group. The Blessed Virgin's face is slightly averted, while
she seems to accept a little the support of the Virgin
Apostle. A death-like pallor overspreads her features,
except where an inky black has settled around the eyelids.

Antwerp Cathedral. 73

The eyes are raised in inexpressible agony, and show the
eyeballs and lids stained red as if with blood. The sensitive
lips are parted as when a sob is wrung from the heart and
becomes an agonising cry. Altogether the attitude and
expression could only be fittingly given to her whom the
Church reveres as " Queen of Martyrs."

On every member of our Lord's sacred body are stamped
the chilling evidences of his late harrowing sufferings. In the
dislocated arms, the muscles stand out with a painful dis-
tinctness, while the pressure of the ringer joints against the
palms indicate the agony of their fearful strain. Those
wounds in hands and feet and side are more than mere pic-
tures : they seem ghastly realities. The livid tints of face
and members can only belong to a body that is really dead.
And while His sacred features retain, even in death, the
expression of an agony that is indescribable, they retain also
an expression of resignation that is divine. No wonder that the
pictures of this great artist should retain the high place they
hold in the estimation of his countrymen and of the world
generally, despite the calumnies of such men as E. J. Poynter,
R.A., who would represent him as an artist in whose works
" there is no soul.''

Though the cathedral does not possess Rubens' " Cruci-
fixion," it possesses others of his masterpieces better known
to the general public. The " Taking Down from the Cross"
is the best known of his paintings in Antwerp Cathedral.
It is perhaps the work with which his name is most generally
associated in the minds of the public. This great work
hangs in the south transept. It is a triptych, having the
Visitation on its right wing, and the Presentation on its left.
The central picture is well known to the world through
photographs and engravings, but without conveying more
than a faint idea of the beauty of the original. They cannot
even remotely reflect its religious pathos or tragic sublimity.
The crown and nails have been but just removed, and laid in
a basket. The wounds on the hands and feet, look painfully
fresh, owing probably to the recent removal of the nails, while
there are darker traces on the sacred side of the recent shed-
ding of His precious blood, The hair flows freely now over

74 Antwerp Cathedral.

His shoulders from His drooping head, and leaves the wounds
inflicted by the thorns more painfully visible. His sacred
lips are parted, and His eyes are bloodstained and slightly
opened. It is difficult to realise anything more true than
the death-like appearance of the Sacred Body, or anything
more pathetic than the evidences of the recent agony
on His face and members. Nicodemus and Joseph of
Arimathea and others are straining to lower tfcie body gently
by the sheet, which is regarded by critics as a marvel in
drawing and colouring. Saint John stands at the foot of
the Cross, utilising all his youthful strength to support the
weight of the Sacred Body as it descends. The Marys are
kneeling with faithful and sorrowing devotion to receive it.
There is infinite tenderness in the manner in which
Magdalene extends her hands to kiss the Saviour's feet; and
in the simple treatment of drapery and figure, as well as in
the rich tints which glow upon their features, we recognise
those marvellous powers for which Rubens is so universally
celebrated.

The figure of our Blessed Lady is easily recognised. The
treatment is very similar to the manner in which she is repre-
sented in the " Crucifixion," only that she looks much older.
Those hours that have marked the interval between those
two great events seem to have come upon her with more
than the weight of as many years. She seems to stand with
difficulty. Her eyes are fixed with unspeakable sadness on
the descending body of her Son, and she extends her hands
towards him with affecting eagerness, as if to guard against
the least possibility of accident. Indeed, her figure and
features bear upon them unmistakable evidence of her
unequalled sorrow.

Passing on to the north transept, we are before another
of Rubens' great works, the " Raising of the Cross." It
is, like the " Descent from the Cross," a triptych, and
the great event forms the subject of the central picture.
The executioners are engaged in raising the Cross, now
weighted by our Lord's sacred body. Some strain with
all their strength at the ropes; others, with equal energy,
keep the foot of the Cross pressed against the earth. In the

Antwerp Cathedral. 75

malignant earnestness which they manifest in accomplishing
their fiendish work there is a something painfully revolting.
The wounds on hands and feet and brow are bleeding slowly.
The agony of the features is indescribable; but the eyes
raised to heaven express the supreme strength of divine
resignation. On the left wing of the picture are represented
the Roman soldiers, with their Imperial standards. Critics
speak of them as perfect in design and colouring. Our
Blessed Lady and the beloved Apostle occupy a conspicuous
place on the other side. Her anguish is as powerfully and
as touchingly delineated as in his other pictures in which
she is represented associated with the sufferings of her
Son. She bends forward with clasped hands to gaze in
awe upon the agonising form of her Beloved, now exposed
to the gaze of a mocking multitude.

There is also another group, representing probably the
women of Jerusalem. They, however, only manifest such
commonplace feelings as the sad event must have rendered
inevitable in the case of any ordinary spectator. They are
worthy of Rubens only in drawing and colouring. They
represent so much of the merely natural and material, as to
detract from the general effect of the picture, and to
give to the unfavourable criticisms of some a partial
justification.

The chapels which surround the choir are generally inte-
resting, and contain a few noteworthy monuments. Amongst
the most interesting of these, i may mention that to
Bishop Ambrosius Capello, whose life-size effigy, carved
in alabaster, with mitre and episcopal robes, rests in a recum-
bent position on his monument. The monument to the
Plan tin family is also interesting. The name is associated
with the well-known PI an tin Museum of the city. The
monument of Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Charles the Bold,
is specially noteworthy. It is situated immediately at the
back of the high altar, and has a life-size recumbent effigy of
the good lady wrought in bronze. The face is beautiful.
The drapery of the figure is arranged in graceful folds. The
hands, closely joined, rest against the bosom as if in prayer.
There hangs just above the monument a beautiful painting

76 Antwerp Cathedral.

by Mathysens, which may, perhaps, be justly regarded as
amongst the most striking and interesting in the cathedral.
It represents the death of our Blessed Lady. She seems to
have sunk back upon a couch in a peaceful swoon. Her
hands are joined. Her face, unique in its beauty, has upon
it the solemn pallor of death. The apostles, disciples, and
holy women are around her, with faces expressive of the
deepest sympathy. The angels are seen descending in
clouds of light, bearing beautiful wreaths in their hands;
and, above them all, the Redeemer's face is revealed in the
opening skies as He descends to meet His Holy Mother.
This truly beautiful picture wants the brilliancy of Rubens'
colouring, but it possesses much of the grandeur of design
and boldness of execution for which he is also so justly
famous.

In a chapel at the Gospel side of the high altar there is a
small copy of the Christ — a la paille — by Rubens, which
deserves more attention than it usually' seems to attract.
The Sacred Body, just taken down from the Cross, does not
rest on our Lady's lap. It is laid on a stone bench, and is
supported from behind by Joseph of Arimathea, who bends
over it with the deepest reverence. Magdalene kneels, and
holds the Saviour's hand in hers. Her lips touch it with
reverential tenderness. The Blessed Virgin stands near,
supported by St. John. Her features and attitude are alike
indicative of helpless and hopeless sorrow. The pallor of
her face is like that of the dead ; yet the blood-stained eyes
and the pathetic strain of the attitude as she inclines towards
the lifeless form of her Son, indicate a vitality which sorrow
is powerless to destroy. Nothing can be more beautiful, or
more sad withal, than the representation of the Sacred Body,
which retains in death all the pathetic marks of his recent
sufferings.

The adjoining chapels also contain some very interesting
works, among which I may mention a Madonna after Van
Dyke and a " Descent from the Cross," by De Vos.

In the Chapel of St. Joseph a beautiful rose window
merits attention. In this window the " Tree of Jesse" is
represented in imperishable colours, from designs said to

Antwerp Cathedral. 77

have been furnished by Stalens and Jansens. Indeed, the
interior of this fine old cathedral owes much of its beauty to
the glass with which its windows are enriched. The magni-
ficent transept windows have glass which dates as far back
as the beginning of the seventeenth century. The subjects,
which are partly sacred and partly historical, are beautifully
executed, and do much to beautify the interior, the columns
and capitals of which they bathe in their mellow tints.
The stained windows of the south aisle, which light the
Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, are, perhaps, the
oldest in the cathedral, and are said to date from
the beginning of the sixteenth century. That in the
north aisle, which lights the Lady Chapel, was presented
by Leopold II., and, though more modern, can hardly be
considered less beautiful.

An interior elevation of one hundred and thirty feet for the
roof of nave and choir can hardly be considered sufficient in a
church which has triple aisles on either side, and covers an
area of over 70,008 square feet. The absence of a triforium
seems also to detract from the elevation of the roof and
from that appearance of airy lightness which we admire so
much in the vaulted roofs of our great cathedrals. But in
Belgian cathedrals the omission of a triforium is no unusual
feature. Its omission will be noticed in the Cathedral of
Bruges and in those of other Flemish cities. Perhaps the
omission would be less noticeable were the clerestory stained,
and not glazed, as it is, with cathedral glass.

Though the rood screen is also a familiar feature in our
mediaeval churches, visitors may not regret its absence in
Antwerp Cathedral. Owing to the existing arrangement
there, the visitor, on entering the nave, can see at once the
altar, and the beautiful altar-piece, with its gorgeous setting.
The entire choir is visible also — its richly-carved stalls, its
lines of sacred figures, its exquisite canopies and delicately-
wrought pinnacles — all rise before one in quite a bewilder-
ing show. The great crucifix, which is suspended over
the entrance of the choir, seems an effective substitute for
the usual group of the rood screen arch.

In a notice, no matter how meagre, of this interesting

78 Antwerp Cathedral.

cathedra], reference to its exquisite woodwork cannot be
omitted. The woodwork of the choir, just referred to, com-
mands general admiration. But the confessionals and pulpit
are, we think, equally marvellous specimens of artistic wood-
carving. They are beautiful in design, and in execution they
are exquisite. The confessionals are arranged along the
northern aisle. On either side of the confessional doorways,
and also at the approaches for the penitents, are carved
figures, nearly life size — generally of angels with wings and
flowing drapery, and sometimes of saints. Many of those
are designed by Van Brugen, whose genius has demonstrated
that results can be obtained, even in wood, which rival the
best results that sculpture has achieved in marble. In grace
of outline, those figures might have been modelled on the
sculptures of the Parthenon; and with the excellence of
those classic works they may be also said to possess, in part,
their faults. They are, in truth, far more suggestive of
the naturalism of the Renaissance, than of the sacred traditions
of purely Christian art. Jt is needless to add that all the
ornamental detail in connexion with the finish of those con-
fessionals is simply faultless.

Many of the pulpits with which Flemish cathedrals are
enriched exhibit developments in wood-carving equally
curious and interesting. It would seem, indeed, as if Flemish
artists made a special selection of pulpits as subjects on which
they might put forth all their powers, and which they might
enrich with everything in art or nature that their fertile
imaginations might suggest. In those labours of love they
seem to revel in the illimitable resources of their own genius,
regardless of those recognised canons of usage and design to
which art had rendered faithful homage in the past. The pulpit
of Antwerp Cathedral is no exception to this rule. It was
designed by Van Der Voort, and is said to have been
brought to Antwerp from the Abbey of St. Bernard, on the
Scheld. Who but the artist, or one of his school, would
have thought of surrounding it with the trellised branches
of trees which spring up behind it, and help to form and
to support the magnificent canopy which is surmounted ?
Birds of various size and form hide in its leafy shelter, or

Antwerp Cathedral. 79

openly display their gvacful plumes before the spectators'
wondering eyes. Festoons of richest foliage and flowers
hang in graceful wreaths around pulpit and canopy. Under-
neath, the four large allegorical figures which support the
pulpit are faultless in pose and execution, and those cherubs
which help, with easy grace, to support the canopy might
have been designed by Correggio.

Though the cathedral is, as we have seen, unencumbered
by pretentious monuments, the dead are by no means for-
gotten there. There is hardly an available portion of the
pavement that does not mark the resting place of some one,
more or Jess notable, in the chequered history of the Flemish
people.

Amongst the many interesting inscriptions there, that which
marks the grave of Quentin Matsys is specially noteworthy.
Once a blacksmith, he became one of the most famous
painters of the Netherlands. His grave is close to the
cathedral tower. The statue of the mythical Silvius Brabo, in
front of the cathedral, is one of the many existing works of
this extraordinary man.

Leaving Antwerp by the evening boat for Harwich, the
traveller can obtain such a view of the cathedral and its
tower as should compensate him for his disappointed expec-
tations when approaching the city by train. As he floats
down the "lazy Scheld," the busy wharves and lofty ware-
houses are quickly lost to view, though the Church of
Notre Dame of Antwerp continues visible and clearly defined.
And as the intervening distance increases, it seems only to
gain in delicacy of outline, and may not probably be lost to
sight till the shadows of the evening settle on the broad
bosom of the river.

J. FAHEY.

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS.
I.

MAY A SURPLICE BE LENT TO A PROTESTANT CLERGYMAN ?

This question was proposed in June, 1875, to Father
Edmund O'Reilly, S. J. His answer has been found amongst
the papers of the priest who consulted him on behalf of
another, and it may be given as a proof of the care that he
bestowed on such matters : —

" As to the surplice, I would not venture to say there would be
anything essentially wrong in lending it, so that the act could be justi-
fied by no possible reason, as the act is indifferent in itself, and is only
materially connected with the Protestant service. Practically, how-
ever, in ordinary circumstances, I consider it wrong, as involving a
kind of co-operation with the parson in his clerical functions, and a
degree of fraternization calculated to give scandal. The answer
might be that the priest would be most willing to do the minister a
merely personal favour, to oblige him or serve him in his private
capacity, but that Catholics consider it objectionable to connect them-
selves at all with the religious services of Protestants ; that this is
his own (the priest's) view, but that, even if he could justify the
thing to himself, it mi^ht disedify the laity who would come to
know of it ; that he feels distressed at having to decline compliance
with any request of Mr. , but hopes the explanation he has

given will be considered a sufficient excuse,"

II,

CLANDESTINITY AND DOMESTIC SERVANTS, ETC.

May I ask for the solution of the following cases in the RECORD.

First Case : " A female servant who being hired by the half year, has
spent four or five years in her present situation, and having arranged to
marry a person who belongs to a different parish from that of her
place of service, gives notice to her mistress of her intention to leave.
Another servant is engaged to take her place at her departure.
Although she has a domicile at her mother's house which is situated
in the adjoining parish, her wish is to be married in the parish of her
place of service, not before her departure, but immediately after it.
She, therefore, asks the parish priest of her mistress to assist at the

Theological Questions.

marriage immediately after she shall have left her service but before
her departure from his parish. Can he validly assist at it ? I know
there are many who feel quite sure that he can. They hold that as
she has not yet left his parish, she has not yet lost her quasi-domicile
there. I am inclined to think that after having given up her service
and taken her departure from the house of her mistress, she loses her
quasi-dornicile in that parish even before leaving it The moment
she quits^her'place of service it would appear that ihefactum hdbitationis
and the animus permanendi per majorem anni partem have ceased to
exist, and that she at once becomes a peregrina in that parish, even
before she goes beyond its boundary. If this be a correct opinion it
would seem to follow that even though she were to proceed di'ect,
after having quitted her service, to the parish'priest of her late mistress,
he could not validly assist at her marriage."

Second Case : " Bertha lives in the country with her brother Cains
in whose house she has had a domicile all her life long, A misunder-
standing of a very serious nature arises between them. She sees she
must leave at once, nor can she ever expect to return. She engages
to marry Peter who belongs to a neighbouring parish, She leaves
her brother's house on the day fixed for the marriage, and feels on
her departure that should the marriage not come off she cannot
return to her brother's house in any sense. The parish pi iest of her
brother's house assists at her marriage in Dublin. Does he do so
validly ? Here again scinduntur theologi rustici.

"I think she is a vaga and consequently he cannot assist validly at
her marriage outside his own parish. Quid sentiendum ?

"M. H."

I. Many- — we are told — feel quite sure that the parish
priest of her late mistress can validly assist at this servant's
marriage. She had undoubtedly acquired a quasi-domicile
in the parish. She bad a home in the house of her mistress
and she had the intention of continuing her residence there ;
and though she has changed her residence, her intention of
residing in the parish — though in a "different abode, still
firmly perseveres. Therefore, they think the parish priest of
her mistress can validly assist at her marriage.

He could certainly assist at her marriage if she got

married before she severed her connection with her late

mistress, before she ceased to reside in her house. But

I think this parish priest cannot assist at the marriage after

VOL. X. F

82 Theological Questions.

the servant has ceased to reside in the house of her late
employer. She has then lost her quasi-domicile in the
parish.

A quasi-domicile ceases when the two conditions necessary
for its inception cease. It is necessary, therefore, to treat
briefly of these conditions.

Two things are required to acquire a quasi-domicile,
factum and animus : — (a) Factum. This implies two things .—
that a person should have a fixed abode in the parish; and
that he should have commenced to reside therein, (b) Animus:
The person shall have the intention of residing in the parish
per majorem anni partem. The nature of both conditions is
very clearly described in the following extract from an
Instruction of the S. Congregation (dated 7th July, 1867) : —
"Prseterea manifestum quoque est actualem habitationem
ineptam esse ad quasi- domicilium pariendum, si quis in ea
regione more vagi ac itinerants commoretur, non autem vere
proprieque habitantis, quemadmodum scilicet caeteri solent qui
in eodem loco verum proprieque dictum domicilium habent."
Hence Ballerini writes " A fortiori vagus dicitur qui nullibi
certam et constantem sedem habet aut vult habere." Actual
residence therefore in some fixed, more or less permanent
home, and the intention of residing in the place for the greater
part of a year, after the manner of those who have a domicile in
the place, are essential to the inception of a quasi-domicile ;
both together constitute a quasi-domicile ; take away both
again and the quasi-domicile ceases.

Now does this girl retain a fixed residence in the parish ?
Does the intention of continuing to reside in a fixed abode,
as people who have a domicile, persevere ? Leaving her
former mistress she left the only fixed residence she had, or
hoped to have in the parish : she has no longer any home
in the parish : she may during the interval before her
marriage spend a few days successively with her acquaint-
ances in the parish ; or she may go to lodge in one particular
house ; or she may go directly from the house of her
mistress to the parish priest, get married and leave the
parish. In all those cases, when she removed her effects,
and ceased to reside with her late mistress, she had no logger

Theological Questions. 83

a fixed residence in the parish, nor an intention of residing
in a fixed abode il quemadmodum ceteri solent, qui in eodem
loco verum, proprieque dictum domicilium habent." Her inten-
tion of continuing a resident of the parish had ceased, and
she remained there only " more vagi ac itinerantis." IShe
was as a visitor in the parish. I think, therefore, that the
girl's quasidomicile ceased on leaving the house of her
mistress ; and as she was not a vaga — it is supposed that
she still retains a domicile in her mother's parish — the
parish priest of her late mistress could not assist at her
marriage.

II. Again, some think that her former parish priest could
assist at her marriage in Dublin. But is it not manifest that
the girl had lost her domicile in her brother's parish, before
she reached Dublin ? Marriage or no marriage, to escape
the wrath of her angry brother she was obliged to leave
home without hope of returning. " She sees she must leave
at once, nor can she ever expect to return." Suppose she
withdrew from her brother's house, not to get married, but
to lodge permanently in Dublin ; or suppose she went to
procure permanent employment in Dublin; or suppose she
proceeded to America, never expecting to return, would she
not have lost her original domicile ? The case is not altered
because she left home in those circumstances to get married.
Had she not discontinued to reside with her brother ? And
had she not determined never to resume residence in her
paternal parish ? "She feels on her departure that should
the marriage not come off she cannot return to her brother's
house in any sense."

I think, therefore, with M. II., that the girl in question
was a vaga, and that her former parish priest could not
validly assist at her marriage outside his own parish, unless
he were delegated by the parish priest of the place in which
the marriage was celebrated.

III.

EVICTED TENANTS AND MATRIMONY.

" A family who have been evicted from their home in a
neighbouring parish of a neighbouring diocese have resided
continuously in this parish for the greater part of a year.

84 Theological Questions.

All along they intended to return to their former home as soon as
they got a settlement, which they expected from day to day, but have
not yet obtained. A girl belonging to this family is about to get
married to a young man who lives in a neighbouring parish of this
diocese, In which parish can the marriage be validly and licitly
celebrated ? " SACERDOS."

The condition of evicted tenants differs widely in different
circumstances, and in different cases. Before the present
agrarian movement eviction generally meant irrevocable
expulsion from home. Nothing remained for the evicted
tenant but to transfer, and seek elsewhere an abode for his
penates. Even in recent times there is a very great
difference in different cases. Sometimes the farm is purchased
by another tenant, whilst the evicted tenant procures for
himself a permanent home and employment in the neighbour-
hood, though he may still fondly hope to recover his former
holding. Again, as our correspondent writes, the farm may
be vacant whilst the tenant is temporarily residing in an
adjoining parish.

Now in all those cases where the tenants evicted from
their home, go to reside in a different parish, they lose their
former domicile.

They have no longer a home in the parish ; the landlord
becomes sole owner of the house and land; they have to
depart, and transfer their effects to some other place. They
are therefore — as far as home in the parish is concerned —
homeless upon the world. Deprived of a home in the parish,
and departing therefrom, they necessarily lose the intention
of residing in the parish for some time — it may be long, and
it may be short ; but they are unable to determine it. They
expect, no doubt, to obtain a settlement, and return to their
former home. I hope they will not be disappointed, and then
they will commence anew their domicile ; but meanwhile they
have lost their former domicile.

What is their position in their present parish ?

" All along they intended to return to their former home
as soon as they got a settlement, which they expected from
day to dayT They are therefore vagi in their new parish :

Liturgical Questions. 85

they have no intention of acquiring a domicile or quasi-
dornicile there. " Quando deest animus figendi alicubi
domicilium aut quasidomicilium nihil refert, brevisne an
longa ibi mora trahatur ; ita v. gr. si peregrinus in quapiam
consistas urbe .... [opperiens] cessationem difficul-
tatum quae reditum in patriam retardant . . . . ; etsi
enim etiam quinquennio, immo vel decennio moram in dies
precariam ibi trahens permaneas, nunquam illud domiciiii jus
acquires quod ad matrimonium coram parocho, quasi tuo
valide contrahendum sufficiat."

Precarious residence, therefore, from day to day, does
not constitute a domicile or quasi-domicile. And as the
family have lost their former domicile they are vagi, and the
marriage can, therefore, be validly and licitly celebrated in
either parish, provided it is witnessed by the parish priest of
the place in which the marriage is celebrated, or by his
delegate. " Parochus eorum est parochus loci in quo actu
contrahunt." (Murray, n. 387-1°)

D. COGHLAN.

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

THE CEREMONIES OF SOME ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS.

INTRODUCTION.— SECTION I.

OBLIGATION OF THE CEREMONIES.

The word ceremonies has various significations. Here we
shall use it to signify the laws to be observed in public
worship.1 These laws are contained in the Rubrics. Theo-
logians it is true distinguish between preceptive and merely

1 Vide O'Kane, Notes on the Rubrics, 5, 6.

86 Liturgical Questions.

directive Rubrics. But it must be admitted that even the
latter impose some kind of obligation. For, undoubtedly,
every one who has a share in public worship is bound by
the very nature and end of worship to perform his part, not
only with recollection of mind, but with grace and composure
of manner. Now the very object of the Rubrics called
directive is to enable the cleric while discharging any sacred
function to attain this ease and gracefulness, without which
he will bring discredit on both himself and his office. Hence
speaking of the Rites or Ceremonies of the Church as a
whole Benedict XIII. said that " in minimis etiam sine
peccato negligi, omitti, vel mutari haud possunt."1

The rites with which God was worshipped under the
Mosaic Dispensation were, in the words of St. Paul, but
" weak and beggarly elements," compared with those with
which He is now worshipped ; the ceremonies necessary for
the solemnity and decorum of divine worship then, were but
the shadows of the ceremonies employed in Christian
worship ; nevertheless God Himself was pleased to command
the exact observance of those ceremonies, and to threaten
with maledictions all who would neglect them, " But if
thou wilt not hear the voice of the Lord thy God to keep
and to do all His commandments and ceremonies, which
I command thee this day, all these curses shall come upon
thee, and overtake thee, cursed shalt thou be in the city,
cursed in the field," &c,^ From this solemn command and
threat, and from the infinite superiority of our worship over
that of the Jews, we are justified in inferring that to neglect
the ceremonies in discharging any sacred function, or to
make light of them, would be a great insult to God. We
should never regard anything pertaining to the worship of
the Almighty as of little moment, or beneath our notice.
The Jews, we know, were scrupulously exact in fulfilling
down to the minutest detail the multitude of ceremonies, of
sprinklings, and ablutions, which the law commanded. Even
Pagan priests would lose their lives rather than omit or

1 Con. Rom., 1725, Tit.xv.,1. 2 Deut . xxviii, 15-16.

Liturgical Questions. 87

hurry over any part of the ceremonies which regulate their
superstitious and degrading cult,

" The High -priest of the Law " (says an eloquent writer)
" entered but once in the year into the Holy of Holies, and what
solemn preparations, what careful precautions, what infinite attention
were used that he might not fail in the minutest of the ceremonies
prescribed for an action, of which after all, the mere blood of an
animal constituted the whole majesty. , . . Read the histories
of ancient nations and you will learn with what respect the priests of
their idols performed the ceremonies of their extravagant and
sacrilegious worship ; they would have fancied the empire menaced
with the greatest calamities, if through want of caution and exactness,
the empty pomp of their ceremonies were disturbed, or the least
circumstances omitted in the superstitious detail."1

Surely the Christian priest or cleric, whose high privilege
it is to worship the true God in the truest and most perfect
manner, will not consider himself less bound to the exact
observance of everything which the solemnity and decorum
of his sacred functions demand than did those priests, who
either worshipped mere idols, or offered but a very imperfect
worship to the true God, consider themselves bound not to
omit one jot or tittle of all that they were commanded to
observe in the discharge of their office.

SECTION II.
OBJECT AND EFFECT OF THE CEREMONIES.

The object for which the Ceremonies of the Church were
instituted is, as Clement VIII. expresses it, " ad Dei gloriam
augeiidam, et ad Catholicae fidei unitatem ubique retinen-
dam."2 They are intended to contribute to the solemnity
and majesty of divine worship, to raise the minds of men
above material surroundings, and to help them to wing their
flight to the Heavenly Sanctuary where the Blessed ever
chanting hymns of praise prostrate themselves before the
throne of the Ancient of Days. Were men like angels, pure
spirits, they could worship God without ceremonies, and
without any external symbols, but being corporal as well as

1 Massillon, Conferences, translated by Rev. C. II. Boylan, vol. II.,
Discourse II.

3 Constitution of the 10th February, 1596.

88 Liturgical Questions.

spiritual, worship in some sensible form is essential to them.
" Men," says St. Augustine, " cannot be collected in any
name of religion, unless the bond of certain signs, as if of
visible Sacraments, connect them together.'* To satisfy this
natural craving, is one, and not the least, of the objects
of the Sacred Ceremonies. And who, that has ever been
present at any solemn function where all the ceremonies
have been religiously observed, will say that they do not
perfectly attain that object ?

In Rome heretics and infidel philosophers are almost
every year brought to recognise the truth of the Catholic
religion, and to embrace it through the impressions made on
their minds by the grandeur and majesty of some Solemn
Office to which mere curiosity had led them. " They came
to scoff but remained to pray," overcome by the supernatural
beauty and sublimity of the worship they witnessed. Their
conversion is the effect, God so directing, of the sacred
ceremonies — but, of the sacred ceremonies exactly observed
in all their details, in spirit as well as in letter, not, of the
sacred ceremonies neglected altogether, or observed in a
careless and slovenly manner.

Such effects were the sacred ceremonies at all times
capable of producing : such effects have they at all times
actually produced, " Brother Theodoric " writes Caesar of
Heisterbach " as he often told me, when a youth in the world,
came merely to visit a certain novice who was his relative?
without any idea of being converted. It happened that one of
the monks was buried on the same day, and when the com-
munity, having said the antiphon Clementissime Domine pro-
ceeded, then round the grave, with great humility imploring
pardon, saying Domine miserere super peccatore, he was so struck
and excited, thathe who before had resisted all the exhortations
of the Abbot Gerrard now sought with many prayers to be
received to conversion."1 " We cannot tell " says a learned
and holy bishop " how often we have seen the faithful con-
fided to us moved even to tears by our solemn majestic
offices ; and were we then to ask a poor sinner whom we

1 Muller, Christian Priesthood, ch. 24.

Liturgical Questions. 89

should see coming to our confessional, what it was that
brought him again to this practice of religion, which he had
so long neglected, we should receive no other reply than
the earnest and heartfelt exclamation : « Ah ! the beautiful
office.' "i It is within the present writer's own knowledge
that a Protestant of the Protestants, who happened to be
present while an Irish bishop, still alive, was conferring the
Sacrament of Baptism on an adult, was so moved by the
impressive ceremonies employed in this rite, that he asked to
be instructed, received baptism himself, and became a most
devout Catholic. Instances such as these could be multiplied
indefinitely.2 But enough has been said to prove how
effectively the ceremonies of the church appeal to the minds
as well of the faithful as of unbelievers, and how powerful
an instrument they are in the hands of God for bringing
people to acknowledge and love the one true Religion. But,
we repeat, if the ceremonies are not observed with scrupulous
fidelity, so far from drawing men to reverence religion, they
will but lead them to despise it.

(To be continued).

I.

SOLEMN REQUIEM MASS ON PRIVILEGED DAYS.

" It is said, in the RECORD for December, ' On simple doubles
and greater doubles only one Requiem Mass, and that only praesente
cadaver e, can be said* (p. 1125), It is plain from the context that
this applies only to the private Mass de Requiem permitted by the
Ihdult of 29th June, 186.2. But I find that a great many priests are
under the impression that in doubles (minor or major) a Solemn
Requiem Mass cannot be celebrated unless the corpse is present.

' Ceremonial des Eveqites, commente et explique par un Eveque
Suffragant, Preface, 22.

2 We take the following apposite note from the Irish Catholic of Decem-
ber 8, 1888. " The well-known American General, Joe Wheeler, has
become a Catholic. At General Sheridan's funeral he was a pall bearer.
The Kequiem Service at St. Matthew's Church, Washington, on that
occasion so impressed him, that he began to attend the Catholic Church.
Then he asked for instruction, and through a well-known priest's explana-
tion of Catholic doctrine he was convinced that the Catholic was the only
true religion.

90 Liturgical Questions.

Now, I think that the corpse need not be present — for instance, on the
third day after death, usually the day of burial, on greater or simple
doubles. At p. vii. of the Latin Directory for this year the days are
given on which Solemn Mass for the Dead is prohibited, even when
the body is present. Then the days are given when it is prohibited
when the body is absent even on the privileged days, sc., oYz'a, 7ma,
etc., and among these days doubles, simple or greater, are not men-
tioned. Hence I infer that on these days, 3rd, 7th, etc., Solemn
Mass for the Dead may be celebrated etiam absenie corpore.

" K."

Solemn Requiem Masses, as such, enjoy no privilege, and
can be celebrated only on such days as the Rubrics permit
private Requiem Masses. There are, however, certain days
which are privileged with regard to Solemn Requiem Masses.
These days are : the day of death or burial, or any inter-
mediate day ; the third, seventh, and thirtieth days, each of
which may be numbered from either the day of death or the
day of burial ; and, finally, the anniversary day. The nature
of the privilege attaching to these days is that a Solemn
Requiem Mass can be celebrated on them, though the occur-
ring feasts be of a rite that would ordinarily exclude Requiem
Masses. The occurrence of a feast of even double major
rite on one of these days does not exclude a Solemn Requiem
Mass. The impression of which our correspondent speaks?
therefore, in as far as it refers to the privileged days, is
erroneous.

II.

THE INDULT OF 1862 REGARDING PRIVATE REQUIEM MASSES.

" In reply to a subscriber, in the December number of the
RECORD (in reference to the number of Masses de Requiem that can
be said praesente cadavers\ you write, ' Our correspondent's inference
that by virtue of the Indult to which he refers only one Requiem
Mass is permitted is quite correct.' Now, I think the very opposite
conclusion should be arrived at, for the following reason : — The
privilege granted with regard to the Requiem Masses was precisely
that which the bishops asked, ' Sanctissimus Dominus . . . annuit
pro gratia juxta preces.' But what the bishops asked for was that in
those places in which . . . ' missa solemnis celebrari non possit de
requiem legi possint missae privatae de requiem." As the bishops,

Liturgical Questions. 91

speaking of private Masses, use the plural number, ' missae pri-
vataeS and use the singular only when speaking of the Solemn
Mass, ' missa solemyiis,' I think they could not have asked in
clearer terms, that where the Solemn Mass could not be cele-
brated private Masses de Requiem might be said. Their petition
was granted juxta preces. If I have arrived at the wrong conclusion,
will you kindly inform me in the next number of the RECORD in
what my reasoning has been inconclusive, and oblige

"ANOTHER SUBSCRIBER."

We have no fault in the world to find with our esteemed
correspondent's reasoning. The keenest logician could not,
we believe, discover a flaw in it. He lays down his major
and minor premises, and from these the conclusion follows
in the most natural manner possible. But this notwithstand-
ing, we are reluctantly obliged to reject his conclusion, and
to stand by the statement already made. Our correspon-
dent's argument may be put in this form : The privilege
granted to the Irish bishops by the Indult of 1862 was pre-
cisely that which was asked. But the privilege asked was
permission to celebrate several private Requiem Masses praesente
cadavere on a feast of double rite where a Solemn Requiem Mass
could not be conveniently celebrated. Therefore, by the Indult
of 1862, several private Requiem Masses can be celebrated on
a feast of double rite. LThe conclusion, as we have said, and
as is quite evident, is clearly contained in the premises.
Since, then, we reject the conclusion, it must be that one or
both the premises are false. The major premise cannot be
false, for in the response to the petition of the bishops, the
Cardinal Secretary says expressly, " SS. Dominus ....
annuit pro gratia juxta preces," as our correspondent has
taken care to point out. It remains, therefore, that the
minor premise must be false. Here, then, we respectfully
join issue with our esteemed correspondent, and beg he will
excuse us for denying that the Irish bishops asked for per-
mission to have several Requiem Masses praesente cadavere,
on doubles or other days, on which the Rubrics do not
permit private Requiem Masses.

In the first place, we may safely assume that their
lordships did not ask a privilege for private Requiem Masses

92 Liturgical Questions.

which has never been granted even to Solemn Requiem
Masses. Plainly their prayer was that a private Mass might
be substituted for a Solemn Mass in the many cases in which
it is found impossible, in this country, to have a Solemn
Mass. They never, we may rest assured, thought of peti-
tioning the Holy See to admit into the Liturgy of the
Church a principle till then unheard of. Now, it is well
known to our learned correspondent, we presume, that
only one Solemn Mass de Requiem, even praesente cadavere can
be celebrated on any day on which the Rubrics prohibit
private Requiem masses.^ Should, however, any doubt of this
linger in his mind we beg to refer him to De Herdt who —
vol. 1, n. 57 — asks " Quot missae in exequiis diebus quibus
prohibentur missae privatae de Requiem in nigris celebrari
possunt ?" And this learned rubricist replies, " Ulrica tantum."
We might also, were it necessary, quote many decrees of the
Sacred Congregation of Rites in which this doctrine is
expressly laid down.1 Such being the law regarding Solemn
Masses it is hard to believe that the Irish Bishops would ask
for private masses the privilege which our correspondent
maintains they did ask. And if they only asked as we believe
they did, that it might be permitted to substitute in certain
circumstances a private for a Solemn Requiem Mass, it is
clear they did not ask to have several on the same day.

Secondly, tbe bishops are their own best interpreters. If
they meant to ask for the privilege contended fo r by our
correspondent, or if they believed that privilege was granted,
then in the decrees of the Synod of Maynooth, they should
have stated that a concession had been granted to them by
which they were enabled to permit several private Requiem
Masses at funerals on certain days. Instead of this, however,
they state that they can permit one private Mass, — missam
privatam — " Speciali indulto concessum est omnibus
Hiberniae praesulibus missam privatam (de Requiem) permit-
tere die depositionis."2

'For example, Jan. 29, 1752, 4074-4223; 12, May 23, 1846; 4904-
5050, 13.

2 Acta et Decreta, etc. Syn Mayn., cli. lo, n. 70.

Document. 93

These reasons justify us we thinly in denying the minor
premise, and therefore in denying the conclusion drawn by
our correspondent. We beg to remark, though it does not
enter strictly into the particular phase of the question now
under discussion, that any privilege against the Rubrics is to
be interpreted in the strictest manner.

We have but a word more to say. We cannot at present
lay our hands on a full copy of the petition of the Irish
bishops in response to which this privilege was granted. The
extract given in the Directory, page xi., is all we have to
guide us. For its accuracy we are not prepared to vouch.
That it is incomplete IB evident. Until we can see a full and
authentic copy of it, it would manifestly be presumptuous
in us to attempt to explain, defend, or condemn the style in
which it was couched, or to reply to the argument so
ingeniously drawn by our correspondent from the change in
the number of missa. D. O'LOAN.

DOCUMENT.

SUMMARY.

The Feast of the Decollatio S. Joannis Baptistae takes precedence
of the Feast de Consolations B.M.V.

DECKETUM S.R.C (IN FESULANA).

Pliribus e Consociatis nuperum Decretum exoptantibus, festa
respiciens occurrentia S. loannis Bapt. Decollat et B. V. M. satis -
facere optimum iudicamus.

" llmus. D. Ferdinandus Masoni Canonicus Theologus et Kalen-
darii Redactor Fesulanae Diocesis de consensu llmi Episcopi sequens
dubium proposuit ;

" An festum Decollations S. loannis Baptistae occurrens proximo
anno die 29 Augusti cum festo mobili B. M. V. de Consolatione sit
huic praeferendum utpote eiusdem ritus, et diei mensis affixum, et id
vi Decreti S.R.C. 22 lulii 1848 in Senen, licet hoc Decretum res-
piciat duo festa B. M. T." "Affirmative: atque ita rescripsii die
13 Septembris, 1885."

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

THEOLOGIA MORALIS. Juxta doctrinam Sti. Alphonsi
Liguori. Auctore Joseph Aertnys, C.SS.R. 2 Vols.

COMPENDIUMS of Moral Theology are now so numerous that there
must be, to some extent, a prejudice against any additional one.
And the prejudice is strengthened by the fact that some of those
already favourably known, such as Ballerini's Gury and Lehmkuhl's
Compendium are so excellent, as, one would think, to leave no room
for a competitor in the same field. The author of this Compendium
seems to feel all this, and while admitting it, he gives his reasons
for the appearance of his work. Taking the book on its own merits,
the reader must admit that the author has done his work exceedingly
well, that the book is a useful and valuable one. It is a faithful
Compendium of St. Liguori. The Saint's order is followed through-
out, and continual references are given to his works. Then there is
some additional matter rendered necessary by the circumstances of
our times. The author aimed, he says, at stating his doctrine so
clearly that there could be no mistaking his meaning ; and that his
book may be practically useful, he was careful that it should not be
so diffuse as not to be easily read, nor so concise as to be wanting in
any essential matter. In all this, he has succeeded. The bcok is
a model of clearness, and an additional advantage is, that the head-
ings of all important paragraphs are in large type, so as to attract
the reader's attention. Then the order, throughout, is very judicious,
and a very large amount of practical information is scattered through
the work. On the treatment of occasionarii and recidivi, he has some
excellent remarks ; and in speaking of reserved sins, he condemns,
very justly, a practice that is in many places very prevalent, namely —
that of the confessor applying in all cases for faculties, instead of
sending the penitent to the superior, as the letter and the spirit of
the law require. He has an admirable schema of consanguinity, so
arranged and so explained as to enable one at a glance to trace up
the most complicated degrees of relationship. Then he has the latest
instructions with reference to dispensations, and in his censure tract,
the Apostolicae Sedis is throughout embodied in the tract. Among
the new matter may be classed the question of " mixed education,"
which he treats at some length, embodying all the latest decisions of

Notices of Books. 95

the Holy See on the "subject. The question of " Spiritism " is also
treated at some length. The author adopts the view of Perrone
(De Vera Religione), attributing the alleged phenomena of Spiritism
to the agency of the demon. The same view was very ably advocated
by Dr. Murray, in the Dublin Review for October, 1867. A glance
at the 23rd Chapter of Tertullian's Apology will convince anyone
that " Spiritism " is " a new fashion of an old sin." In that Chapter
the great Apologist has evidently before his mind something that
differed not by one iota from our supposed modern Spiritualism.

The hard worked missionary priest, whose reading time is
necessarily limited will find this Compendium useful and valuable ;
and among the many excellent works of the same class it will hold,
and deservedly hold, a high place.

BURKE'S CLASS-BOOK OF ELOCUTION. Dublin: Weldrick
Brothers.

THAT a man may possess a vast deal of promiscuous information,
which neither benefits his fellowmen, nor gains for himself the
reputation of a scholar and a man of culture, is a deplorable fact.
Such a possessor of profitless knowledge, Pope forcibly describes as

" The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head."

Now, it is the province of Elocution to point out the most
effectual method of turning to advantage our intellectual acquire-
ments, which otherwise must ever remain so much " learned lumber ;"
or, in other words, to teach us the art of enunciating our ideas and
sentiments, clearly, accurately, and impressively. A sound training
in the principles and practice of Elocution, therefore, is an essential
element of a useful education. Nor is its importance confined to the
pulpit, the platform, the bar, or the stage ; its influence extends to
the most colloquial form of intercourse between man and man.
Hence, though there already existed numbers of books treating of this
important subject in a manner that could not easily be surpassed
there was still ample room for a small, inexpensive work like
Professor Burke's Class-Book of Elocution.

The aim of Mr. Burke is very praiseworthy, indeed ; many of his
hints are practical for backward pupils ; and we are sure the
reputation he enjoys as an Elocutionist will cause his book to be
purchased by many.

He will, however, excuse us if we express some reluctance to

98 Notices of Books.

abandon the time-honoured pronunciation of such ordinary words as
lieutenant (lef-ten'-ant), until we have some further evidence that
usage has been legislating anew. The dual substitute he offers as
the correct and receive 1 method of pronouncing this word, is
In' -ten-ant or lef-ten- ant ; he altogether ignores the pronunciation we
ha^e ventured to give: We fear that as an orthoepist, his delicate
ear, in its abhorrence of vulgarisms, must have become excessively
sensitive. Many of the mistakes he points out, are either rare or
imaginary.

We would respectfully suggest the excision of the closing scene
in Steward Moore.

SERMONS FROM THE FLEMISH. Dublin : M. H. Gill & Son.

ANOTHKR volume of Sermons jrom the Flemish, on devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, is before us, supplemented by a number of short
readings arranged for the several days of the Month of Mary. With
the simple and practical style which characierises the preceding
volumes, there is in this one an amount of useful information which
have an interest for every child of our Virgin Mother. For
those who wish to become intimately acquainted with the mysteries
of her life, and to cultivate in honour of them a practical devotion, it
will be very valuable, while to the library of those engaged in preaching
the Word it will prove an important addition. In few books on
devotion to the Blessed Virgin with which we are acquainted is
there contained such an amount of instruction.

STORIES FOR FIRST COMMUNICANTS. By Dr. Kelleher. New

York : Benziger Brothers.

DR. KELLEHKR'S little book, translated by him' from the French
deserves also a word of notice. For children, in whose hands the
little volume is for the most part intended to be, it seems admirably
adapted. They are invited to read it by the ease and simplicity of
its style, while the dispositions, in every case so good, of the com-
municant pourtrayed in the stories at once appeal to their young
minds for imitation. A perusal of its pages will result in pleasure
and profit.

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

FEBRUARY, 1889.

THE ACTION OF DIVINE GRACE IN THE SOULS
OF THE JUST.

I PROPOSE in the following pages to discuss in the light
of theological science the action of grace in the human
soul. It will be necessary by way of introduction to say
something upon the soul itself. The soul of a newly-
born infant is a spiritual substance endowed with
certain powers or faculties. These powers are not the soul
itself. They are qualities inherent in it. It is by these
qualities reduced to act that we come to the^ knowledge
of the soul. They are not, however, to be confounded with
the substance in which they are inherent. This is the
doctrine which St. Thomas teaches when he says that the
essence of the soul is not identical with its powers.1 The
soul considered in its essence is simply the act or form of
the body whereby the newly-born infant is constituted a
human being. Under this aspect it is capable of no further
development. The infant is as essentially a human being
as the man of twenty-one.

The soul of the infant is endowed with certain powers
all of which are capable of development. These powers are
the faculty of growth, the faculty of sensitive perception,
the faculty of will or desire, the intellectual faculty. The

1 Unde quod sit (anima) in potentia ad alium actum, hoc non competit
ei secundum suam essentiain, in quantum est forma, sed secmidum suam
potentiam, et sic ipsa anima secundum quod subest suae potentiae dicitur
actus primus ordinatus ad actuiu secundum. (I pars, q 77, art 1, cap.)

VOL. X. G

98 The Action of Divine Grace in the Souls of the Just.

faculty of will or desire is twofold according to the object
on which it exerts itself. With reference to material objects
this faculty is called the sensitive appetite : with reference
to immaterial objects it is called the will. We will ask
the reader to confine his consideration for the present to
the essence of the soul, the soul's faculty of understanding,
the soul's faculty of willing. These are the elements of the
goul which are immediately affected by habitual grace.

When the infant child whom we have been contemplating
receives the Sacrament of Baptism a change takes place in
the essence of the soul, in the intellect and in the
will. The essence of the soul receives the baptismal
character and a new quality called sanctifying grace.
The intellect receives the gift of faith. The will receives
the gift of charity and of hope. From these primary
gifts there flow certain subordinate perfections of intellect
and will. The intellect is endowed with the four gifts
of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge ; and the
will with the three gifts of fortitude, piety, and fear of the
Lord. From these again are derived habitual gifts called
the infused virtues. For convenience sake we shall reduce
these virtues to four: namely, prudence, justice, fortitude,
and temperance. This then seems to be a complete account
of the subjective psychological changes which have been
effected by the Sacrament of Baptism in the soul of the child.

These psychological changes, however, have had the
effect of putting the soul of the child in new relations to the
Blessed Trinity. The three Divine Persons now inhabit the
child's soul. This ineffable union with the three Divine
Persons is the crowning excellence of sanctification, and the
end to which all the created gifts we have enumerated are
directed.

No change takes place in the supernatural condition of
the baptised child during the years of infancy. When these
come to an end reason begins to operate. Responsibility is
contracted, and the supernatural existence and life implanted
in baptism become capable of indefinite increase.

Two agencies combine in producing this increase. The
first agency is divine, the second is human, Both are

The Action of Divine Grace in the Souls of the Just. 99

equally necessary. No increase of the habitual supernatural
gifts is possible unless God moves first the intellect and will.
This is what theologians mean when they say that for a
salutary act we require exciting and helping grace. This
divine action will infallibly take place. The indwelling of
the Trinity is mainly established with a view to the exercise
of this form of divine operation, if baptismal innocence is
preserved, divine supernatural action will commence with
the dawn of reason, and will continue through the whole
range of eternity.

This divine action will be conducted through the instru-
mentality of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, four of
which reside in the intellect and three in the will. Faith,
hope, charity, the infused virtues, never come into play
except through the operation of one of the seven gifts.
These are the connecting links by which the electric current
is completed, and whereby the throb of divine wisdom and
holiness is transmitted through the subordinate endowments
of the justified soul. The more these seven gifts are per-
fected within the soul, the greater will be the individual
perfection of the Christian.

From this exposition of Catholic doctrine it is easy to
discover the reasons of the difference existing between the
Church and the world in the matter of education. The
world holds that education consists in the development of
the natural powers of man; the Church requires besides, and
principally, that his supernatural gifts should be developed.
The world holds that the working of the natural intellect
and will is an agency sufficiently powerful to achieve the
end and purpose of human life. The Church holds that
natural will and intellect are powerless in this matter unless
prevented by divine grace. The world holds that man is
self-sufficing. The Church holds that he never can attain to
the dignity of his destiny except by union with the Blessed
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

In a subsequent paper I hope to trace in detail some of
the ordinary forms which divine supernatural action takes
within the soul of the just.

WILLIAM HAYDEN, S.J.

SHRINES OF OUR LADY IN BELGIUM.

I. — MONTAIGU.

NOTHING, perhaps, is more striking to the Catholic visitor
in Belgium than the number of shrines of our Blessed
Lady, few parishes being without some venerated and
miraculous statue ; and in some churches there are more
than one, as, for example, in that of the " Princely"
Beguinage in Bruges, which possesses no less than three.
Hal, Oostacker, Hansuyck, Dadizeele, and Ypres are among
the most celebrated, but beyond a doubt Montaigu holds the
first place. This shrine, set on the top of a hill, attracts so
many pilgrims from all parts of the world that its latest
historian1 not inaptly applies to it the words of the prophet
Isaias, " The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be
prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted
above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it."

The little town of Montaigu, or Scherpenheuvel, as it is
called in Flemish, is situated at a distance of about three
miles from Diest, and at a rather shorter distance from
Sichem, in both of which places there are also miraculous
shrines of Our Lady. Montaigu owes its very existence to
the statue, for which, in point of fact, it was built. At the
beginning of the seventeenth century it was nothing but a
hamlet, but in the year 1607 the Archduke Albert and his con-
sort, Isabel, determined to build a town around the sanctuary
in honour of Our Lady. The new town was laid out in the
form of a star — Stella Mans — of seven rays ; a few years
later it was surrounded by ramparts and a moat — Hortus
conclusus. Lying before the writer is an old engraving of a
plan of the town made in 1660, in which the ramparts, the
moat, and three gates are faithfully represented. The ram-
parts and gates were destroyed at the end of the eighteenth
century ; but the moat, or, at any rate, a portion of it,
remains, and in other respects the town is little changed,

1 Mgr. Van Weddingen, D. Ph., D.D., Chaplain to the Court, to
whose work, Notre Dame de Montaigu^ the present writes must acknow-
ledge his indebtedness.

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 101

most of the houses even dating from the seventeenth century.
The plantation of trees, too, round the church, the paths ot
which form a star, is the same now as it was then. A large
proportion of the houses are either inns or shops; the latter
are mainly for the sale of rosaries, medals, and other objects
of piety, riot forgetting the little banners (banderoles) which
are stuck in the harness of horses returning with their masters
from the shrine. The permanent shops, however, are insuffi-
cient for the needs of the pilgrims ; for six or seven months
in the year the town has the appearance of a fair, so many
are the booths set up for the sale of similar objects.

The history of the shrine cannot be traced as clearly as
that of the town which surrounds it : in short, till the end of
the sixteenth century legend for the most part supplies the
place of history. The legend may be briefly summed up.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century an oak, whose
foliage had taken the form of a cross, drew together many
who were crippled or suffering from other ills. This continued
for about six months, when it would appear to have
ceased. To the oak, however, a little statue of Our Lady
was attached, and became an obje3t of veneration to the
peasants dwelling in the neighbourhood. At the end of the
fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century this statue
became detached from the tree, and was picked up by a
shepherd, who thought he would keep it for himself. He
had no sooner formed this resolution than he became glued
to the spot. Some hours later he was found, nearly beside
himself with fright, by his master, to whom he related the
circumstance. The latter immediately replaced the image,
and the peasant was set free. This was noised abroad, and
from that time the flow of pilgrims was continuous and ever
increasing. So much for the legend.

It is beyond a doubt that at the end of the sixteenth
century a much venerated statue was attached to an oak
tree on the top of a hill, in the province of Sichem. This
hill was Montaigu. We have the evidence of a writer in
the year 1606 that from time immemorial crowds had gone
there to venerate Our Lady ; and of another, writing a few
years earlier, who said that he had himself seen over two

102 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

hundred extraordinary cures. It must certainly have
acquired considerable celebrity, for we find that, in 1578,
Alexander Farnese made a pilgrimage to the shrine before
laying siege to Sichem, which was then in the power of the
Gueux or Iconoclasts, and, what is of much greater interest,
that during the progress of the same war the Irish recruits
who joined the Spanish forces used regularly to visit the
shrine, being taken to it by Walter Talbot, one of their
chaplains. About this time the venerated image disap-
peared, how is not known, but probably by the agency of
the Iconoclasts. Another was given by the sacristan of a
neighbouring church, a woman who had piously collected
many such objects, saving them from the insults of the
heretics. Some, indeed, have thought that it was the old
statue : this, however, is but a conjecture, and hardly a
probable one. The important point is that the prodigies
recommenced, and the Name of Mary continued to be mag-
nified in Montaigu.

In the year 1602, the parish priest of Sichem erected
near the oak, a small wooden chapel, in which at the end of
five months more than one hundred and thirty crutches had
been left. Towards the end of the same year the town of
Brussels sent a silver crown bearing the inscription a la reine
des deux, la Tres-Sainte Mere de Dieu la \ierge Marie Bruxelles
afflige de la contagion, 1602; the plague was stayed, and
Montaigu became yet more renowned. The foundation
stone of a new church was laid on August 19th, 1603; and
on the feast of our Lady's Nativity of the same year, twenty
thousand pilgrims were gathered together from all parts of
the Low countries. In this year, it may be noted, was
established the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary still existing
in Montaigu. The new building, erected at the cost of
Albert and Isabel, was consecrated on the Feast of the most
Holy Trinity, 1604, and narrowly escaped destruction, a few
months later, at the hands of the Iconoclasts. These heretics,
exasperated at a grant of indulgences to pilgrims, entered
Montaigu on the Eve of our Lady's Nativity, and attempted
to destroy the church ; but, not being able to set it on fire,
they contented themselves with burning the high altar.

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 103

They failed in their endeavour to destroy the whole
image, which was removed in time to be saved from
the insults of those, who by their hatred of the Mother of
God, proclaimed the connection with him whose head She
crushed.

The royal consorts continued to have a lively devotion
to our Lady of Montaigu, to whom they often went in pil-
grimage, on one occasion, at least, going on foot from
Diest to the shrine, where they heard three masses, com-
municating at the first. The Archduchess worked not a few
ornaments with her own hands — vestments, robes for the
statue, and more than one antependium — many of which are
still in use. After a time they commenced a second church,
built over the spot formerly occupied by the oak, which had
been cut down a few years before.1 The new church was
begun in 1609, the foundation stone being laid by Albert and
Isabel on the feast of the Visitation, but the work had to be
stopped for want of money. The building was only actively
resumed in the year 1617, when Philip III. supplied the
necessary funds. It was not finished till 1627, six years
after the death of the Archduke Albert. As this church is
the one still existing, a brief description of it may not be
considered out of place.

The building, which holds about 3,000 persons, is hexa-
gonal, and surmounted by a dome, which on the outside is
covered with gilded stars. Behind the church is a tower.
The sanctuary is very small, but contains a rich renaissance
altar, on the top of which is an oak tree covered in marble,
in allusion to the tradition that it stands on the spot
formerly occupied by the oak. The tabernacle and the
gradioes, as well as all the furniture of the altar, are of solid
silver : the lamps hanging in the nave, but eight out of the
thirty-five found there before the French Revolution, are of
the same precious metal. The painting of the Assumption
at the High Altar, and the altarpieces of the six side chapels
are by Devos. It was originally intended to have fourteen

1 From its wood little statues were made, some of which still exist
e.g. those in the churches of St. Charles at Antwerp, and St. John at
Mechlin. (Mgr. Van Weddingen.)

104 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

exterior chapels, in honour of the Seven Joys and the Seven
Dolours of Our Lady, but only seven of them were completed,
and in these Mass is never said, though the altars are
consecrated. It has been said that the church is built on a
hill ; on its slope are the fourteen Stations of the Cross — seven
are passed in mounting the hill, the other seven in going
down again : here, even in the most inclement weather, the
Stations of the Cross are made every Friday.

Before passing on, mention must be made of the sacristy
and treasury, which contain articles of rare value. To pass
over the banners given by various towns, magnificent ante-
pendia and vestments, amongst which are two chasubles said
to have been used by St. Thomas of Canterbury.1 There is
a baldachino, borne over the statue in processions, the frame
of which is of solid silver weighing about eighty pounds, the
canopy being of velvet richly embroidered. There are also
in the treasury the crowns used on great feasts, of solid gold
encrusted with pearls, and a rich collection of sacred vessels.
Before the French Revolution the treasury was yet richer,
as town had vied with town, and prince with prince, in
making resplendent the Shrine of Mary ; one of the earliest
of the royal gifts being a golden chalice given by the
Queen of Charles I. of England, in gratitude for restored
health. Many of these precious objects were " annexed" by
the friends of " liberty," on the outbreak of the Revolution,
but the most valuable perished in the fire which destroyed
the house of the Oratorians in the Island of Nordstrand, to
which they had been removed for safety.

To return to the history of the Shrine. In 1610 Montaigu
was separated from the parish of Sichem, and in 1624 con-
fided to the Oratorians of S. Philip Neri, who retained the cure
of souls till the time of the Revolution. When this broke
out most of the priests retired to Nordstrand, but a few
remained. On the feast of the Epiphany 1797, the superior
and four of his companions were arrested : the superior
escaped but the others were sent to the Island of Cayenne,

1 One of them is always used on his feast. It is a matter for deep
regret that these valuable relics should not have been left in their original
condition.

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 103

where ill-treatment hastened their death. During the sad
times which followed, the inhabitants of Montaigu remained
true to their faith and refused to assist at the Mass cele-
brated by an apostate, who had taken possession of the
church. The pilgrimages recommenced after the signing of
the Concordat, and became even more numerous than of old.
The shrine received a signal mark of the favour of Pius IX.
of blessed memory, when, in answer to a petition of the
Rev. J. G. Jonghmans, who for more than three decades has
been parish priest, he gave permission for the solemn
coronation of the statue. This was done in the name of the
Pope, by the Archbishop of Mechlin, on the last Sunday in
August, 1872. So great was the concourse of pilgrims on
the occasion, that an altar was erected in the open air,
at which the statue was crowned, High Mass sung, and
the Apostolic Blessing imparted ; the last having been
granted by his Holiness with a Plenary Indulgence.

Pilgrimages to our Lady of Montaigu are very numerous,
and have been made by foreigners as well as by natives for
centuries. The Irish soldiers, Alexander Farnese, Albert
and Isabel, have been already mentioned, but a host of other
examples might be cited from among the great ones of the
Church and the world, by beginning with St. John Berchmans,
who when a student at Diest, used frequently to visit the
Shrine. Amongst celebrated ecclesiastics who have visited
the Shrine must be named the first Archbishop of West-
minster, and several, if not all, of the nuncios to the Court of
Brussels : first among whom comes Mgr. Pecci, now His
Holiness Leo XIII., gloriously reigning, to be followed
by Monsignori, now Cardinals, Ledochowski, Cattani and
Vannutelli. One of these, Mgr. Cattani, led to the Shrine
some forty thousand pilgrims on May 5th, 1871. Nor have
sovereigns and secular princes been behind hand ; amongst
them stand out in bold relief many members of the House of
Lorraine, not the least devout of whom is the present Queen
of the Belgians. The pilgrimage season begins about Easter
and goes on till the beginning of November, but it is impossible
to form any estimate of the number of pilgrims in the course of
the year ; the hundred thousand communions made at the

106 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

Shrine being no criterion, because a large and ever increasing
number go to communion before setting out for Montaigu.
There are during the year about two hundred and fifty
public pilgrimages : on the occasion of each there is a
procession in honour of Our Lady, in which the sacred
statue is borne. The most celebrated of these processions,
that of the candles, takes place on the first Sunday in Novem-
ber, the feast of Our Lady's Patronage according to the
Mechlin Kalendar, in annual commemoration of, and thanks-
giving for, the staying of the plague in 1659. The parish
priest told the writer that generally speaking there are from
forty to fifty thousand pilgrims on that day. Last year
there were fewer than usual on account of having rains and
severe cold, though many thousands were assembled from all
parts, some even coming from Germany. During the
procession everyone had at least one candle — some a dozen.
Very many approached the Sacraments : some stayed the
night to be able to do so, and heard Mass at four o'clock on
a cold November morning, after which they set out for home
with the little banners, stuck in the harness of their horses,
the ordinary mark of an accomplished pilgrimage. The
majority, of course, do the journey on foot, and the writer
has heard of some devoted Germans — one of them, a priest
serving on the English mission, personally known to him —
who, in this way, went to Montaigu from their homes, a hundred
and thirty miles away. Mgr. Van Weddingen tells a touching
story of a pilgrimage from Turnhout, in which, when yet a
child, he took part. Many of the pilgrims were taking part
in the annual pilgrimage from their town for the sixtieth
time, and their leader was their venerable parish priest,
ninety, or more, years of age. On the return journey all
stopped at Averbode, a famous Premonstratensian abbey,
and turning took their last look at the starry dome of the Shrine.
Then the old parish priest, bursting into tears, addressed
his flock : — " 1 shall never more lead you here, he said, for
before the procession of next autumn my course will be run.
Remember my children the advice of your pastor. Never
cease loving Mary, and in memory of me come, each year, to
her sanctuary : I shall be with you in spirit. And now, 0

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 107

Virgin of Montaigu, farewell ; farewell my queen, my mother ;
I shall see you on high." He then blessed the weeping
pilgrims, whom, in accordance with his prediction, he never
more accompanied.

The Sovereign Pontiffs have done much to encourage
the pilgrimage. Paul V. granted a plenary indulgence for
the Feasts of the Nativity, Immaculate Conception, Purifica-
tion, and Assumption of Our Lady, and another at the hour
of death, to all who, having once made the pilgrimage, and
possessing a medal or picture of Our Lady of Montaigu,
should confess and receive Holy Communion, or, failing the
possibility of so doing, should say, or wish to say, Jesus,
Mary. In addition, he granted some very great partial
indulgences. Gregory XVJ. added another plenary indul-
gence ; and Pius IX., in response to the petition of the parish
priest, in perpetual commemoration of the coronation, granted
a plenary indulgence, to be gained on the last Sunday in
August or on one of the seven following days. His Holiness
also gave permission, in 1854, for a Votive Mass of Our Lady
to be said on the occasion of every pilgrimage, and for every
priest accompanying a pilgrimage to say this Votive Mass
on all Wednesdays and Saturdays, the ordinary exceptions of
privileged fasts, feasts, and octaves being made in either case.

Before ending this brief sketch of the history of the
sanctuary of Montaigu, it is only fitting that something
should be said about the miracles and extraordinary cures
which have happened there. As has been already related,
a writer at the end of the sixteenth century mentioned that
he had seen over two hundred extraordinary cures. A few
years later, in 1605, the celebrated Juste Lipse wrote a
history of the Shrine, in which he recorded many prodigies.
In the following year, at the request of Matthias Hovius,
Archbishop of Mechlin, Philip Numan, a lawyer, wrote a
similar account in Flemish, in which he recorded many
extraordinary cures, the particulars of which, in not a few
instances, he had learned from eye-witnesses. All the
miracles recorded by Numan were approved of, after being
rigorously examined by the Archbishop of Mechlin and the
Bishop of Antwerp, men of great learning. In 1664 a book

108 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

was published containing an account of between seventeen
and eighteen hundred extraordinary cures which had
happened in connection with Montaigu ; the censor, a pro-
fessor of theology in the University of Louvain, permitted
one hundred and thirty-seven of these to be called miracles, as
they had, after examination, been approved as such by
the Ordinary.1 He permitted the remaining sixteen hundred
to be cited as special favours obtained by the intercession of
Our Lady, but forbade them to be published as miracles till
they had been approved as such by legitimate authority.
At the beginning of the next century the successor of
M. Hovius in the chair of St. Rombald approved a further
number of miracles. It is difficult to pick and chocss, but
the following are fair examples of the cures obtained by the
the intercession of Our Lady of Louvain : —

In the year 1604 a young Scotsman, who from an early
age had been deaf and dumb, was sent by a friend to
Montaigu to implore the assistance of Mary ; but he, thinking
that a course of baths would do him more good, went to
Spa. Instead of deriving any benefit, he was struck down
with fever. When able to leave the hospital he went to
Montaigu, where, kneeling, he at length invoked Our Lady's
aid. He immediately recovered the faculties of speech and
hearing, and retained them till his death, which occurred
thirteen years later. The next example is also to be found
in the records of the first half of the seventeenth century.
A pious woman, Margaret, the wife of John Clercq, gave
birth to a dead child. The father, praying that it might
have life, took it to a room adjoining the church, where he
left it for four days, at the end of which period the parish
priest begged him to be reasonable and remove it. He did so,
but only to carry it to a statue of Our Lady, made from the
Montaigu oak, before which he laid it. To the amazement
of a large number of persons who had followed him, the
dead body received life, evidence being given of the
fact by the colour which suffused its cheeks, and by the
opening of its mouth and eyes. One of the bystanders bap-

1 Ouae enim a num. 1 usque ad num. 137 inclusive referuntur ab
Ordinario loci examinata, et ut vera miracula approbating esse constat.

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 109

tised it, and then the little one died, heaven having been
gained for it by its father's faith in Our Lady.

To come to the present century : In 1819 a man named
Peter Covelius, aged forty-three, came to the Shrine with a
distressing sore which had troubled him and defied the
doctors for a year. He went to Confession and Holy Com-
munion, and there implored Our Lady's help ; he was imme-
diately cured. During the same year two children, about
seven months old, who were totally blind, were taken by their
parents to Montaigu, where they received their sight in the
presence of many persons. In 1838 a girl, seven years of
age, was cured of paralysis, from which ehe had suffered for
three years ; her cure was attested by the magistrate and
burgomaster of Hiererithals, her native town. In 1845 a
boy of ten was cured of blindness, which his doctor had pro-
nounced to be incurable. In 1880 a gentleman holding a
public appointment wrote to the parish priest to make known
the wonderful cures of three of his children. Two of them,
one suffering from meningitis, the other from kidney disease,
were given up by their medical attendant ; the parents made
a vow that should their children be spared to them they
would send a portrait of them to the Church of Montaigu.
To the amazement of the doctors these two children
recovered. A few days later a third child, only a few months
old, was seized with such violent convulsions that death
seemed imminent: without any delay the father went to
Montaigu, and returned to find his child out of danger.

The case just mentioned is the last recorded by Mgr. Van
Weddingen. Feeling that it would be satisfactory to lay
before the readers of the RECORD something even more
recent, the writer, emboldened by having received much
previous kindness from the parish priest of Montaigu, applied
to him for information, which was most kindly given without
delay. After saying that nothing, however wonderful, could
be claimed as a miracle till it had been recognised as such
by the Church, this venerable priest went on to state that
every year many remarkable cures were effected, of which,
in many cases, he and his fellow-priests were eye-witnesses ;
but he added that it was very often difficult to get proper

110 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium,

confirmation of them, as doctors, either from scrupulosity or
human respect, shrank from making declarations which would
be published. He then gave two examples of recent cases, one
of which was effected in 1887, the other apparently last year.

The first case was that of a boy, aged ten, whose legs
had remained hopelessly paralysed, from the foot to the knee,
after a severe illness, during the course of which his life had
been despaired of and the last sacraments administered.
His pious parents, seeing that it was useless to seek the help
of man, joined the pilgrimage from their village to Montaigu,
and there sought the help of the Consoler of the Afflicted,
to whom they vowed a novena of prayers. So great was
the press of pilgrims that they were unable to enter the
church before eleven o'clock : a matter to be noted, for at
the same hour on the last day of the novena the child threw away
its crutches and ran to his mother, who was working at a
place about three-quarters of a mile from the house. All
the circumstances were public property, and' a full account
of them appeared in the daily papers. The child, with its
parents, has been twice to Montaigu to thank his benefac-
tress; and, as the parish priest attests, on these occasions
was nimble and apparently in robust health. The other case
is that of a boy, aged fifteen, suddenly cured of paralysis,
from'which he had suffered for nine years. The next pilgrim-
age from his village, which sends one annually, will afford
the opportunity required for further inquiries into his case.

Much more could be written on this fascinating subject,
but the space allotted by the editor has already been
exceeded, and this too brief account of the wondrous
shrine of Montaigu must suffice. Enough, however, has been
said to show that an old historian of the Shrine1 was justified
in thus addressing our Blessed Lady of Montaigu :—

Te fusa gens mortalium
Per abditos raundi sinus,
Iber Britannus Sarmata
Civisque flavi Tybridis,
Salutis indigens adit.

1 Erycius Puteanus (Henry Van des Putte), who in his history re-
counts a number of miracles, approved by authority ; he expressed his
opinion that the man who could doubt them would doubt the power of
God Himself.

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. Ill

True as these words were in the seventeenth century, they
are much more so in the nineteenth. Go and see.

In conclusion a few words of a practical nature. Montaigu
is easily reached from Antwerp via Aerschot, or from Brussels
via Louvain and Aerschot : the nearest station is Sichem,
and omnibuses meet more of the trains. The inns at
Montaigu are to be highly commended if the Hotel du Cygne
is a fair specimen of them; the writer stayed there last
November, and for five francs a day, had board and lodging
everything included, even beer ad lib,: the inn is somewhat
rough and the cooking plain, but the food abundant and the
attendance willing. The pious people of Montaigu do not
try to make extortionate profits out of pilgrims. Those
wishing to buy rosaries, &c., would find everything of the
sort at the little shops within the enclosure and close to the
door of the church : the profits made in which are for the
poor. Speaking of rosaries, there is at Diest a convent of
Canons Regular of the Holy Cross who attach 500 days'
indulgence to each bead; the good landlady of the Cygne
is always ready to send them for her guests. The usual
honorarium for masses is two francs and a-half, but, in spite of
there being six or seven priests attached to the church, none
can be guaranteed under six months, unless for the sick
when it is said at once : should anyone wish a Mass to be
said sooner he is expected to give a somewhat larger
honorarium, three francs, even then it can rarely be promised
before three weeks or a month. Finally, if any English-
speaking visitor wishes to find some one who knows his
language he will probably do so at the Ursuline Convent
where there are usually some English-speaking religious : the
chapel and refectory of this convent, it may be added, are
the only remains of the school formerly kept at Montaigu by
the Oratorians.

E. W. BECK.

L

DE MONTAULT ON CHURCHES AND CHURCH
FURNITURE.

II.
ALTARS. — THE REREDOS OR RETABLE.

VIOLLET LE DUG, in his Dictionary of Architecture , under
the words " Autel'' and "Retable," points out that the
early altars had no reredos. In France, he says, the cathe-
drals were the last to admit the reredos and the longest pre-
served the ancient traditions of the altar. The use of the
reredos dates only from the period when the bishops' thrones
and the presbyteries were placed in front of the altars.1

Pugin holds that the early basilican arrangement " was
undoubtedly in use in England prior to the thirteenth cen-
tury, after which the throne was placed at the eastern
extremity of the stalls on the Epistle side of the choir, as at
Durham, Exeter, Wells, Winchester, etc. In the foreign
churches, where the apsidal form of the east end was always
retained, the bishop's throne kept its original position much
longer ; and De Moleon mentions some cathedrals in his time
where the bishop or archbishop was seated at the extremity
ot the absis. ... In Canterbury Cathedral the stone
chair in which the archbishops were enthroned is still pre-
served in the eastern chapel of the cathedral, commonly
called Beckett's Crown.''2

Monseigneur de Montault says that the mediaeval reredos
was made of metal, of stone, or of wood. It was of the
same dimensions as the altar, very low, and nearly always
straight at the top. An attempt has been made in some
modern restorations to imitate these retables, which are
generally ungraceful, and they do not answer to present
ideas, or ' even to the wants of our times. If one or two
gradines are placed at the foot of this sort of reredos, it is a
departure from the style. Besides, candlesticks and flowers
would completely hide the pictures or carvings with which
it is decorated. If the candlesticks are put on the reredos
itself, they produce a singular effect, being perched up

1 Cf. Smith's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, s. v. Reredos.

2 Cf. Pugin's Glossary of Gothic Ecclesiastical Ornament, page 57.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 113

too high ; and besides in the Middle Ages such a system
was unknown. Still less do those ages furnish an example of
those fantastic retables in which the sides are cut into steps.

To have a reredos of pure style is, then, impossible. This
difficulty, he thinks, will be obviated if the reredos used
since the second half of the sixteenth century is taken as a
type, suiting it to the style of the church. The best
examples of this kind are to be found in Home — for instance,
at S. Silvestro in Capite, at Sta. Maria del Popolo, and at
Sta. Maria della Pace.

A reredos can be raised only where the altar is against
the wall or at a little distance from it ; an isolated altar does
not allow of this kind of decoration. In its actual form it
consists of a wall springing from the ground, against which
the altar rests. Its width is that of the altar steps, and its
height proportionate to that of the church. It is made of
marble, stone, or wood, and it gains in richness if it is
brightened up with gilding and paintings. It is composed
of three distinct parts : a base which rises to the height of
the table of the altar, and which bears both on the right and
left sides the arms of the church or of the donor ; a table
bounded by pilasters or columns, which correspond with the
basement, ornamented in the centre with a picture or
statue, representing the titular1 saint or mystery; a frieze,
on which the dedication or some analogous text is
inscribed; a pediment or gable crowning the whole, and
terminating in a cross, which, should it be made of wood or
metal, is gilded. The following will give an idea of the
kind of inscription required : — At St. Agostino on the Lady
altar (seventeenth century) :

CAELI • GAVDIVM

MVNDI • AVXILIVM

PVRGATORII • SOLA

TIVM.

1 Visitator congregatiouis et provinciae Neapolitanae S.R.C. humil-
lime supplicavit, ut quoniam in hujus ecclesiae ara principe nulla exstet
icon, collocari ibidem valeat ilia B.M.V. Conceptionis titulo, sed ilia
forma effigiata, quam refert numisma Parisiis anno 1830 cusum? S.R.C.
resp : Negative, et apponatur imago S. Nicolai titularis. — Die 27 Aug.,
1886, in Una Cong. Miss.

VOL. X. H

114 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

At S. Carlo ai Catinari (17th century), on the altar of St.
Anne :

GRATIA • SVPER • GRATIAM

MULIER • SANCTA

Ecc. xxvi.

The same was customary in France. Thus, in the last
century at the altar of St. Sebastian in the Church of
Montjeau, in the diocese of Angers :

TOLLE • CRVCEM • Si • Vis

AVFERRE CORONAM
and at Grezille, on the Lady- altar :

ECCE

MATER

TVA.

At St. Peter's in Rome, the dedication of the Lady-
chapel, called the Gregorian chapel, is thus set forth on a
black marble tablet :

DEI

GENITRICI

MARIAE • VIRGINI

ET • S. GREGORIO

NAZIANZENO.

The picture of the Blessed Virgin is framed in the
reredos, and the body of St. Gregory of Nazianzurn is
enclosed in the altar in a square urn of grey granite.

At Monte Calvo, arch-diocese of Benevento, in the
eighteenth century, at the altar of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel :

Ama ut mater, ora ut filia^ dirige ut Spiritus Sanctus.

And at the Altar of the Guardian Angel :

Datus sum tibi ut praecedam, et custodiam te in via et intro-
ducam te ad caelum, Exo.9 cap. 23.

At S. Maria Liberatrice, in Rome, eighteenth century, the
inscription is changed into a prayer to St. Michael:

Princeps gloriosissime, esto memor nostri hie et ubique, semper
deprecare pro nobis Filium Dei. S. Mickael, archangele, injudicio
tremendo nos defende.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 115

If the design in the centre is large and represents the
crucifixion, as at S. Lorenzo in Lucina, or the figure in relief
of Christ, as at the Cathedral of Pisa, it is, strictly speaking,
allowable to dispense with the crucifix in the middle of the
altar between the candlesticks.

In Germany two traditions of the middle ages have been
preserved : first, in the triptychs, the wings of which are only
opened during the offic ;T secondly, in the hangings of the
colour of the day, and often figured, which form the back-
ground of the altar. The Visitation of the Cathedral of
Alby, in 1698, mentions " a piece of tapestry, made on pur-
pose, very fine and beautiful, five pans in height." The
Archbishop adds in his decree : " There should be a whole
set of silk hangings of the ecclesiastical colours, to cover the
said retable on ordinary days." Such hangings are described
in Pugin's Glossary, under the word Dossel or Dorsal.

The most simple and most suitable reredos is that of the
Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, and indicated in the Ceremonial*
which admits of nothing but a suite of hangings, shewing the
mystery appropriate to the day; it has, therefore, to be changed
according to the various solemnities. The picture on the
reredos is covered during Passion- tide with a violet veil
which is not allowed to be withdrawn under any pretext
even for the feast of the titular. In Rome, if the picture is
precious, on account of the artist who painted it, or because
of the devotion in which it is held, it is covered by a veil,
which is removed only on Sundays and feast days. From its
not being always exposed to view, the desire to see it on the
reserved days is intensified. This veil, for a picture of Our
Lady, is white, often embroidered with a monogram encircled
by rays and flowers, as at S. Agostino, S. Maria del Popolo,
S. Maria della Pace, etc. A transparent gauze would be in
bad taste and opposed to the liturgy. On either side of the
picture are branches with sockets for one or two candles,
which are lighted on the days on which it is uncovered.

1 Cf. Pugin's Glossary, p. 236, " Triptych Altar Tables."

2 Quod si altare parieti adhaereat, applicari poterit ipsi parieti supra
altare pannus aliquis ceteris nobilior et speciosior, ubi intextae sint
D. N. J. C. aut gloriosae Virginia vel Sanctorum imagines, nisi jam in ipso
pariete essent depictae et decenter ornatae. Caerem. ep. Lib, 1, cap. xii.,
n. 13.

116 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

THE BALDAQUIN.

" A ciborium," writes Pugin, " is, beyond doubt, the most
correct manner of covering an altar, and, at the same time,
by far the most beautiful. It is much to be wished that they
were generally revived in all large churches, instead of altars
built against walls, which last are after all of comparatively
modern introduction, There are several ancient ciboria yet
remaining in Italy, very similar in design and arrangement
to the cut given, but the curtains have been removed. The
ancient ciboria were composed of wood, stone, marble, brass,
and even precious metals."

" The altar screens of Winchester and St. Al ban's, beautiful
as they are in the abstract, are injurious to the efiect of the
churches in which they are erected, and by no means com-
parable either in majesty or utility with a magnificent ciborium
covered with gold and imagery, and surmounting an elevated
and detached altar. These elaborate screens are quite in
place in collegiate chapels like New College or Magdalene,
Oxford, where the east end is a blank wall ; but in a great
church terminating in a Lady chapel and eastern aisles, it
seems most preposterous to erect a wall the whole breadth
of the choir, nearly equal in elevation to the vaulting, cutting
off half the proportion of the building, and solely for the
purpose of rearing an altar three feet high by ten feet long,
to which it does not even form a canopy." (Pugin's Glossary',
under the word Ciborium, page 73, where a drawing of a bal-
dacchino is given.)

Monseigneur de Montault says that the dais or canopy
is the greatest mark of honour that can be shewn to a
sovereign. How then can we refuse it to the Heavenly King
who deigns to humble Himself on our altars? There are
two forms of baldaquins : the fixed ciborium and the hanging
umbraculum or canopy. The ciborium is the most ancient
and the most monumental. In Rome it may be seen in all
styles and of all epochs. It is an architectural structure,
the summit of which, more or less pyramidical, rests on four
monolith pillars, placed at the four corners. In the middle
ages these pillars started from the pavement, in the modern
style, as at St. Peter's, Sta. Maria Maggiore, and St. Paul's

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 117

Without- the- Walls, they are raised on emblazoned pedestals.
They are placed at the four corners of the steps, which are
included in its circumference. A dais of metal or of gilded
wood rests on the capitals of the pillars, the valance being
carved and emblazoned, and the ceiling ornamented with a
dove hovering in a halo of light. The top is decorated with
angels, or with urns, corresponding to the columns, and with
a domed roof, or else, brackets of open-work, terminating in"
a globe, surmounted by a golden cross. At the Church of
St. Agnes Without-the-Walls, the name of Paul V. is inscribed
on it : —

PAVLVS V. PONT. MAX. ANNO. SALVTIS MDCXLTT.,

PONTIFICATVS X.

The altar, under the canopy, is not exactly in the middle;
it is thrown back by the steps. This is very apparent at
St. Peter's in Rome. In the Roman churches, when there is
not a fixed canopy, a square or elliptical dais is hung from
the roof by cords or chains. It is made of wood, carved and
gilded, or furnished with valances of red silk damask, braided
and fringed with gold. It covers only /the altar and its
predella. The Ceremonial of Bishops prescribes1 that the
colour of the suspended canopy should change according to
the feasts. This injunction is nowhere observed, and would
be difficult of execution. The difficulty is obviated by using
permanent hangings of, for example, tapestry or painted
stuff, with a gold ground and coloured ornaments, as is done
at St. Peter's in the loggie of the cupola.

Velvet must not be used, for it belongs exclusively to the
functions at which the Pope celebrates or is present.
Strictly speaking, every altar at which Mass is said
ought to have its baldaquin ;2 at least there should be one at

1 Desuper in aLto appendatur umbraculum, quod baldachiuum vocant,
formae quadratae, co-operiens altare et ipsius altaris scabellum, coloris
cetcrorum paramentorum. Quod baldachinum etiam supra statuendum
erit, si altare sit a pariete sejunctum, nee supra habeat aliquod ciborium ex
lapide aut ex marmore confectura. Si autem adsit tale ciborium, non est
opus uinbraculo. (Caer. Episc. lib. 1, cap. xii.,n. 13, 14.)

2 An in omnibus altaribus sive cathedralis, sive aliarum ecclesiarum,
debeat erigi baldachinum, vel in majori tan turn, in quo asservatur augustis-
simum Sacramentum ? Et S. K. C. respondit : In omnibus. Pie 27 Aprilis,
1C97. In Cortonen.

118 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

the high altar and at the altar of the Blessed Sacrament,1
which are the two most important. In cathedrals, if the
baldaquin be absent at the high altar, there may not be a
;anopy over the episcopal throne, and the episcopal canopy
miould be less costly than that of the altar. This follows
from the rubrics of the Ceremonial/ and from the practice of
the Papal functions.

In the Middle Ages the canopies, with a valance of drapery
were very common, as is seen from miniatures and paintings.
They are also mentioned in the inventories of churches.3

1 SENEN. — Quum equites Marcus ct Alexander Saracini, in oppido
Castrinovi vulgo della Berardenga in archidioecesi Senensi, e fundamentis
excitarint parochialem ecclesiam, ut ecclesiasticas sanctiones adimplere
adamussim v& leant, S. E. C. enixe rogarunt ut declarare dignaretur, num
super omni altari, in quo SS. Sacram. asservatur, apponi omnino debeat
baldachinum ? Et S. C. comperiens usque ab an. 1697 quinto Kalendas
maias, in una Cortonen. sancitum fuisse ut baldachinum omnino apponatur
super altare, in quo augustissimum Sacram. asservatur, rescribendum censuit:
Detur decretum in una Cortonen. diei 27 Apr., 1697. Die 23 Maii, 1846.

2 Super earn (scdem) umbraculum seu baldachinum . . . appendi
poterit, dummodo et super altari aliud simile vel etiam sumptuosius appen-
datur, nisi ubi super altari est ciborium marmoreum vel lapideum, quia
tune 'superfluum est UPC aptari commode potest (Caerem. Episc. lib. 1,
cap. xiii., n. 3).

3 " Pour XXV. palmes et demi du dit drop (of cloth of gold) emploie
en ung dociel de autel.

" Pour troys ymages de broderie pour inettre audit dociel, c'est assavoir
Nostre-Dame, S. Michiel et S. Maurice " (Comptes de Rene d'Anjou, 1449).

"Surnmam 10 scutorum auri .... pro componendo caelo seu
taberimculo," au chapitre de S. Maurille d' Angers (Compte de 1531).

" Les autres (les Huguenots; rompoient le ciel de dessus le grand autel
estant de damas rouge" 4 la cathedrale d'Angouleme "Plus un ciel carre
estant de dama* cramoisy, estant sur le grand autel, contenant douze
aulnes trois quarts . . . plus, en frange, estant autour dudict ciel,
qui est une livre de sarge cramoisie " (Ennuete de 1562).

" Un ciel ou poille, au-dessus du grand autel, de sarge de Caen rouge,
avec ses pantis et tours de reseul de fil blanc et ouvrage de point couppe "
(Invent, de la Cath. de Treguier, 1620).

" Marche fait (a Angers en 1631) avec Coustard peintre, pour peindre
sur bois et a 1'huile dans le fond du dais ou poele du grand autel de cette
eglise (S. Maurille) un tableau de la Resurrection de Notre-Seigneur "
(Rev. desSoc. Sav. 1872, t. iii., p. 358).

" Un tableau' des quartre evangelistes, qui sert de dais sur le grand
autel" (Compte de S. Laurent de Bauge, 1654).

" Un autre dais de velours viollet & ramage, estant au-dessus du grand
autel" (Inv. de N. D. Beaufort, 1683).

" II y a au-dessus dudit autel (a la cathedrale d'Alby) un grand dais,
suspendu a la voute de 1'eglise avec une chaine de fer, qui couvre tout
1'autel. Ledit dais est garny de pentes rouges de camelot onde fort vieux.
II faut d'autres pentes de damas ou autre estoffe unie, afin que la poussiere
ne s'y arreste pas 'J (Visite de Pan, 1698).

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 119

li When the ciboria fell into disuse," says Pugin, " th©
altars were protected by a canopy of cloth of gold or silk,
suspended over them." Bocquillot mentions that the image
of a dove was frequently embroidered or painted under
these. These canopies were common in England. John
Almyngham, by will, Oct. 7th, 1500, gave —

''£20 to the Church of Walberswic : £10 for a payr of orgonys ;
and with the residue of tbe said sume, I will a canope over the high
awter, welle done with our Lady and four aungelys and the Holy
Ghost, going upp and down with a cheyne." — Churchwardens' Accompts
of Walberswick.

44 For Freshynge the conopy at the high awter Is. Sc?., St. Mary's
Hill, London." — Nichols's Records of Ancient Times, p. 187.

u These canopies were sometimes composed of wood, painted and
gilt, as in the Lady Chapel at Durham ; but owing to the universal
destruction of altars in the reign of Edward VI., we have very few
existing examples." — Glossary^. Ill, under the woid "Dais,"

CONSECRATION OF ALTARS.

Our author gives a summary of the rules in the Pontifical
and from other sources for the Consecration of Altars. He
does not approve of the use of altar stones, unless in
exceptional cases. He desires that at least the high- altar
and that of the Blessed Sacrament should be consecrated.
He attaches importance to a permanent memorial of con-
secration being kept. Not only should there be a document
preserved in the Archives of the Church, but also an
inscription, carved along the edge of the altar table, or on a
wall near the altar. The former method is preferable
because then the inscription and the altar are inseparable.
This epigraph should contain the names and titles of the
consecrator, of the saints whose relics he has enclosed in
the altar, and of the titular baint, with the day, month and
year of the consecration. The indulgences accorded for
the anniversary may also be inscribed on it.

Here are some examples of the two systems : — The
Church of St. Francis, dedicated also to St. Onofrio, and
situated outside the walls of Rome, on the summit of Monte
Mario, had its high-altar consecrated by Benedict XIII., on

120 De Montault on Churches aud Church Furniture.

the 2nd of July, 1728. The dedicatory inscription is
engraven on the edge ot the altar table : —

BENEDICTUS XIII. PONT. MAX. ORD. PnanD. ALTARE HOC

CONSECRAVIT DTE H. IVLY. MDCCXXVHI.

The cell in the Capuchin monastery of the Piazza
Barberini in Rome, in which St. Felix of Cantalice lived,
died,1 and had a vision of the Blessed Virgin, was turned
into a chapel. Benedict XIII. consecrated the altar on the
18th of May, 1720, and deposited there the relics of the
holy martyrs Gaudentius and Magnus. He granted on this
occasion an indulgence of 15 years and 15 quarantines, and
on the anniversary for ever, 7 years and 7 quarantines.
The commemorative inscription is fixed to the right side of
the altar; —

D. 0. M.

ET
S. FELICI • A ' CANTALICIO • CAPUCCINO

ARAM ' HANG
SS. GAUDENTII • ET MAGNI ' RELIQUIIS * INCLUSIS

RECU-RSO ' TEMPCR^l

QUO ' S. FELIX ' IN HAG ANGUSTA ' CELLULA • MORIENS
A • DEIPARA ' CHRISTUM • DEUM • GESTANTE

OLIM ' FUIT ' INVISITUS
BENEDICT CIS ' XIII. PONT. MAX.

XV. GAL. JUN. MDCCXXVI
PROPRIA ' MANU • VOVENDO ' SACRAVIT

IN • IPSA . CONSEGRATIONIS ' DIE

XV. INDULGENT. ANNOS • TOTIDEMQ. QUADRAGENAS

IN ' ANNIVERSARIA • AUTEM

SEPTENOS. ET ' SEPTENAS

PONTIFICIA * LIBERALITATE

IN ' ^EVUM • USQUE • DURATURAS

INDULSIT. CONCESSIT. RELAXAVIT.

Here is a recent example copied from the high altar of
Sanf Angelo-in-pescheria in Rome ; —

^ ROGERIVS. ANTICI. MATTEL PATR. CONSTANTINO?. HI. ID.
IVLH. AN CHR. MDCCCLXXIH.. ALTARE. HOC. A. PIO IX. P. M.
DONATVM. SOLEMN!. RITV. CONSECRAVIT. IN HONOREM. SS.
MICH. ARCHANG. GETVL. SYMPH. ET. VII. FIL. MM.

A Sketch of Palladius. 121

The placing of an inscription was recommended by a
Council of Worcester,1 and Cardinal Orsini when Archbishop
of Benevento prescribed it in the authentic document which
was to be kept in the Archives as a certificate of the
consecration. " Mandavit marmoreum lapidem posteros de
huiusmodi consecratione admonentem infra tres menses
apponi."

J. ROUSE.

A SKETCH OF PALLADIUS.

IRELAND'S first bishop was, as indicated even by his
name, of Eastern or Grecian origin. Members of the
Palladian family attained to eminence in Church arid State
during the fourth and fifth centuries. If the name of
Palladius stand prominent in the ecclesiastical roll of
Constantinople and Alexandria it was no less conspicuous
among the officers of the imperial army. One of these, a
Christian, is said to have been the father of the Irish bishop,
and to have been sent to Britain by Julian the Apostate.
But while it is certain that Palladius was of Eastern extrac-
tion, his birth-place is quite uncertain. Some contend that
he was by birth an Italian, as he was deacon or archdeacon
of Pope Celestine ; others that he was Gaulish, as several of
the name were distinguished prelates in France, arid as our
Palladius was closely connected with Germanus of Auxerre :
while others maintain that he was British, because both of
his special interest in the Welsh Church and of his alleged
connexion with a famous school said to have been established
in South Wales by the father of Theodosius the Great.

Whatever doubt hangs round the birth-place of
Palladius cannot affect the certainty of his mission to Ireland
from Pope Celestine. Of this we are assured by a contem-
porary, Prosper of Aquitaine. He states, under the year 431

1 Annus et dedicationis dies ecclesiarum quae consecratae fuerint, et
altarmm, et a quo consecrata fuerit superscribantur altaribus evidenter,
Cone. Wigornien., an. 1240, c. 11.

122 A Sketch of Palladius.

in his Chronicle which ends at the year 455, that Palladius
was consecrated and sent as first bishop to Ireland by Pope
Celestine, that there were there already some Christians,
and that this took place under the consulship of Bassos and
Antiochus. While the statement of Prosper as to the mission
of Palladius is confirmed by the Book of Armagh it vouches
also for the shortness and ill success of that mission. One of
its writers in the seventh century, and I pray the reader to
bear in mind, for reasons that shall appear by and by, the
antiquity of the testimony, states that Pope Celestine sent
Palladius to convert Ireland from infidelity, but that God did
not vouchsafe success to him ; and that the fierce and savage
people did not readily receive Palladius, nor did he consent
to remain in a strange country, but returned to him who
sent him. On his return from Ireland, after crossing the
first sea, and after having begun his journey by land, he
died on the confines of the Britons.1

The next paragraph in the Patrician documents assures
us that St. Patrick was consecrated only after the death of
Palladius ; and subsequent writers and Lives in accord with
this statement add that St. Celestine lived only a few days
after the consecration on the 8th of April, 432. The death
of Palladius in the year 431 or early in 432 considered, it is
doubtful if his mission lasted even for a year. With good
reason then the summary of contents to the Book of Armagh
under the heading of one of its chapters alludes to his
consecration and immediate death. (Ordinatione Palladii et
mox morte ejus, Fol. 20 ab.)

And turning to another Life in the Book of Armagh, as
given by Tirechan, we learn that Palladius, according " to
the holy ancients, suffered martyrdom among the Scoti."
The writer, while giving with some reserve the death of
Palladius in Ireland, testifies both to the abruptness with
which his mission was cut short, and to the obscurity into
which that mission had passed. The Second and Third Lives*
repeat substantially the statement of the Book of Armagh —

1 Documenta de S. Patricia, p. 25, learnedly annotated by liev. E.
Hogan, S.J.

2 Colgan, Tr, Thaum., pp. 13, 23.

A Sketch of Palladius. 123

that Palladius having crossed the first sea and begun his
land journey died on the confines of the Piots — in the country
of the Britons. The Fourth Life1 gives the opinion that
Palladius on his way to Rome died in the country of the
Picts. The Fifth Life 2 states that Palladius having deter-
mined to return to Rome crossed the sea. and having reached
the confines of the Picts died. The Sixth LifeB also states
that on his way to Rome Palladius died in Britain but within
the confines of the Picts. The Seventh Life* states that
Palladius bent on returning to his own left Ireland accord-
ingly, but that seized with mortal illness he died in the land
of the Picts. Our native writers from the seventh to the
twelfth century put beyond reasonable doubt several points
in regard to Palladius — that he was sent by Pope Celestine
to convert the Irish, that his success consisted in the
conversion only of a few souls and in the erection of a few
wooden churches in Leinster, and that on his return to
Rome he died on the confines of England and Scotland.

Scottish historians in comparatively modern times have
attempted to prove that Palladius was sent originally not to
Ireland but Scotland, because they appear to have forgotten
that Ireland was called Scotia till the eleventh century ; but
since the days of Ussher they have been satisfied with
claiming Palladius only after he left Ireland : they maintain
that he evangelized Scotland, and that after many years of
missionary labour there he died under the shadow of the
Grampian hills in Fordun. I shall as briefly as possible
discuss the grounds of these statements, and endeavour to
identify the place where our first though unsuccessful
apostle died.

Modern historians have fallen into mistakes in regard to
the passage of Palladius from Ireland. The Patrician
documents already referred to state that on his way to Rome
Palladius died after crossing over to Scotland ; but the
Scholiast on Fiacc states " that he sailed along the northern
coasts till driven by a storm he reached a Scottish headland."

iColgan, Tr.Thaum., p. 38. '2 Ibid, p. 68. 3 Hid., p. 70.
4 Hid., p. 122.

124 A Sketch of PaUadius.

Dr. Todd fancies a contradiction to exist between both
statements. Bnt there is no evidence of a contradiction.
For the Book of Armagh does not deny the existence of a
storm during the passage of Palladiiis ; nor does the
scholiast, on the other hand, necessarily allude to an
elemental storm. The trouble raised in Leinster, where he
first landed, against Palladius could mean a moral storm :
and the greater troubles that gathered round him as he
cruised along the northern coasts could be described under
the name of a great tempest, which determined him to return
to Rome and drove him accordingly to Scotland. But as
the Scholiast appears to copy Nennius we must weigh his
words. Dr. Todd says (St. Patrick, p. 290) that Nennius
mentions the storm. Let us see. Nennius states that
" Palladius was sent by Pope Celestine to convert the Irish,
who, however, was prevented of God by some storms, for no
one can receive on earth what has not been granted in
heaven ; and Palladius set out for Ireland, arrived in Britain,
and there died in the land of the Picts." Now does not the
writer here speak of a moral storm ? He mentions not a
storm but storms. If there had been question of elemental
strife one storm would have been sufficient to inflict serious
loss on Palladius during a few hours' sail from Ireland to
Scotland. Besides, Nennius states that God made use of
certain storms to prevent the success of Palladius' mission,
who in consequence of them left Ireland : now the storms
must have been of a moral nature, for they were the occasion
of his leaving Ireland, and therefore did not affect his passage
to Scotland. The storms are stated to have occurred in
Ireland, and to have led to the abandonment of the Irish
mission. In the same sense the accurate Irish writer, Mark,
in the year 822, spoke of the storms : he stated that
Palladius was prevented from succeeding " owing to storms
and remarkable indications, for no one can receive aught on
earth that has not been granted in heaven " — (Hist. Briton.).
Palladius interpreted such indications as the will of Heaven
adverse to his mission. The meaning attributed to storm
(tempestas) by the British Nennius and the Irish Mark is
borne out as well by sacred and mediseval as by classical

A Sketch of Palladius. 125

writers ; thus the Psalmist says that1 he " was saved from
pusillanimity and a storm." Here then there was question
only of a moral storm or mental distress. In like manner
St. Gregory in his Morals (Lib. ix., ch. vi.) associates the idea
of a tempest with human persecutions (remota tempestate
perseculionis). But it matters little to our purpose whether
the word tempestas was used in a classical sense by Nennius,
when it is certain he used it in the sense of trouble or
opposition. We are therefore driven to infer that the Irish
scholiast, in the tenth century, attached the same meaning
to tempestas, unless we suppose he, like Dr. Todd, misunder-
stood Nennius in the sixth, a writer in the Book of Armagh in
the seventh, and the Irish Mark in the ninth century.2

But where in Scotland did Palladius land, and where did
he die ? To answer these questions it is well to notice the
earliest effort at identification by the ancient Irish scholiast.
He states that Palladius having sailed along the northern
coasts of Ireland " reached the south-eastern headland."
(Cenn airier descertacli). Dr. Todd appears to have grossly
missed the meaning of this phrase. He suggests (St. Patrick,
p. 290) that Cenn airier may mean Kinnaird in the North-east
of Aberdeenshire, and that Palladius having been driven by
storm up to the north of Scotland came down southwards
(descertach), and arrived in Fordun, where, according to the
Scholiast, he established a church. But nothing could be
more wildly improbable than this translation of the Irish
phrase. Firstly, an Irish writer speaking of the passage of
Palladius from the north of Ireland to the eastern coast
opposite, must naturally have meant the next or western coast
of Scotland rather than its eastern coast.

Secondly, it were almost an impossibility that a boat

1 Ps. liv., 9.

2 " Missus f uerat ad hanc insulam, sed prolubuit ilium (Deus) qiiia
nemo potest accipere quicquam de terra nisi datum fuerit de ccelo . .
reversus ad eum qui misit ilium, llevertente vero eo nine et primo mare
transito cceptoque terrarum itinere, &c." (Documenta de S. Patricio, p. 25.
Nennius, A/cm. Hist. Brit., ch. 55.) " Palladius . . . qui prohibitus
est a Deo per quasdam tempestates, quia nemo potest quicquam accipere
in terra nisi de coelo datum illi fuerit. Et profectus est ille Palladius de
liibernia pervenitque ad Britanniam."

126 A Sketch of Palladius.

impelled, as ground! essly alleged, by a storm could thread its
way along the entire western coast, through, the Hebrides
and through the Orcades, shoot through Pentland Frith, and
double Dunnet Head. There are 280 miles of coast from the
port in Galloway, the next to the north of Ireland, on to Dunnet
Head. The western coast juts into the sea in high, narrow
peninsulas here, and there recedes inland in lake-like gulphs,
so that in one place the breadth of Scotland expands to
146 miles, while in another pJace it is narrowed to 30 miles,
and the sea is dotted with innumerable isles : and that a little
or large boat should make its way there in a storm, by day
or night, double the cape and come down to Kinnaird, is
what Dr. Todd must admit would be " extraordinary," and,
he might have added, would be almost incredible. This
was so incredible in the eyes of Dr. Lanigan that, in his
opinion, Palladius passed over by land to the Fordun of the
Scholiast.

Thirdly, Dr. Todd's translation is untenable in that it
represents the scholiast as describing the journey of Palladius
only on the north-east of Scotland down southwards (descer-
tach) to Aberdeen, a comparatively short distance, and making
no allusion to the marvellous alleged sailing up to the north
and then southwards to Kinnaird. Dr. Todd's translation
then, while outraging common sense, outrages Celtic pro-
prieties.

Instead of attaching airier to cenn, and thus making out
Kinnaird, Dr. Todd should have joined it to the next word
thus : airier descertach " south-east." The Irish writer intended
to state that Palladius having sailed across in the usual way to
the next port in Scotland reached " the south-eastern head-
land " (Cenn airier descertach). Thus in a homily on the
Archangel Michael, found in the Leabkar Mor Duna Doighre,
mention is made of the south-eastern door of a cave.1 So
too (in p. 277, col. 1) a writer of the same manuscript giving
a very old form of consecration for a church, tells us that the
alphabet is to be written twice on the floor of the church ;
the first alphabet was to begin at the south-eastern angle

1 P. 213.

A Sketch of Palladius. 127

(ullind iarter descumtatg), and to end at the north-western
angle (airier thuaiscumtaig) ; but the second alphabet was to
begin at the north-eastern angle (airter thuaiscumtaig'), and to
end at the south-eastern angle (airter descumtaig). Again
(p. 278, col. 1, C. 19), at the close of the ceremony the ponti-
ficating bishop officiated at the north-western gable (iarter
descumtach), afterwards at the south-eastern gable (airter des-
cumtach), and then made the sign of the Cross, beginning at
the south-eastern gable (airter descumtach), and also at the
south-western gable (iarther descumtach). In these passages we
have the form of expression, nay, even the very words, used
by the scholiast, and about their meaning there need not be
the shadow of doubt.

But faulty as is Dr. Todd's translation, more outrageously
so is that by Colgari. He renders the Irish phrase Cenn airter
into " the extreme part of Modhaidh," by which he under-
stands the territory of Mar; and he renders the Irieh word
descertacJi, by " southwards." Why, Mar is more northwards
than southwards ; and the Irish phrase no more represents
southwards or eastwards than does the meeting point of two
perpendicular lines pointing respectively due south and east.
Of course the point indicated by the south-eastern headland
may not, owing to the irregularity of the Scottish coast, be
mathematically determined, but it is practically so through the
additional remark of the Irish writer in regard to Palladius —
that " he founded there the Church of Fordun." Colgan's
translation proves the power of prejudice against evidence.
As the Scottish writers assigned a long missionary career to
Palladius about Aberdeen, Colgan, who followed them, placed
the Fordun of the scholiast in Kincardineshire.

Taken as true the authoritative statement that Palladius
sailed from Ireland as directly as possible to Scotland, he
should have come to the southern headland of Galloway,
and then have made for the old Roman road at the extremity
of the Picts' wall ; but as he died after having begun his
land-journey, I may say at once, I judge it probable that he
died at Wigton, and that this was the Fordun of the
scholiast.

Wigton, the only fortification, and a most important one

128 A Sketch of Palladius.

on the southern coast of Scotland was situated on the Bay
of Wigton, on an eminence of some 200 feet above the level
of the sea. It lay almost in a direct line between Portpatrick,
the nearest and safest landing place for Palladius, and the
old Roman road at the rampart of Severus. Wigton was not
so called always. It was called, acccording to Beaudrand
and Propertius, Victoria by the Romans ; and thus Victoria-
dun was contracted into Wigton. And, indeed, such changes
were quite common. Thus we have Bridlington from the
Celtic Brilledunum, Seaton from Maridunum, Seton from
Segodunum, and Warrington from Rhigodunum. Thus, too,
our Irish Ben Edar was changed into DuncrifFan, and this
again into the Danish word Howtli. While then it is certain
that the Saxons did not adopt the name Victoria, it is equally
certain that the Romans did not adopt the Fordun of our
Celtic ancestors. Fordun meant a " frontier fortification " on
the southern cost of Scotland, and commanded the Irish
Sea.

Scottish writers understand the Fordun of the Irish
scholiast, where Palladius came to die, to be situated in the
north east of Scotland, and we have seen the improbability
of such a supposition ; but still more improbable is the super-
structure of which this false supposition is the basis. It is
falsely maintained that Palladius laboured for many years
as a successful apostle in Scotland, and that his relics were
enshrined in the northern Fordun. Keith, in his Calendar of
Scottish Saints, states that Palladius lived twenty or thirty
years in Scotland, while other Scottish writers assert that he
evangelized the Orkneys and the Isle of Man. Now if
Palladius had been patron and apostle of Fordun in Kincardine-
shire, within a score of miles from Aberdeen, there would
have been some allusion made to him by Barbour, who gave
a list of many saints, and the Lives of several connected with
Aberdeen.1 He gives the Life of St. Columba, and of the Irish
Machar who preached in Aberdeen. Barbour was a native
of Aberdeen, and how can we reconcile his silence on
Palladius with a belief that he was an apostle in Aberdeen

1 Allenylisdie Legenden, Heilbronn, 1884.

A Sketch o/Palladius. 129

and was buried in Fordun ? Scottish writers in their legends
about Palladius are consistent neither with themselves nor
the facts of history. Spotiswode assigns thirty years to his
mission in Scotland. Hector Boetius would extend it to
thirty-three years. He asserts that Palladius appointed as
archbishop Ternanus whom he had baptised. But the
Breviary of Aberdeen (for June 12th) states that Ternanus
visited Pope Gregory the Great, who died in the seventh
century ! The statement of the Breviary is borne out by
Barbour, who wrote in the fourteenth century, that
Ternanup, and Machar, and St. Columba were on friendly
terms.

Servanus is another Scotchman said by Boetius to have
been an adult when converted by Palladius, and subse-
quently consecrated; and the Breviary of Aberdeen (Prop. SS.
July) states that he was appointed bishop for the whole
nation of the Scots (omni Scotorum genie) : this supposes
the absence of diocesan divisions, but an earlier authority
than the Breviary of the fifteenth century assures us that
there had been diocesan arrangements before the time
of Palladius. Thus the Lives of Ninian by Bede and by Ailred
(ch. 6) inform us that he consecrated bishops and divided
the whole country into dioceses (Bede, lib. 3, ch. 4). Nor can
it well be said that while Ninian was apostle of the
southern Picts, Fordun was the scene of Palladius' labours
in northern Pictland. For Joceline, in his Life of St. Kentigern
assures us that the work of Ninian was consolidated
and extended by St. Kentigern and by St. Columba, apostle
of the northern Picts.1 There has been no allusion to
Palladius. The claims of Scottish writers do not rest on any
authority higher than the Breviary of Aberdeen written at the
close of the Middle Ages; and these claims, apart from the
contradiction which they receive from authentic early history,
carry their own refutation.

Even though we had no direct evidence in contradiction
of the Scottish theory it appears beset with inherent incon-

1 " Per sanctos Kcntigernum et Coltimbam fidem susceperunt."
VOL. X. I

130 A Sketch of Palladius.

sistencies. If we believe Hector Boetius, William Schewes,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, in the year 1494, had the
supposed remains of Palladius disinterred at Fordun arid
placed in a silver shrine. But the Breviary of Aberdeen,
printed at the beginning of the sixteenth century, as
observed by Dr. Todd, represents Palladius as buried not in
Fordun but in Langforgund. The former is in Kincardine-
shire, the latter in Perthshire, in a different diocese ; and
Aberdeen is scarcely 20 miles from Fordun.

It is strange that Irish historians who reject the Scottish

mission of Palladius on the unquestionable authority of

Patrician documents should admit his death at Fordun, for

these expressly state that after passing over to Scotland he

died there. This has come of confounding the Fordun in

Kincardineshire, whose existence in the fifth century is very

questionable, with the ancient Fordun under a Saxon name.

The Vita Secunda states that Palladius died in MaghGhergin,

the plain of Gergin, in a place called Fordun ; and the Irish

Nennius (p. 100) states that " he was driven from Erin, and

he went to serve God in Fordun, in Mairne." The learned

O'Flaherty would have Mairne a contraction of MaghGhergin

and situated in Kincardineshire, and that this is the same

as the MearneS) the common name for Kincardineshire.

But firstly, the letter g need not disappear in compounds

with Magh, as proved in the words Magh Gailline, Magh Glae,

M.agh Glinne, and Magh Glass. But it is at variance with the

rules that govern contractions that Ghergin would terminate

in Mairne and Mearnes. Secondly, if " Mearnes " were derived

from MaghGhergin, how is it that the term "Mearnes" has

been applied to other places ? Thus the Breviary of Aberdeen

states that Palladius rested full of years and blissful peace

at Langforgund in the Mearnes (in Mernis in pace).

Thirdly, if O'Flaherty's derivation were correct we should

expect a singular rather than the plural termination as

indicated by the English (Mearnps), by the Irish (Mairne),

and by the Latin (Mernis) forms of the word. The root of

the word is the Celtic term Maghair or Machair a plain,

pronounced like Ma-ir, whose plural is Mairne.. Machair

appeared sometimes under the English forms of Mayor and

A Sketch of Palladius. 131

Meere.1 The Mairne were level tracts; and the Scotch
knowing that they had a plural signification but a singular
termination, and forgetting that Mairne was a Celtic
plural, changed the word into " Mearnes." The word
has been found in manuscripts under the form of
Moerne as well as Mairne; but this is quite common
in words compounded of Magli a plain. Thus we have
such forms as Moville (Maghbile), Moymore, Mowney,
and Moynalvy.2 There is strong reason then for judging
that Colgan and modern Irish writers were not wise
in adopting the wild fancies of the antiquarian O'Flaherty.
Finally, Fordun could not be in Magh Gergin, the " plain of
Gergin ;'' so far from being in a plain, Fordun is in a hollow
or Howe of the Mearnes, formed by a spur of the Grampian
mountains and the range of hills which separate it from the
coast district In good truth geography as history has been
revolutionised since the 17th century in order to place the
scene of Palladius' death in Kincardineshire, called the
Mearnes commonly but improperly in comparison to the
unbroken succession of plains or Mechars in Galloway.

Furthermore, in no part of Scotland more than in Wigton
do the plains properly so called appear. A line from Wigton
to Portwilliam defines the country which goes by the name
of Macliars or Mechars, the " plains." These are formed
from a Celtic word which received a plural termination in
English, just as the really Irish plural Mairne, having
apparently a singular termination, received the English
plural " Mearnes." The Mechars consist of a series of gently
undulating plains, and exhibit the lowest elevation of any
part of Scotland. And if we suppose that Palladius died at
Fordun or Wigton, in the " Mechars," a military fortification,
it is not unlikely that his relics, or body were removed to
Candida Casa, in the centre of the " Mechars," the capital
civilly and ecclesiastically of the Roman province of Valentia.
This capital is only 13 miles from Wigton. Ptolemy's map
represents Candida Casa under the Greek form of Leucopibia.

1 The Four Masters by O'Donovan, sub. an. 701.

3 Vid. An. 4, M. sub. an. 649, 691, 936, 1350, 1580, 1600.

132 A Sketch of Palladius.

Now it is very remarkable that the scholiast on the Festology
of Aengus represents Palladius " as having gone to and
died in Scotland, and having been buried in Liconio."1

Let us now gather up the several scattered points in the
Lives, and see how they harmonize with the Fordun in
Wigtonshire. The Vita Secunda states that Palladius died
on the confines of the Picts. — (lr. Thaumaturga.)

Vita Quinta states that after crossing the sea and touching
the confines of the Picts Palladius died. (Ibid., p. 48). Now
it is well known that the Picts after the withdrawal of the
Roman legions from Britain burst through the wall of
Antoninus, and established themselves as they had been in
the time of Severus, whose rampart along the Tweed was
called the Wall of the Picts. The Patrician documents
state that Palladius having begun his journey by land died
on the confines of the Britons. (Book of Armagh, fol. 2, ab.).
Nennius (Hist. Brit) assures us that Palladius having come
to Britain died in the land of the Picts. Vita Quarto, states
that Palladius wishing to return to Rome (rlr. Thaum., p. 38)
went to the Lord in the land of the Picts. Vita Sexta
(Ibid. p. 70) states that Palladius on his way to Rome died
in Britain within the land of the Picts. The Vita Septima
(Ibid., p. 113) states that Palladius intent on going to his
own died in the land of the Picts. Barbour, already
referred to, speaking of his own day, says " the name is
Scotland, but Pychtis in it then were dwelland": so that
Picts or Pictland represented the present Scotland.

Furthermore, St. Patrick in his letter to Coroticus com-
plained that he having captured Irish neophytes sold them
to the "apostate Picts." Now it is admitted that the Picts
converted by Ninian, and who afterwards apostatized, were
southern Picts, as the northern Picts were reserved for the
zeal of St. Columba. There was no need then of going up
to Abernethy, the capital of the Pictish kingdom, or the
Grampian hills in order to find Picts in the days of Palladius ;
and when the Book of Armagh assures us that Palladius having
begun his journey Romewards in Scotland died then and

1 " Condcclia'd in Allain hie sepultus est in Liconio." L. B., p. 89.

A Sketch of Palladius. 133

there, it is unwise to listen to a contradictory statement made
700 years subsequently, and replete with absurd con-
sequences. One thing is certain, that if Fordun in northern
Scotland were, as stated by Scottish writers, an archi episcopal
residence, and the head-quarters of a national, apostolic,
and successful mission, it would have been different at some
time from what it always remained — the pettiest of villages.

The spiritual achievements of our national saint here in
Ireland were so general, so decisive, and so brilliant, as to
throw into shade the short and unsuccessful mission of
Palladius, who appears to have been lost sight of by our
Irish historians before he had well left our shores. The
result has been that other nations claimed for him as their
apostle amongst themselves, after his departure fro nr Ireland
a long missionary career, and made him the central figure of
a history woven out of the visions or dreams of their writers.
In this I specially allude to the monks of Glastonbury. All
this has had a mischievous effect on Irish history. I will
not trace the gradual steps that led up to this, but observe
that, through forgetfulness of Palladius in Ireland, error
crept into the lists and dates of our primatial succession and
into the twelfth-century Lives of our national apostle,
St. Patrick.

In following the fortunes then of Palladius till we have
laid him in a certain, though foreign grave, we are paying a
filial tribute to the memory of Ireland's first apostle, while,
at the same time, we are taking direct steps for the correction
of those grave mistakes that meet us at the, threshold, nay,
underlie the very foundation, of Irish Church history.

SYLVESTER MALONE.

THE CATHOLIC BISHOP AND THE ATLANTIC

CABLE.

SO many and varied have been the discoveries of science
within the last twenty-five years, that we have almost
forgotten the accomplishment of a work — the greatest oi
all her triumphs — that set the whole world open-mouthed
with wonder. The successful laying of the Atlantic Cable
seemed at one time the final development of human genius,
skill and perseverance. Mortal intelligence seemed at last
released from material bonds, and mankind almost placed in
rank with the spirit world in power and rapidity of inter-
course. Two hemispheres were linked together by a chain
of light. Two worlds were united in instant mutual con-
sciousness and converse.

Now this work, in its original concept, and its first public
proposal as a practical enterprise, belongs of right to a great
Catholic Prelate, the Eight Rev. Dr. Mullock, O.S.F., late
Bishop of St. John's, Newfoundland.

This fact has never been duly proclaimed. The writer of
this paper announces it now very seriously. The claim of
the Bishop has been called in question, not by actual denial,
but by unheeded alienation. This statement is therefore
written with the desire and intent that it may be noted,
debated, and, if possible, controverted.

The writer has long felt that justice should be done to
the memory of his former Bishop on this point, for Dr.
Mullock's own sake first, and also for the honour of the epis-
copal order, of the Church herself, and of that always
magnificent body to whom Dr. Mullock belonged, and which
at all times has shed lustre on the history of religion and
civilization — the Order of St. Francis.

Right Rev. Dr. Mullock was the first man in the world
to advocate the laying of a wire along 2,000 miles of
the ocean's bed, and the flashing through it of an electric
spark from shore to shore. This is our statement, and we
shall presently proceed to prove it and so establish this
Catholic Prelate on the height he should occupy as one of

Tlie Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable. 135

the boldest thinkers and greatest practical benefactors of our
time and race. Having once conceived and proclaimed the
undertaking of this enterprise, he never once lost faith in its
final accomplishment. When it failed on a first and again
on another trial, and when (the conductor being laid at last)
the spark seemed to tire and fail on its weary way through
the unseen deep, the world (even of science) wagged its
wise head in sorrow if not in scorn. The Bishop was never
heard to cast a doubt on the realization of his own scheme.
Up to the moment of its successful ending, he gave it his con-
stant support and encouragement. The respect paid by him
to the men practically engaged in it, on their frequent visits
to St. John's, was gratefully acknowledged by Mr. Peter
Cooper, of New York, the wealthy and influential Chairman
of the American Transatlantic Company. The writer of this
paper, as Secretary to the Bishop, answered a letter addressed
to Dr, Mullock by Mr. Cooper in the name of all the Members
of the Company. The letter enclosed a donation (not a very
generous one indeed) for the Cathedral of St. John's, but the
real truth was not formally acknowledged as it ought to have
been, viz., that the Bishop was not only the warm supporter
but the very originator of the project of the transatlantic
cable. Let us now to the proofs of this memorable fact.

The claim of Dr. Mullock to the honor of originating the
project of the transatlantic and Gulf of St. Laurence tele*
graph system is founded chiefly on the following letter
written by him to the Editor of the Morning Courier of
St. John's on November 8th, 1850. It has only lately come to
the writer's hands through the kindness of Hon. E. D. Shea,
Colonial Secretary, St. John's.

To the Editor of the (t Morning Courier"

" SIR, — I regret to find that in every plan for transatlantic corn-*
munication, Halifax is always mentioned, and the natural capabilities
of Newfoundland entirely overlooked. This has been deeply impressed
on my mind by the communication I read in your paper of Saturday
last regarding telegraphic communications between England and
Ireland, in which 'tis said that the nearest telegraphic station 011 the
American side is Halifax, 2,155 miles from the West of Ireland.
Now would it not be well to call the attention of England and
America to the extraordinary capabilities of St. John's as the nearest

136 The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Calk.

telegraphic point? It is can Atlantic port, lying, as I may say. in
the track of the ocean steamers, and by establishing it as the American
telegraphic station, news could be communicated to the whole
American continent, 48 hours at hast, sooner than by any other
route. But how will this be accomplLshed ? Just look at the map
of Newfoundland and Cape Breton. — From St. John's to Cape Ray
there is no difficulty in establishing a line passing near Holy Rood,
along the neck of land connecting Trinny and Placentia Bays, and
thence in a direction due west to the Cape. You have then about 41
to 45 miles of sea to St. Paul's Island, with deep souudings of 100
fathoms, so that the electric cable will be perfectly safe from ice-
bergs ; thence to Cape North in Cape Breton is little more 1Q miles.
Thus, it is not only practicable to bring America twro days nearer to
Europe by this route, but should the telegraphic communications
between England and Ireland, 02 miles, be realised, it presents
not the least difficulty. Of course we in Newfoundland will have
nothing to do with the erection, working, and maintenance of the
telegraph, but I suppose our government will give every facility to
the company, either English or American, who will undertake it, as
it wrill be an incalculable advantage to this country. J hope the day
i-( nut far distant when St. Johns will be the first link in the electric
chain which will unite the Old World with the New.

" J. T. M."
" St. John's, November 8*7*, 1850."

The reader is requested to pay particular attention to this
letter. Our argument upon it is this : 1. That it suggests
and advocates the actual union of the two Continents by
" an electric chain " through the Atlantic and the Gulf of St.
Laurence. 2. That it is the first authentic written proposal
of that project. 3. Therefore that the writer of the letter
(Dr. Mullock) was the first known inventor and projector of a
transatlantic telegraph line.

Observe thai the letter is divided into two parts, relating
to two distinct branches of the intercontinental telegraphic
chain. The first part, down to the few lines at the end
(emphasized here by italics) refers principally to the project
of connecting St. John's N.F., with the Continent of 'America, by
a land line running from St. John's across the island west to
Cape Ray, and thence by a submarine line from Cape Ray
to the American Continent through Cape Breton island. This in
itself was, at the time, a great and a happy thought. Dr.
Mullock was the very first to propose this project, in the
letter we are considering. He shows the advantages of this

The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable. 137

line by practical arguments. With the English Channel
cable (then about to be laid, 1850) completed : with this
Gulf of St. Laurence cable, as proposed by Dr. Mullock,
added at the American side ; and with St. John's, the nearest
point of America to Europe, established as the international
telegraphic post, quick steamers might call and deliver and
receive news at St. John's as they passed to and fro across
the Atlantic. Thus news could be delivered at each conti-
nent, as Dr. Mullock points out, forty-eight hours sooner than
by any other plan in existence, or proposed, up to that
time.

All this portion of the letter supposes what all the sug-
gestions made up to that day supposed, viz., that the ocean
portion of the system should be supplied by steamers. Had there
been, before the date of this letter, any definite project of a
cable, or other instrument of telegraphy, across the Atlautic,
what would have been the meaning of this portion of Dr.
Mullock's letter, referring as it does, to steamers across the
ocean to form part of a rapid system of communication of
news? Why should he so strongly advocate a plan that
would merely shorten communication by forty-eight hours if
another system had already been in discussion that would
reduce it to forty-eight minutes ? It is evident, therefore,
that all this part of his letter refers to improving and facili-
tating the only telegraphic connection between the two
continents then existing, or considered as practicable. This
was the mixed system of land and submarine (gulf) tele-
graphy, supplemented by ocean steam. To this very system
Dr. Mullock suggests a notable improvement, and it is entirely
his own idea, viz., that of a submarine cable through the
narrowest part of the St. Laurence Gulf connecting New-
foundland with the American Continent. (See letter.) So
much for the first portion of this very remarkable
document.

But, observe its last few lines, " 1 hope the day is not far
distant when St. Johns will be the Jirst link in the electric chain
which will unite the Old World with the New"

We maintain that the bishop here plainly advocates the
completion of the telegraphic system between Europe and

138 The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable.

America by a continuous telegraphic line through ihe
Atlantic ocean. The steamers that had heretofore furnished
an awkward and unreliable link in the line of communication,
must disappear and their place be taken by an " electric
chain" instantaneously connecting the old world with the
new. Dr. Mullock is not here stating the possibility but the
reality, the near actual accomplishment of the design of a
translantic cable. The " electric chain" may have been, in
his mind, a tube, a wire, a " long drawn link" of any kind ;
he may not have determined upon its mechanical form.' But,
that he meant by the term a real, material conductor of
electricity there can be no doubt, if words have any value.
There are many now living to whom he explained his
expression in this very sense at the period when he wrote
this letter, 1850. The writer is also aware that a correspon-
dence yet exists on the subject that defines his concepts
most particularly. But no explanation is needed of the plain
sense of his words. So much for the first member of our
argument in favour of Dr. Mullock's claim, viz., that he
advocated in his public letter of November, 1850, the
actual union of the two continents by an " electric chain''
through the Atlantic ocean.

Now, for the second and more difficult proposition, viz.
" that this was the first authentic published proposal of that
project." The reader will observe that we word our state-
ment so as to exclude altogether from this discussion all con-
sideration of secondhand or hearsay claims, as also of
inferential claims founded on the electrical theories, statements
or experiments of others.

The question is not, who was the first to assert the
possibility of ocean telegraphy, but who was the first to pro-
pose and advocate that actual definite thing the Atlantic
cable. We answer, Dr. Mullock was. The case against us
is put as strongly as it can be in the excellent text book of
Newfoundland history by Rev. M. Harvey, Presbyterian
minister, published in Boston in 1885, and only lately come
to our hands. Mr. Harvey, as well as every one in the colony
had often heard of the claim put forward by the friends and
admirers of Dr. Mullock. Though the bishop's name is not

The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable. 139

mentioned by Mr. Harvey, this claim is clearly the one
contested in the Appendix I. to the work above-mentioned.

Mr. Harvey says first, that Mr. F. N. Gisborne, F.R.S.C.,
at present Superintendent of the Telegraph and Signal
Service of the Dominion of Canada, was the inventor and
projector of the enterprise under discussion. As authority
for this he quotes only a statement of Hon. Joseph Howe,
late Lieutenant-Go vernor of Nova Scotia. Mr. Howe's
statement is dated February 12, 1867, the year after the
successful laying of the Atlantic cable, and seventeen years
after the date of Dr. Mullock's letter in 1850, Mr. Howe says,
thus late in the day — that Mr. Gisborne laid before a tele-
graphic commission in Halifax in 1850 (the year of Dr.
Mullock's letter) " a plan for connecting Newfoundland with
the continent of America by a Submarine cable." Mr. Howe
adds that Mr. Gisborne " spoke confidently" of being able to
extend it across the Atlantic. Here then are two pieces of
evidence set over against one another whose comparative
value we must estimate.

First, we have the Atlantic telegraph line proposed and
advocated to the world in a public letter by Dr. Mullock in
1850.

Against this we have a statement made by Hon. Mr. Howe,
seventeen years later, that another man, Mr. Gisborne, pro-
posed the very same plan as Dr. Mullock's to a Commission
in Halifax, in the same year 1850.

Now, there are several questions that the merest novice
in historical criticism would put, and require to have satis-
factorily answered, concerning the matter of this statement
of Mr. Howe.

Why did not that Halifax Commission or Mr. Gisborne
himself, or some one interested in such a stupendous project,
publish that "plan" of Mr. Gisborne's during all these years
from 1850 to 1867? There were surely discussions enough
in those years about telegraphic enterprises.

At what date in 1850 did Mr. Gisborne propose his plan
to the Commission ? Was it done before or after the 8th
November of that year, the date of Dr. Mullock's public
letter ?

140 The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable.

Was Mr. Gisborne's communication to the Halifax Com-
mission in 1850 a verbal one, as would appear from Mr. Howe's
statement that " he spoke confidently, &c," or was it a written
one ? If the former it is not a subject for critical discussion.
If the latter, why was it never made known to the public
till 1867 by Mr. Howe? Why, was it never at anytime
brought forward authentically by its originator Mr. Gisborne ?
Where is Gisborne's written proposal now? Who has it?
Who can produce it ? Mr. Gisborne is still alive, why did
not Mr. Harvey procure from him the original or an authentic
copy of " the plan " and settle the claim in favour of Mr.
Gisborne at once and beyond dispute ? Why recur to a
statement made in 1867 by Mr. Howe, long since dead, of
what Mr. Gisborne still living, and able to speak for himself,
did or said, at a private assemblage in 1850 concerning an
enterprise of such immense importance ?

Altogether Mr. Gisborne's claim, as defended by Mr.
Harvey, cannot stand. The defence set up for it could not
be accepted by any critical tribunal.

The fact that Mr. Gisborne, two years after Dr, Mullock's
published letter, i.e., in 1852, actually succeeded, as Super-
intendent Engineer, in laying the Gulf cable adds nothing to
Mr. Harvey's argument. We have every ground for sup-
posing that Mr. Gisborne got the idea of the project from
Dr. Mullock's letter, or from Dr. Mullock himself, for that
matter. Mr. Gisborne was much in St. John's from 1850 to
1852. He knew of Dr. Mullock's letter as well as every one
else in St. John's. He was a frequent guest and a personal
friend of Dr. Mullock. Had the project originated with Mr.
Gisborne, Dr. Mullock would have been among the first to
know of it, and, knowing, he would have been the last man
in the world to write of the project as his very own without
mentioning Mr. Gisborne in connection with it.

We, therefore, absolutely reject this claim set up for Mr.
Gisborne until more authentic and substantial arguments are
produced in its favour.

Mr. Harvey's plea in favour of Professor Morse as origina-
tor of the great enterprize, found in the same Appendix I. to
the History, is a much better plea, and may be therefore
more briefly dealt with.

The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable. 141

It is perfectly true that the great Professor, the father
and founder of magnetic electric telegraph, was virtually the
projector of every system and instrument of electric trans-
mission. When he discovered and demonstrated that the
electric spark could be directed trom point to point, con-
veying intelligent expression as it went, then and there he
established the practical possibility of communicating by
electricity to any distance and through any surrounding
medium, air, water or earth. He knew this perfectly well,
though the world of statesmanship and of science, in those
early days, was slow to admit it, and the man of science had
to fight his way to the world's convictions. He is quoted by
Mr. Harvey as writing to the Secretary of the United States
in 18481-

u The practical inference from this law is, that a telegraphic
communication on the electro-mngnetic plan may with certainty be
established across the Atlantic Ocean. Startling as this may seem
now, I am confident the time will come when this project will be
realized."

This was a plain statement of the possibility of applying
his invention to every purpose, and through any distance of
intercommunication. No one can share the glory of
electrical invention and its possibilities with the great
discoverer.

But we still maintain that Dr. Mullock first proposed the
practical act of laying a cable or electric chain frpm the old
world to the new. The idea of it was undoubtedly involved
in Mr. Morse's discovery and proclaimed, perhaps as above, by
Mr. Morse himself seven years before. Dr. Mullock was a great
student of mechanics, and a reader of the lives and books of
scientific men. We have no doubt that this passage of
Mr. Morse's letter to the Secretary was quite familiar to him-
We are ready to admit that this, or similar statements of
scientific men may have set the Bishop's mind at work on
the subject of ocean telegraphy. All we claim is that Dr.
Mullock first suggested and advocated the actual project of a
line of telegraph across the Atlantic. Finally, we entirely

1 Without venturing to express any doubt about the letter of Professor
Morse, I intend to investigate its authenticity and accuracy.

142 The Catholic Bishop and the Atlantic Cable.

disagree with Mr. Harvey's definition that " The original
inventor is he who produces the first tangible result." The
original inventor of a project is he who first conceives and
proposes it. The person who, acting on such expressed idea,
''produces (therefrom) a tangible result," is an adapter,
artificer, or mechanician. He is the inventor only of the
machinery by which the project is worked out. He is in no sense
"the original inventor " of the project itself. The person
who first proposed the laying of the electric cable was " the
original inventor " of the enterprise, not any of the persons
engaged in the act of laying it. That person, the original
proposer of the scheme, was Right Rev. Dr. Mullock, and none
other. There is no document, no known and accepted tradition,
no rumour even extant that attributes the project to any other
mind and pen but his. His letter herein produced antedates
all expression whatever of opinion concerning this greatest
enterprise of our age. He, therefore, this zealous and accom-
plished Irish Catholic Bishop, was the father and founder in
our age — as others of his condition and country have been in
other periods of human progress — of one of the most marked
and signal successes of practical genius. This is the more
worthy of record since an impression has gained ground both
at home and abroad, that Celtic genius — excellent indeed in
poetry, music, and the finer arts — has lacked that practical
and exact complexion that alone bestows taste and warrants
success in the fields of experimental and economic science.
How little is it understood that the imaginative faculty is the
true creator, and inspirer of all that science or skill has even
accomplished. Those nations, and individuals alone who
possess it, have been, are, and shall be the leaders of all their
progress and civilization.

R. HOWLEY.

[ 143 ]

A SHORT SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF DOGMATIC
THEOLOGY— II.1

C.— THE MODERN EPOCH.

ABOUT the end of the fifteenth century and the opening
of the sixteenth, three events produced a new epoch in
the history of theology, and determined its characteristic
tendencies : the invention of printing, the revival of the
study of the ancient classics, and the attacks of the
Reformers on the whole historical position of the Church.
These circumstances facilitated and at the same time
necessitated more careful study of the biblical and his-
torical side of theology, and thus prepared the way for a
more comprehensive treatment of speculative theology. This
new and splendid development which, like that of the
thirteenth century, was closely connected with mystical
theology and Christian art, had its seat in Spain, the ]and
most backward in the Middle Ages and now the least affected
by the heretical movement. The Universities of Salamanca,
Alcala (Complutum), and Coimbra, now became famous for
theological learning. Spanish theologians, partly by their
labours at the Council of Trent (Dominic Soto, Peter Soto,
and Vega), partly by their teaching in other countries
(Maldonatus in Paris, Toletus in Italy, Gregory of Valentia
in Germany), were its chief promoters and revivers. Next
to Spain, the chief glory belongs to the University of Lou vain,
in the Netherlands, which were at that time under Spanish
rule. On the other hand the University of Paris which had
lost much of its ancient renown, did not regain its position
until towards the end of the sixteenth century. Among the
religious bodies the ancient orders, who were the heirs of
the theology of the thirteenth century, were indeed animated
with a new spirit ; but the lion's share of the glory fell to the
newly-founded Society of Jesus, whose members laboured
most assiduously and successfully in every branch of theology,
especially in exegesis and history, and strove to develop the

This Paper is based on Scheeben's Dogmatic.

144 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

medieval theology in an independent, eclectic spirit and in a
form adapted to the wants and progress of the age. The
continuity with the theological teaching of che Middle Ages
was preserved by the Jesuits and by most of the other schools,
by taking as a text-book the noblest product of the thirteenth
century — the Summa of St. Thomas, which had been placed
on the table of the Council of Trent next to the Holy
Scriptures and the Corpus Juris Canonici as the most
authentic expression of the mind of the church.

This modern epoch may be divided into four periods : —

I. The PREPARATORY PERIOD, up to the end of the Council
of Trent ;

II. The FLOURISHING PERIOD, from the Council of Trent
to 1660;

III. The PERIOD OF DECAY to 1760.

Besides these three periods which correspond with those
of the Patristic and Medieval Epochs there is another,

IV. The PERIOD OF DEGRADATION, lasting from 1760 till
about 1830.

I. The PREPARATORY PERIOD from 1500 to 1570 produced
comparatively few works embracing the whole domain of
theology, but it gave proof of its activity in treatises and
controversial writings, and also of its influence as may be
seen from the decrees of the Council of Trent and the
Roman Catechism.

The numeroiis controversialists of this period are well
known, and an account of their writings may be found in
the Freiburg Kirchen-Lexicon. We may mention the follow-
ing : in Germany, John Eck of Eichstatt, Frederick Nausea
and James Noguera of \rienna, Berthold of Chiemsee, John
Cochloeus in Nuremberg, Fred. Staphylus in Ingolstadt,
James Hogstraelen, John Gropper and Albert Pighius in
Cologne, Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius and Martin Cromer in
Ermland, and lastly Blessed Peter Canisius; in Belgium,
the Louvain Doctors, Ruard Tapper, John Driedo, James
Latomus, James Ravestein (Tiletanus) and others ; in
England, the martyrs Blessed John Fisher, Bishop of
Rochester (Roffensis), and Blessed Thomas More, Card. Pole,
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester; and later Cardinal

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 145

Allei], Blessed Edmund Campion, S.J.,arid Nicholas Sanders ;
in France, Claude d'Espence, Claude de Sairictes, John
Arboree, Jodocus Clichtovee, James Merlin ; in Italy, the
Dominicans, Sylvester Prierias, Ambrose Catharinus, and
James Nacchiante (Naclantus), and Cardinal Seripandus
(Augustinian) ; in Spain, the Minorites, Alphonsus de Castro,
Andrew Vega and Michael de Medina, the Dominicans Peter
and Dominic Soto, and Melchior Canus ; in Portugal, Pay va
de Andrada, Perez de Ayala and Osorius. These writers
treat principally of the Church, the sources and the rule of
Faith, Grace, Justification, and the Sacraments, especially
the Blessed Eucharist, and are to some extent positive aa
well as controversial. The following treatises had great
and permanent influence on the subsequent theological
development ; M. Canus, De Locis Theologicis , Sander, De
Monarchia Visibiii Ecclesice ; Dom. Soto, De Natura ft
Gratia, and Andr. Vega De Justificatione, written to explain
the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent, in which both
authors took a prominent part ; B. Canisius, De Beata Maria
Virgine, a complete Mariology ; his great Catechism or
Summa Doctrince Christiana? with its copious extracts from
Holy Scripture and the Fathers may be considered as a
k' Book of Sentences " adapted to the needs of the age.1

Apart from controversy, few works of any importance
appeared. Among systematic works we may mention the
Institutiones ad Naturalem et Christianam Philosophiam of the
Dominican John Viguerius, and the Compendium Instit.
Cathol. of the Minorite Cardinal Clement Dolera, of which
the first named, often reprinted and much sought after, aims
at giving a rapid sketch of speculative theology. On the
other hand, important beginnings were made in the
theologico-philological exegesis of Holy Scripture, especially
by Genebrard Arboreus, Naclantus, D. Soto and Catharinus,
the last three of whom distinguished themselves by their com-
mentaries on the Epistle to the Romans which was so much,
discussed at this 'time. Sixtus of Siena furnished in his

1 On the works of these controversialists see Werner, History of
Apologetic Literature (in German), iv., p. 1, sqq.

VOL. X. K

146 A SJwrt Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

Bibliotlieea Sancta (first published in 1566) abundant materials
for the regular study of Holy Scripture.

II. The FLOURISHING PERIOD began immediately after the
Council of Trent, and was brought about as much by the
discussions of the Council as by its decrees. This period
has no equal for richness and variety in the history of the
church. The strictly theological works (not including works
on Moral Theology, History, and Canon Law) maybe divided
into five classes : 1. Exegesis ; 2. Controversy ; 3. Scholastic ;
4. Mystic ; 5. Historico-patristic Theology. These classes,
however, often overlap each other, for all branches of
theology were now cultivated in the closest connexion
with each other. Exegesis was not restricted to philology
and criticism, but made use of the acquisitions of
scholastic and patristic theology for a profounder know-
ledge and firmer consolidation of Catholic doctrine.
The great controversialists gained their power by uniting
a thorough knowledge of exegesis and history to their
scholastic training, Moreover, the better class of scholastic
theologians by no means confined their attention to specula-
tion, but drew much from the Holy Scriptures and the
Fathers. On the other hand the most eminent patristic
theologians made use of scholasticism as a clue to a better
knowledge of the Fathers. Finally many theologians laboured
in all or in several of these departments.

1. EXEGESIS. — At the very opening of this period Exegesis
was carried to such perfection, principally by the Spanish
Jesuits, that little was left to be done in the next period, and
for long afterwards the fruits gathered at this time were
found sufficient, The labours of the Protestants are n^t
worthy to be compared with what was done in the Catholic
Church.

The list of great exegetists begins with Alphonsus
Salmeron, 8.J. (1586.) His gigantic labours on the New
Testament (15 vols. folio) are not a running commentary but
an elaboration of the books of the New Testament arranged
according to matter, and contain very nearly what we should
now call Biblical Theology, although as such they are little
used and known. Salmeron is the only one of the first

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 147

companions of St. Ignatius \vhose writings have been pub-
lished. He composed this work at Naples in the last sixteen
years of his life, after a career of great public activity. His
brother Jesuits arid fellow-countrymen Maldonatus (in Paris),
and Francis Toletus (in Rome) and Nicholas Serarius (a
Lorrainer) should be named with him as the founders of the
classical interpretation of Holy Scripture. We may also
mention the following Jesuits : Francis Ribera, John Pineda,
Benedict Pereyra, Caspar Sanctius, Jerome Prado, Ferdinand
de Salazar, John Villaipandus, Louis of Alcazar, Emmanuel
Sa (all Spaniards) ; John Lorin (a Frenchman), Bened.
Justinianus (an Italian), James Bonfrere, Adam Contzen and
Cornelius a Lapide (in the German Netherlands), the last of
whom is well-known for his copious and painstaking
collection of the detailed labours of his predecessors. Besides
the Jesuits, the Dominicans Malvenda and Francis Forerius,
and Anthony Agelli (Clerk Regular) distinguished them-
selves in Italy ; and in the Netherlands, Luke of Bruges,
Cornelius Jansenius of Ghent, and William Estius.

For dogmatic interpretation, the most important, besides
Salmeron, are — Pereyra and Bonfrere on Genesis ; Louis da
Ponte on the Canticle of Canticles ; Lorin on the Book of
Wisdom-, Maldonatus, Contzen, and Bonfrere on the Gospels ;
Ribera and Toletus on St. John-, Sanctius, Bonfrere, and
Lorin on the Acts; Vasquez, Justinianus, Serarius and Estius
on the Epistles of St. Paul; Toletus on the Romans, and
Justinianus, Serarius, and Lorin on the Catholic Epistles.

2. CONTROVERSY. — During this period, in contrast to the
preceding, controversy was carried on systematically and in
an elevated style, so that, as in the case of Exegesis, there
remained little to be done in the succeeding ages except
labours of detail. Its chief representatives, who also distin-
guished themselves by their great speculative learning, were
Robert Bellarmine, Gregory of Valentia, Thomas Stapleton,
Du Perron, Tanner, Gretser, Serarius, and the brothers
Walemburg,

Cardinal Bellarmine, S.J. (1621) collected together, in his
great work, Disputationes de Rebus Fidei hoc tempore contro-
versis, the principal questions of the day under three groups :

148 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Tlieoloyy.

(a) on the Word of God (Scripture and Tradition), on.
Christ (the Personal and Incarnate Word of God), and on
the Church (the temple and organ of the Word of God) ;
(/>) on Grace and Free Will, Sin and Justification ; (c) on the
channels of grace (the Sacraments). He treats of almost
the whole of theology in an order suitable to his purpose.
The extensive learning, clearness, solidity, and sterling value
of his work are acknowledged even by his adversaries. It
continued for a long time to be the hinge of the controversy
between Catholics and Protestants.

Gregory of Valentia, S.J. (a Spaniard who taught in
Dillingen and Ingolstadt, d. 1603), wrote against the Reformers
a series of classical treatises, which were afterwards collected
together in a large folio volume. The most important of
these are Analysis Fidei and De Trinitate. He condensed
the substance of these writings in his Commentary on the
Summa.

Thomas Stapleton was born at Henfield, in Sussex, in the
year 1535, and was educated at Winchester and New
College, Oxford, of which he became Fellow. When
Elizabeth came to the throne he was a prebendary of
Chichester. He soon retired to Louvain, and was afterwards
for some time catechist at Douai, but was recalled to Louvain,
where he was appointed regius professor of theology. He
died in 1598. Stapleton is unquestionably the most impor-
tant of the controversialists on the treatment of the Catholic
and Protestant Rules of Faith. He concentrated his efforts
on two principal works, each in twelve books. The first of
these combats in a manner hitherto unsurpassed the
Protestant Formal Principle, Sources, and Rules of Faith :
Principiorum Fidei Doctrinae Demonstratio Methodica (Paris,
1579), to which are added a more scholastic treatise, Relectio
Scholastica et Compendiaria de Princ. Fid. Docir., and a
long defence against Whitaker. The other deals with the
Material Principle of Protestantism, Justification by Faith :
Universa Jastificationis Doctrina Catholica hodie controversa
(Paris, 1582), corresponding with the second part of
Bellarmine's work^but inferior to it. The two works together
contain a complete exposition and defence of the Catholic
doctrine concerning Faith and Justification.

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 149

Nicolas Sander or Sanders, born 1527, was also, like
Stapleton, Scholar of Winchester and Fellow of New College.
On the accession of Elizabeth he went to Rome, and was
afterwards present at the Council of Trent. His great work, De
Vixibtfi Monarcliia Ecclesiae, was finished at Louvain in 1571.
Another work, De Origine ac Progressu Schismatic Anglicani,
was published after his death, and has lately been translated
and edited by Mr. Lewis (Burns & Gates, 1877). Sander
was sent to Ireland as Nuncio by Gregory XIII., where he is
said to have died of want, hunted to death by the agents of
Elizabeth, about the year 1580.

Cardinal Allen was born in Lancashire in the year 1532,
and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. He became in
due course Principal of St. Mary's Hall. On the death of
Mary he left England, and resided for some time at Louvain.
He was the founder of the famous English seminary at
Douai, and was raised to the cardinalate by Sixtus V. His
work entitled Souls Departed : being a Defence and Declara-
tion of the Catholic Church's Doctrine touching Purgatory and
Prayers for the Dead, has lately been edited by Father
Bridgett (Burns & Gates, 1886). He died in Rome* 1594.1

Card. James Davy du Perron (a Frenchman, d, 1618),
wrote in his owo. mother tongue. His chief works are the
Trait^ du Sacrement de V Eucharistie, his controversies with
James I. of England, that is, really with Casaubon, and the
celebrated acts of the discussion with Philip Mornay, the
so-called Calvinist pope.

In Germany Valentia found worthy disciples in the keen
and learned Adam Tanner (d. 1635), and the singularly

1 The activity of the English Catholic controversialists at this time
may be seen from the articles issued by Grindal previous to his proposed
visitation of the province of Canterbury in 157G. " Whether there be
any person or persons, ecclesiastical or temporal, within your parish, or
elsewhere within this diocese, that of late have retained or kept in their
custody, or that read, sell, utter, disperse, carry, or deliver to others, any
English books set forth of late at Louvain, or in any other place beyond
the seas, by Harding, Dorman, Allen, Saunders, Stapleton, Marshall,
Bristow, or any other English Papist, either against the Queen's Majesty's
supremacy in matters ecclesiastical, or against true religion and Catholic
doctrine now received and established by common authority within this
realm ; and what their names and surnames are." — Art. 41, quoted by Mr.
Lewis.

150 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

erudite and prolific James Gretser (d. 1625), both Jesuits
of Ingolstadt, who worked together and mutually completed
each other. Tanner, who was also a scholastic of note,
followed the example of his master by condensing his contro-
versial labours in his commentary on the Summa. Gretser,
on the other hand spread out his efforts in countless
skirmishes especially on historical subjects. His works fill
sixteen volumes folio. Germany was also the scene of the
labours of the brothers Adrian and Peter Walemburg who
were natives of Holland, and were both coadjutor-bishops,
the one of Cologne, the other of Mayence. They jointly
composed numerous successful controversial Avorks, though
only in part original, which were afterwards collected under
the title of Controversiae Generales et Particulares in two
volumes folio.

About this time and soon afterwards many classical
treatises on particular questions appeared in France. Nicolas
jCoeffeteau, a Dominican, wrote against M. A. de Dominis
Pro Sacra MonarcJiia Ecclesiae Catholicae ; Michael Maucer, a
doctor of Sorbqnne, on Church and State De Sacra Monarchia
Ecdesiastica et Saeculari against Richer, and the Jansenists
Nicole and Arnaud composed their celebrated work De la
Perpetuite de la Foi on the Eucharist, &c. Of the Contro-
versies of St. Francis of Sales we have only short but very
beautiful sketches.1

At the end of this period and the beginning of the next,
may be mentioned Bossuet's Histoire des Variations, his cele-
brated Exposition de la Foi, and among his smaller works the
pastoral letter, Les Promesses de VEglise. Natalis Alexander
has inserted many learned dogmatic polemical disser-
tations in his great History of the Church,

3. SCHOLASTIC, THAT is, SPECULATIVE AND SYSTEMATIC
THEOLOGY.— This branch of Theology, like Exegesis and
Controversy, and in close union with them, was so highly
cultivated that the labours of this period, although (at least
in the early decades) inferior to those of the thirteenth century

1 An excellent English edition of these Controversies has lately been
published by Rev. Benedict Mackey, O.S.B. Eurns & Gates.

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 151

in freshness and originality and especially in moderation and
calmness, nevertheless surpassed them in variety and univer-
sality and in the use of the treasures of Scripture and early
tradition. When Pius V. (1567) raised St. Thomas, and
Sixtus V. (1587) raised St. Bonaventure to the dignity of
Doctors of the Church on the ground that they were the
Princes of Scholastic Theology, and, also at the same time,
caused their entire works to be published, it was the Church
herself who gave the impulse and direction to the new
movement.

The great number of works and the variety of treatment
make it difficult to give even a sketch of what was done
in this department. Generally speaking, the theologians
both of the old and of the newly-founded religious orders,
and also most of the universities of every country attached
themselves more or less to St. Thomas. Scotism, on the
contrary, remained confined to the Franciscans, and even
among them many, especially the Capuchins, turned to
St. Thomas or St. Bonaventure. The independent eclectic
line taken by the Jesuits, in spite of their reverence for
St. Thomas, -soon provoked in the traditional Thomist school
a strong reaction which gave birth to protracted discussions.1
Although the peace was thereby disturbed, and much time,
energy, and acuteness were spent with little apparent profit,
nevertheless the disputes gave proof of the enormous intel-
lectual power and activity which distinguished the first half
of this period. As the religious orders were still the chief
teachers of Theology, we may group the theologians of the
period under the schools belonging to the three great
orders.

(a) The strict Thomist school was naturally represented
by the Dominicans. At their head stand the two Spaniards,
Dominic Bannez (d. 1604) and Bartholomew Medina (d.
1581), both worthy disciples of Dominic Soto and Melchior
Canus, and remarkable for their happy combination of positive
and speculative elements. Bannez wrote only on the Prima
and Secunda Secundae, whereas Medina wrote only on the

See Werner, Thomas of Aquin, vol. iii., page 378, sqq.

152 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

Prima Secundae and Pars tertia. Their works consequently
complete each other mutually, and together form a single
work which may be considered as the classical model of
Thomist Theology. Bannez's doctrine of grace was defended
by Didacus Alvarez, Thomas Lemos (Panoplia Divinae Gratia?)
and Peter Ledesma (d. 1616.) Gonet (Clypeus Theologiae
Thomisticae) Goudin, and the Venetian Xantes Marialles
ably expounded and defended the teaching of St. Thomas.
The Carmelites reformed by St. Theresa proved powerful
allies of the Dominicans. Their celebrated Cursm Salmanti-
censis in Summam S. 7homae (15 vols. folio), is the vastest and
most complete work of the Thomist school.

Among other theologians whose opinions were more or
less Thomist may be mentioned the Benedictine Alphonsus
Curiel (d. 1609), the Cistercian Peter de Lorca (d. 1606),
the Augustiniaris Basil Pontius arid Augustine Gibbon, an
Irishman who taught in Spain and in Germany (Speculum
yheologicum) ; and Louis de Montesinos, professor at Alcala
(d. 1623). Among the universities, Louvain was especially
distinguished for its strict Thomism. The Commentary on
the Sentences, by William Estius, is remarkable for clearness,
solidity, and patristic learning. The Commentaries on the
Summa, by John Malderus (d. 1645), John Wiggers (d. 1639),
and Francis Sylvius (dean of Douai, d. 1649), are
Written with moderation and taste. The three most im-
portant scholastic theologians of the Sorbonne were less
Thomistic, and approached more to the Jesuit school :
Philip Gamache (d. 1625), who was unfortunately the
patron of Richer; Andrew Duval (d. 1637), an opponent of
Richer; and Nicholas Ysambert (d. 1642). The last two
are very clear and valuable. In Germany, Cologne was the
chief seat of Thomism, and a little later the Benedictine
university of Salzburg strenuously supported the same
opinions. One of the largest and best Thomistic works,
although not the clearest, was composed towards the end of
this period by the Benedictine Augustine Reding (d. 1692),
Theologia Scholastica.

(b) The Franciscan School. Scotism was revived and
developed in Commentaries on the Sentences by the older

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 153

branches of the order, especially by the Irish members,
the fellow-countrymen of Scotus, who had been driven
from their own land by persecution, and were now
dispersed over the whole of Europe ; and next to them by
the Italians and Belgians. The most important were Maurice
Hibernicus (d. 1603), Antony Hickey (Hiquoeus, d. 1641),
Hugh Cavellus, and John Pontius (d. 1660). Towards the
middle of the seven teenthcenturytheBelgian, William Herincx,
composed, by order of his superiors, a solid manual for begin-
ners, free from Scotist subtleties, Summa Theologian Scholastics,
but it was afterwards superseded by the work of Frassen.

The Capuchins, however, and the other reformed branches
of the Order turned away from Scotus to the classical theology
of the thirteenth century, partly to St. Thomas, but chiefly
to St. Bonaventure. Peter Trigos, a Spaniard (d. 1593),
began a large Summa Tlieol. ad mentem S. Bonav., but com-
pleted only the treatise De Deo ; Jos. Zamora (d. 1649), is
especially good on Mariology ; Theodore Forestus De Trin.
Mysterio in D. Bonav. Commentarii; Gaudentius Brixiensis
Summa, etc., 7 vok, folio, the largest work of this school.

(c) The Jesuit School, which pre-eminently united all the
elements of exegetical and historical theology, applied these
to the study of scholastic theology. As we have already
observed, they were eclectics in spite of their reverence for
Si Thomas, and they availed themselves of later investiga-
tions and methods. Thus we see among them a critical
review of all that went before, but by reason of their freedom
of treatment they themselves became split up into different
schools towards the end of the period. Their system may on
the whole be described as a moderate and broad Thomism
qualified by an infusion of Scotism, and in many instances
(e.g. Molina) even of Nominalism.1

The chief representatives of this School, next to Toletus
are Gregory of Valentia, Francis Suarez, Gabriel Vasquez,
and Didacus Ruiz, all four Spaniards, and all eminently acute

On the Jesuit teaching in its relation to Thomism and Scotism, see
Werner, Thomas of Aquin, vol. iii., p. 256, sqq. ; on their theological
opinions generally and the controversies arising therefrom, see Werner,
Snare z, vol. i., p. 172, sqq.

154 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

and profound, thoroughly versed in Exegesis and the Fathers,
and in this respect far superior to the theologians of the other
Schools.

Valentia, the restorer of theology in Germany (d. 1603),
combines in the happiest manner in his Commentaries on the
Sumir.a (4 vols., folio, often reprinted), both positive and
speculative theology, and expounds them with elegance and
compactness like Bannez and Medina.

Suarez (d. 1617, aged 70),1 styled by many Popes
" Doctor Eximius," and described by Bossuet as the writer
" dans lequel on entend toute 1'ecole moderne," is the most
prolific of all the later Schoolmen, and at the same time
renowned for clearness, depth, and prudence. His works
cover the whole ground of the Summa of St. Thomas ; but the
most extensive and classical among them are the De Legibits,
De Gratia, De Virtutibus llieologicis, De Incarnatione, and .De
Sacramentis, as far as Penance.

Vasquez (d. 1604) whose intellectual tendency was
eminently critical, was to Suarez what Scotus was to St.
Thomas. Unlike Scotus, however, he was as much at home
in the exegetical and historical branches of theology as in
speculation.

Ruiz surpasses even Suarez himself in depth and learning.
He wrote only De Deo (in 6 vols. folio). His best work, and
indeed the best ever written on the subject, is his treatise
De Trinitate.

Besides these four chiefs of the Jesuit school, a whole
host of famous writers might be mentioned. In Spain :
Louis Molina (d. 1600) whose celebrated doctrine of
Scientia Media was the occasion of so much controversy, was
not really the leader '!of the Jesuit school, but was more dis-
tinguished as a moral theologian : Jos. Martinez de Ripalda
(cl. 1648) famous for his work against Baius (Michael
Bay), and for his twelve books De Ente Supernaturali in
which the whole doctrine of the supernatural was for the
first time systematically handled ; Cardinal John De Lugo
(1660), better known as a moral theologian, is remarkable for

, l See the beautiful vork of Werner, Francis Suarez and the Later
Schoolmen.

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 155

critical keenness rather than for depth and positive know-
edge — his most important dogmatic work is the often-
quoted treatise De Fide Divina. The Opus Theologicum ol
Sylvester Maurus, the well-known commentation on Aristotle,
is distinguished by simplicity, calmness, and clearness, and
by the absence of the subtleties so common in his day.

In Italy : Albertini, Fasoli, and Cardinal Pallavicini
(d. 1667).

In France: Maratius, Martinon, and the keen and refined
Claude Tiphanus (d. 1641) author of a number of treatises
(De Hypostasi, De Or dine, De Creaturis Spiritualibus) in which
the nicest points of theology are investigated.

In Belgium : Leonard^Lessius (d. 1623) a pious, thoughtful,
and elegant theologian," author of De Perfectionibus Mori-
busque Divinis, De Summo Bono, De Gratia Efficad, and of a
commentary on the third part of the Summa. ^Egidius
Coninck, John Praepositus, and Martin Becanus.

Germany at this time had only one great native scholastic
theologian, Adam Tanner (d. 1632). His Theologia Scho-
lastica (in 4 vols. folio) is a work of the first rank, and com-
pletes in many points the labours of his master, Gregory of
Valentia. During this period, however, and far into the
eighteenth century, German theologians directed their at-
tention chiefly to the practical branches of theology, such as
controversy, moral theology, and canon law, and in these
acquired an acknowledged superiority. It is sufficient to
mention Laymann (1625), Lacroix (1714), Sporer (1714), and
Schmalzgrueber (d. 1735).

4. MYSTICAL THEOLOGY. — We omit writers who treat of
the higher stages of the spiritual life, such as St. Theresa
and St. John of the Cross, and mention only those who deal
with dogmas as subjects of meditation, or who introduce
dogmatic truths into their ascetical writings. To this period
belong the Dominican, Louis of Granada, especially on ac-
count of his excellent sermons ; the Jesuits, Francis Arias,
Louis da Ponte (commentary on the Canticle of Canticles),
Eusebius Nieremberg, Nouet's numerous meditations, and
Rogacci, On the one thing Necessary. Also Cardinal Benille,
the founder of the French Oratory, author of many works,

156 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

especially on the Incarnation ; St. Francis of Sales, On the
Love of God; the Franciscan John of Carthagena, and the
Capuchin D'Argentan. The works of Lessius may also be
named under this heading, De Perfectionibus Divinis and DC
Summo Bono. The Sorbonne doctors, Hauteville, a disciple
of St. Francis of Sales, Louis Bail, and later, the Dominican
Contenson worked up the Summa in a way that speaks at
once to the mind and to the heart.

5. PATRISTICO-HISTORICAL THEOLOGY. — This branch of
theology was cultivated especially in France and Belgium,
and chiefly by the Jesuits, Dominicans, Oratorians, and the
new congregation of Benedictines, and also by the Universi-
ties of Paris -and Louvain. Their writings are mainly, as
•might be expected, dogmatico-historical or controversial
treatises on one or other of the Fathers, or on particular
heresies or dogmas. Thus, for instance, Gamier wrote on
the Pelagians, and Combesis on the Monothelites, while
Morinus composed treatises De PoKiritentia and De Sacris
Ordinibus ; Isaac Habert, Doctriua Patruin Gracorum de
Gratia ; Nicole (that is, Arnauld) on the Blessed Eucharist ;
Hallier, De Sacris Ordinationibus ; Cellot, De Ilierarchia et de
Hierarchis ; Peter de Marca, De Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperil ;
Phil. Dechamps, De Hceresi Janseniana; Bossuet, Defense
des Saints Peres etc ; and the Capuchin Charles Joseph
Tricassinus on the Augustinian doctrine of grace against
the Jansenists. Much good work was done in this depart-
ment, but it is to be regretted that after the example of
Baius many of the historical theologians such as Launoi,
Dupin, the Oratorians, and to some extent the Benedictines
of St. Maur, deserted not merely the traditional teaching
of the Schoolmen, which they considered to be pagan
and Pelagian, but even the doctrine of the Church,
and became partisans of Jansenism and Gallicanism. The
Augustinm of Jansenius of [Ypres (d. 1648) was the un-
happy result of the misuse of splendid intellectual powers
and immense erudition unsurpassed since the time of
Tertullian. The Jesuit Petavius and the Oratorian
Thomassin attempted in their epoch-making works to treat
the whole of dogmatic theology from a patristic and historical

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 157

point of view, but both accomplished only a portion of their
design.

Dionysius Petavius (Petau, d. 1647) finished no more
than the treatises De Deo Uno et Trino, De Creatione and De
Incarnatione, to which are subjoined a series of opuscula on
Grace, the Sacraments, and the Church. Louis Thomassin
(d. 1695) has left only De Deo Uno and De Jncarnatione,
and among his opuscula treatises De Prolegomenis Iheologice,
De Trinitate, arid De Conciliis. Petavius is on the whole the
more positive, temperate, and correct in thought and expres-
sion ; whereas Thomassin is richer in ideas, but at the same
time fanciful and exaggerated in doctrine and style. The
two consequently supplement each other both in matter and
form, but both are wanting in that precision and clearness
which we find in the best of the scholastic theologians.

III. THE PERIOD OF DECAY may be considered as a sort
of echo and continuation of the foregoing, but was also a
time of gradual decomposition. The Jansenists and Cartesians
now played a part similar to that of the pseudo-mystic
Fraticelli and the Nominalists at the end of the thirteenth
century. Whilst the study of history and the Fathers was
continued and even extended, systematic and speculative
Theology became neglected. The change manifested itself
in the substitution of quartos for folios, and afterwards of
octavos and duodecimos for quartos. The best dogmatic
works of the period strove to combine in compact form the
speculative and controversial elements, and were, therefore
commonly entitled, Tlieologia Dogmatica Scholastica et Poleiuica
and often too et Moralis. Many of these works, by their
compactness and clearness, produce a pleasing impression
on the mind, and are of great practical value, but unfor-
tunately they are often too mechanical in construction. The
Germans especially took to writing hand-books on every
department of Theology. In the former period Positive
Theology was cultivated chiefly in France, while Spain
gave itself up to more subtle questions. Now, however,
Italy gradually came to the front. A host of learned
theologians gathered around the Holy See to fight against
Jansenism and Regalism which had spread over France and

158 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

were finding their way gradually into Germany. Most of
the older schools still remained, but they had lost their former
solidity. Another school was now added — the : so-called
Augustinian school, which flourished among the Augustinians
and also at Louvain. It took a middle course between the
older schools and the Jansenisis in reference to St. Augustine's
teaching.

Among the Thomists we may mention Billuart (d. 1757),
Card. Gotti (d. about 1730), Drouin (De re Sacramentaria)
and De Rossi (De Rubeis.) The two Benedictine Cardinals
Sfondrati. and Aguirre (Vieologia S. Anselmi) belong to the
less rigorous school of Thomists, and, indeed, have a marked
leaning to the Jesuit school.

The Franciscan school produced the most important work
of the period, and perhaps the most useful of all the JScotist
writings : Scotus Academicus sen Universa Doctoris Subtilis
TheologicaDogmatica hodiernis academicorummoribus accomodata.
by Claude Frassen (4 vols. folio, or 12 vols. quarto.). Boyvin,
Krisper, and Kick, also wrote at this time. The well-known,
works of the Capuchin, Thomas ex Charmes are still widely
used.

It was from the Jesuit school, however, that most of the
manuals and compendiums proceeded. These were skilfully
drawn up and were well adapted to the wants of the age,
Noel composed a compendium of Suarez ; and James Plate
an exceedingly compact and concise Synopsis Cursus Iheolog.
Antoine's Iheologia Speculative* is to be commended more for
its clearness than for its rigid opinions on morals. Germany
produced many useful manuals, e.g., for controversy, the
short work by Pichler, and a larger one by Sardagna. But
the most important, beyond question is the celebrated Iheo-
logia Wirceburgensis, composed by the Wurzburg Jesuits*
Kilber and his colleagues, about the middle of the eighteenth
century. It includes both the positive and speculative
elements, and is a worthy termination of the ancient Theology
in Germany.

The Augustinian school approached closely to Jansenism
on many points, but the devotion of its leading representa-
tives to the Church and to genuine scholasticism saved it

A /Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 159

from falling into heresy. These leaders were Christian Lupus
of Louvain and Cardinal Noris (d. 1704). Both were well
versed in history and the Fathers, but they wrote only
monographs. The great dogmatic work ol this school is by
Laurence Berti, De Iheologicis Disciplines (6 vols., sm. folio.)
The Discalced Carmelite, Henry of St. Ignatius, is slightly
Jansenistic, while Opstraet is altogether so. On the other
hand, the Belgian Augustinian Desirant was one of the ablest
and most determined opponent of the Jansenists and was
consequently nicknamed by them, Delirant.

The French Oratory which had begun with so much
promise, and had been so rich in learned historians, fell
afterwards completely into Jansenism, e.g. Duguet, Quesnell,
and Lebrun himself, and even the rest of its writers were far
from correct. Its best dogmatic works are the Institutiones
rlheol. Schol. et Polem, by Caspar Juenin, and his Comment,
hist. dogm. de Sacramentis. The French Benedictines, in spite
of all their learning, have left no systematic work. Part of
the Congregation of Saint-Maur inclined very strongly to
Jansenism and Gallicanism. The Congregation of Saint-
Vanne (Lorraine), on the other hand, was rigidly orthodox,
and produced in Calmet the greatest exegetist of the age,
in Marechal and Ceillier excellent patrologists, and in Petit-
Didier one of the most strenuous adversaries of Gallicanism,
and a worthy rival of his religious brethren Sfrondrati,
Aguirre, and Reding.

The Sorbonne was much infected with Jansenism, and
after 1682, almost completely adhered to the violent Galli-
canism of the French government. Nevertheless, a tendency,
Gallican indeed, but at the same time anti-Jansenistic, was
maintained, notably at S. Sulpice. We may mention Louis
Abelly (d. 1619), Medulla 'Iheologiae, Martin Grandin Opera
theol. (5 yols.), Louis Habert (d. 1718, slightly Jansenistic),
Du Hamel (a thorough Gallican), L'Herminier (Gallican),
Charles Witasse (1.716, Jansenist.) Tournely was the most
learned and orthodox of this group, and his Praelectiones
Theologicae had great influence in the better-minded circles
until they were supplanted by the vile work of Bailly.
The Collectio Judiciorum de Novis Erroribus, by Duplessis

160 A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology.

D'Argentree, published about 1728, is an important contri-
bution to the history of Theology.

In Germany, Eusebius Amort (Canon Regular), was the
most universal theologian of his time ; his principal work
'Iheologia Edectica, possessed abundant positive matter, and
aimed at preserving the results of the past, while at the
same time, meeting the claims of the present. We may also
mention the Theatine, Veranus, the Benedictines Cartier
Scholliner and Oberndoffer, the Abbe Gerbertde Saint-Blaise,
and lastly, Joseph Widmann, Instit. Dogm. polem. specul.
(1766, 6 vols- 8vo.)

Many large polemical and positive works on Dogma
appeared in Italy in the first half of the eighteenth century :
e,g., Perimezzi, In Sacram de Deo Scientiam : Dissert,
selectae hist. dogm. schoL ; the Barnabite Venerius and the
Carmelite Liberius a Jesu, Controvers. hist. dogm. schol. (8 vcls.
folio), against the Greeks and Anglicans, and treating of
the whole doctrine of the Sacraments.

The chief theological works were polemic o-historical
treatises against Jansenism, Gallicanism, and Febronianism ;
Viva, S.J. Damnatae Quesnelli Theses, Fontana, S.J.,J3ulla Uni-
genitus propugnata, Faure, S.J. Commentary on the Enchiridion
of St. Augustine, Benaglio, Scipio Mafiei, the Dominicans
De Rubeis, Orsi, Mamachi, Becchetti, the Jesuits Zaccharia,
Bolgeni and Muzzarelli, also Soardi, Mansi, Roncaglia,
and the Barnabite Cardinal Gerdil. The learned Pope
Benedict XIV., although more celebrated as a Canonist,
wrote on many questions of dogma. Above all of these,
however, stands St. Alphonsus Liguori (died 1787), who was
raised to the dignity of Doctor of the Church by Pius IX.
more on account of the sanctity of his life, and the correct-
ness of his opinions, especially in Moral Theology, than for
his erudition.

IV. THE PERIOD OF DEGRADATION, 1760-1830 or 1840.
The destructive and anti-Christian principles of Jansenism,
Gallicanism and Regalism, which had been gradually
gaining ground during the preceding period, led to the
downfall of Catholic theology. These principles, in combi-
nation with the superficial philosophy of the day, and with

A Short Sketch of the History of Dogmatic Theology. 161

the deplorable reverence, disguised under the name of
tolerance, for rationalistic science and Protestant learning, did
much mischief, especially in Germany. Dogmatic theology
naturally suffered most from these influences. In the
plan of studies drawn up by Joseph II. , it was quite
degraded from its proper position. Theology became a sort
of systematic collection of positive notions drawn from the
writers of a better age, or more commonly from Protestant
and Jansenistic sources. Any attempt at speculative treat-
ment only meant the introduction of Protestant philosophy,
particularly that of Kant and Schelling. Here and there
indeed some better memories survived ; but even with the
best writers, the very notion of a supernatural order of grace,
and in general the supernatural character of Christianity,
were obscured and even lost in the notion of the " Moral
Order " and the " kingdom of God." Theology came to be
considered merely as the science of religion. Lawrence
Veith, Goldhagen and the Augsburg Jesuits were worthy
exceptions; but the best work of the period is Liebermann's
Institutiones . Baader, Hermes and Gunther attempted
a more profound philosophical treatment of dogma
in opposition to the Protestant philosophy. Their efforts
were signalised by great intellectual power, but, at the
same time, by dissociation from genuine theology, and by
ignorance, or at least neglect, of the traditions of the schools.
What was said by Gregory XVI., in his Brief against Hermes,
was true indeed of all three : Magistri existunt erroris, qui nou
fuerunt veritatis discipuli. Rationalism had much less influence
on theology in France. Other causes, however, almost
destroyed theological teaching there. Italy alone preserved
the orthodox tradition ; for many of the writers named in
the period of decay continued their labours far into the
present period. Mauro Capellari, who afterwards became
Pope, under the name of Gregory XVI., published his
classical work, The Triumph of the Holy See, in the year 1800,
during the very darkest days of the period.

The toleration granted to Catholics in England and Scot-
land during the second half of the eighteenth century, gave
them the opportunity of publishing works on Catholic doc-
VOL. X. &

It52 Theological Questions.

trine. We may mention Bishop Challoner (1691-1781),
Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine, The Catholic Christian In-
structed, The Grounds of the Old Religion ; Bishop Hay (1729-
1811), Sincere Christian, Devout Christian, Pious Christian, and
a treatise on miracles — an excellent edition of these has
been published by Blackwood, Edinburgh ; and Bishop
Milner (1752-1826), whose End of Controversy is still the best
work against Low Churchmen and Dissenters.

T. B. SCANNELL.

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS.
I.

CLANDESTINITY AND DOMESTIC SERVANTS.

" REV. DEAR SIR, — A decision of yours given in the last number of
the RECORD causes me some anxiety, and may I trouble you for a
decision in the following case. You state on the marriage of domestic
servants, pages 82-83 . . . ' she may go directly from the house of
her mistress;to the parish priest, get married and leave her parish ....
I think, therefore, that the girl's quasi-domicile ceased on leaving the
house of her mistress ; and as she was not a vaga the parish priest of
her last mistress could not assist at her marriage.'

" Case— -A girl from an adjoining parish lived here in the same
house as servant for six years, and she wished to be married to a man
from a distant parish. She consulted the parish priest of her mis-
tress, and was told by him that she could get married either in her
native parish or the parish of her mistress. She replied that she
would be married in no other place than the parish of her
mistress. The Bans were then published in the parish of her
mistress, she remained in the house of her mistress till her marriage,
slept there the night previous to her marriage, dressed there for her
marriage, and went thence directly to the church, only a few yards
distant ; the man produced his certificate of freedom to marry, and
your humble servant the parish priest of her mistress assisted at her
marriage, and she went away.

" 1st. Quid sentiendum in the case ?

" 2nd. Would it effect any change in the case if her mistress did not
settle her account with the girl until the day after the marru-ge, and

Theological Questions. 163

if the girl returned to the house of her mistress after her marriage to
take some refreshment, and take with her some of her effects that
had been there ?

" I regret to trouble you with this case, but your decision being
altogether opposed to practice is my apology. '

" P.P."

This question was addressed to me personally for a
private answer by letter, and I have to thank the reverend
writer for kindly permitting me to publish it, and reply to
it also in the RECORD. It will enable me to remove a
possible misconception of a sentence to be found in my
answer to the case proposed in the last number of the
RECORD. The iuterpretation which I wish to guard against
would be quite erroneous, and the doctrine thus interpreted
would of course be opposed to practice.

1 may be allowed, before replying to the question, to
repeat, and perhaps expand the answer given in the last
issue of the RECORD, which was the cause of my reverend
correspondent's anxiety.

I proposed to myself to try to determine when a quasi-
domicile. ceases by examining the conditions necessary for
its inception ; because " quibus modis domicilium, vel quasi-
domicilium contrahitur, iisdem etiam solvitur."1 Two con-
ditions are required to constitute a quasi-domicile. 1st. It
is necessary to have commenced to reside in some fixed
home in the place. 2nd. It is necessary to have the intention
of residing in the place for the greater part of a year. In the
last number of the RECORD I described the nature of these
conditions by an extract from an Instruction of the S. Con-
gregation (7 July, 1867.) Schmalzgrueber, too, is very
explicit on the nature of the intention required to constitute a
domicile ; and his doctrine is of course equally applicable to
quasi-domicile. "Animus," he writes "volentis constituere
domicilium in aliquo loco debet esse quod velit in eo loco
constituere habitationem perpetuam ac stabilem" (L. 2, t. 2, n. 9.)
For quasi-domicile, therefore, it is necessary to have the
intention of establishing for oneself a permanent residence ; of

1 Laymann, Lib. v., Tract vi., c. x, n, 6.

164 Theological Questions.

course I speak of that qualified permanence which is proper to
quasi-domicile, the intention of establishing for oneself a
fixed abode foi the greater part of a year.

Now for the cessation of quasi-domicile : — A quasi-
domicile ceases when thefactum and animus cease: when a
person has ceased to reside in his fixed abode in the parish,
and intends not to resume residence in that abode, nor in
any permanent home in the parish. " Quibus modis quasi-
domicilium contrahitur iisdem etiam solvitur." Therefore : —

1. As a servant who comes into a parish, and travels
about in quest of employment ; or who takes temporary
lodgings whence to pursue her canvass for a situation, will
not have a quasi-domicile, until she shall have actually
commenced to live with some mistress, intending to abide
in the place for the greater part of a year : so a servant who
has had employment, who has had a quasi-domicile, loses this
quasi-domicile when she ceases to reside with her mistress,
and intends not to resume residence in that or any other such
permanent abode ; though after leaving she may spend a few
days wandering through the parish.

2. It is a mistake to assume that a quasi-domicile once
established in a parish, continues whilst the resident is within
the confines of the parish. 1 will illustrate by an example.
A labourer, let us suppose, is removing from the house he
has occupied for a few years, to a house in a neighbouring
parish: he had been living two miles from the confines of
the parish : all his effects have been removed from his late
home : he gives up possession of the house, where another
labourer immediately succeeds him ; and sets out for his new
home. What is the position of the departing labourer in
reference to domicile ? Are we to suppose that he retains
his former domicile until he crosses the frontier of the parish ?
Are we to suppose that a man who is homeless in the parish
both in fact and in intention, has at the same time a domicile
there ? As domicile ceases when the factum and animus
cease; when a person ceases to inhabit his late home and
formally, or virtually revokes his intention of continuing to
reside in any fixed abode in the parish afterwards ; we must
rather say that the domicile ceased when the poor labourer

Theological Questions, 165

departed from his late home. The same is true of quasi-
domicile.

3. Again to illustrate from the case of domestic servants.
Suppose a servant has given a few years of service in a
certain house : her term of service is now expiring ; she
resolves to discontinue her residence in this house, and she
intends moreover not to seek any fixed residence in the
parish in the future. She wishes, however, to retain her
quasi-domicile in the parish : and affecting some acquaintance
with theology she argues : — " Having had a quasi-domicile
it will not cease until the factum and animus cease. Suppose
a gentleman removed from his old home into a newly-built
habitation adjacent, who would say he had lost his domicile ?
Similarly though I am permanently leaving my present
residence I intend to live continuously in the parish ; I will
allow no interruption of this intention ; I shall therefore have
a continuous quasi-domicile." She then leaves the house of
her mistress, and commences to follow the avocation of
itinerant merchant, or pedlar of no fixed residence. Does
she retain her quasi-domicile ? If not when did it cease ?
Was it a month after she had ceased to have a permanent
home in the parish ? Or a fortnight ? Or a week? Even
though she confined her perambulations within the boundaries
of the parish, we must rather say that she lost her quasi-
domicile when she ceased to reside with her mistress,
resolving not to seek a fixed abode in the parish in future.

1 will now consider four cases in connection with
domestic servants ; and in the progress of these cases I shall
treat the question of my reverend correspondent.

i.

A servant employed in a parish distant from her native
parish, and now about to get married, finally and irrevocably
leaves the home of her late mistress. An interval elapses
between her departure from the house of her mistress, and
her marriage. During this interval she lives as a visitor
with her various acquaintances in the parish. She has
resolved not to procure another fixed residence in the parish; but
to leave immediately after her marriage. Has she lost her
quasidomicile ?

166 Theological Questions.

She is supposed to have left the only permanent residence
she had in the parish : she intends never to resume, never
again to establish for herself a home in the parish : she has
therefore lost her quasidomicile — she is in the same position
in regard to quasidomicile as the labourer and servant above
referred to. Suppose that in the meantime her intended
husband died, or withdrew from his engagement, what would
happen ? The girl would perhaps return to her former
mistress ? But she has irrevocably severed her connection
with her former mistress. Perhaps she would get employ-
ment and a home in some other part of the parish ? Probably
indeed, she would seek employment again in the parish ; if
successful she would acquire anew a quasidomicile ,- if
unsuccessful she would be obliged to return to her parental
home, or seek a home in some other parish. But when she
left her late mistress she became homeless, and domicileless
in the parish.

II

A girl similarly circumstanced goes to a lodging-house
during the few days, that may intervene, before the
bridegroom comes to the parish to be married. Does she
lose her quasidomicile ?

This case does not differ practically from the preceding
case. Suppose that having taken lodgings, the girl went home
for a few days, and took away all her effects, and then
returned on the eve of her marriage : would not a parish
priest be rather nervous to assist at the marriage? Yet
why this nervousness? If during her period of service —
when she had a quasi-domicile, the girl paid a visit to her
parents, there would be no anxiety about her quasidomicile.

1 have now arrived, at that stage of my enquiry, where it
becomes necessary to reply to the question of my reverend
correspondent. The reverend gentleman's anxiety was
occasioned by the following sentence in the last number of
the RECORD. "Even "it was stated "if the girl left her
employer's home, went directly to the parish priest,
got married, and left the parish, she had lost her quasi-
domicile." It is this sentence which is open to misconception.

Theological Questions. 167

And in order to prevent further ambiguity, to guard too
against future disturbance, and disquietude of consciences, I
shall consider still yet two distinct cases. But I will delay
for a moment to direct attention to a parallel distinction of
cases, connected with persons about to be married, and who
have, or have had a domicile in their native parish.

Case A — Ladies from rural parishes, or from provincial
towns, not uafrequently come to Dublin to be married ;
accompanied by their friend», and by their parish priest, or
his delegate who assists at the marriage. These ladies,
in the common estimation of men, have not forfeited the
rights and privileges of their original domicile. They have
still a fixed residence — a home in their native parish ; they
have not formally, or virtually, revoked the intention of
residing in their native parish ; and if anything unforeseen
occurred to prevent the marriage, they would doubtlessly
return home, as if their journey had been an ordinary pleasure
visit to Dublin.

Case B — Again, a young lady may have had a serious
misunderstanding with her family. She may know that she
will be ignominiously expelled from home, unless she antici-
pates by flight any serious action on the part of her family.
Married or unmarried she must leave ; she then arranges with
a young man from a neighbouring parish to get married in
Dublin, and she finally and absolutely leaves home, intending
never to return to her parental parish. This girl becomes a
vaga when she leaves home, and if the sponsus withdrew from
his engagement, return home would be for her impossible.

Now there are two corresponding cases in connection with
servants, who are leaving their employment about to get
married.

Servants sometimes present themselves for marriage, when,
in the common estimation of men, they have not yet ceased
to belong to their employer's household ; when the employer's
home is still their home ; while they have yet a fixed
residence in the parish ; and when they have not yet ab-
solutely revoked their intention of continuing residents of
the parish. My correspondent's letter describes such a case.
The girl slept in the house of her mistress on the night

168 Theological Questions.

before her marriage ; in the morning she went directly from
her employer's house to the church which was only a few
yards distant ; she returned for refreshments after her mar-
riage, and then left the parish. This girl, of course, retained
her quasi-domicile while she proceeded to the church on
her wedding morning. Nor did the continuance of her
quasi-domicile depend on her return, after marriage, for
refreshments. Ladies coming to Dublin to be married, have
no intention of returning for refreshments to their respective
native parishes. The servant would be accompanied by
some members of her employer's family, and would not be
considered, in the common estimation of men, to have severed
all connection with her employer's home before her marriage.
What if the marriage were delayed for a day ? The girl
would return to the home of her mistress, as she would
return from Mass on Sundays and Holidays. These cases
correspond to " Case A," above described.

Again, a servant may have been giving extreme dissatis-
faction to her mistress ; the sponsus and sponsa may have
been servants in the same family ; they may have been guilty
of several larcenies ; and their doubtful morals may have
caused serious annoyance and embarrassment to their em-
ployers. They are threatened with prosecution for their
injustice, and the wrath of the parish priest for their im-
morality ; unless, to save the character of their employer's
house, they quit the parish without delay ; finally they are
dismissed. And now they hasten from the parish with all
possible speed ; and having heard that the parish priest could
give them all the necessary dispensations, they approach him
to get married, if possible, before they return to their parental
parish ; they are anxious to be married, but married or single
they are determined to leave the parish as speedily as possible.
These persons would have Jost their qnasidomicile. This case
corresponds to " Case B " of domiciled persons.

Now, to continue the third and fourth cases —

III.

In all cases in which the servant has not absolutely severed
her connection with her employer's home before her marriage ;

Iheological Questions. 169

in which she has not formally or virtually revoked her inten-
tion of continuing, even for a short time, her residence in a
fixed abode in the parish ; in all those cases the girl retains
her quasidomicile in the parish.

How can this be determined? It will be difficult no
doubt to determine it in some cases. But we may consider
as determining elements the cordial relations that may have
subsisted between servant and mistress up to the end of the
servant's engagement ; the fact that the members of her
employer's family may have accompanied the servant to the
church ; that final leave may not be taken of her employers
until after marriage ; that if the marriage were delayed the
girl would return again to the home of her mistress, &c.

IV.

In those cases in which the servant has finally and
irrevocably left the house of her mistress; and has formally
or virtually revoked her intention of continuing for a
momenl to reside in a fixed home in the parish, quid senti-
endum ?

This was the case I contemplated in the sentence cited
from the last number of the RECORD. The servant to whom
the correspondent in the last number referred, had given
notice to her mistress of her intention to leave. Another
servant had been engaged to take her place at her departure.
She then asked the parish priest of her mistress to assist at
her marriage immediately after she should have left her
service, but before her departure from the parish ; and mean-
while she absolutely withdrew from the house of her mistress,
and went to visit or lodge elsewhere. In those circumstances
the correspondent himself considered that the servant had
lost the quasidomicile. He implied, beyond doubt, that an
interval had elapsed between the girl's final departure from
her employer's house and her marriage; because having
stated his opinion about the case as it existed, he continued :
" If this be a correct opinion, it would seem to follow that
even though she were to proceed direct after having quitted her
service to the parish priest of her late mistress, he could not
validly assist at her marriage."

170 Theological Questions.

My principal purpose was to reply to the case as it
existed ; and I said, " Now does this girl retain a fixed resi-
dence in the parish ? Does the intention of continuing to
reside in a fixed abode in the parish, as people who have a
domicile, persevere? Leaving her former mistress, she left
the only fixed residence she had, or hoped to have, in the
parish ; she has no longer any home in the parish ; she may
during the interval before her marriage spend a few days
successively with her acquaintances in the parish, or she may
go to lodge in one particular house." And I concluded that,
having ceased to inhabit her fixed abode, and having formally
or virtually revoked her intention of continuing in any fixed
permanent residence in the parish, she had lost her quasi-
domicile.

When replying to my correspondent's hypothetical case I
regarded it as governed by the same implied conditions;
and I wrote, " Or [having finally left her employer's residence,
and having revoked her intention of continuing in any fixed
residence in the parish] she may go directly from the house
of her mistress to the parish priest, get married, and leave
the parish. In all these cases, when she removed her
effects, and ceased to reside with her late mistress, she had
no longer a fixed residence in the parish, nor an intention of
residing in a fixed abode, * quemadmodum ceteri solent, gui in
eodem toco verum, proprieque dictum domicilium habent.' (Inst.
S. Cong.)"

Well, to return to my question under part iv., I am again
logically compelled by the principles laid down to say that
the girl lost her quasi- domicile when she finally departed
from the residence of her late mistress. We may suppose
the mistress and servant never to have been satisfied with
each other ; the servant may have been very improvident
and disobedient; the mistress may have been too harsh and
exacting: they may part in the greatest anger: the mistress
may be exulting in the happy riddance of her servant, and
the servant may depart fervently thanking God that the
day had finally arrived which delivered her from the galling
bondage of a service too harsh and intolerable, in this case
if the marriage were frustrated the servant would not return

Theological Questions. 171

to her former residence ; it had ceased to be her residence.
She has now no home in the parish, nor the intention of
continuing in any permanent home in the parish. Being
therefore homeless both in fact and intention she has no
longer a quasi-clomicile in the parish.

V.

In the development of this subject even a fifth case
suggests itself. A female servant has been hired for a halt-
year, her engagement will soon cease, she intends to get
married at the end of a month or two after the termination
of her engagement; she cannot remain in her present home
as she would not engage herself for another half-year ; she
then gets employment for the two months, e.g., in a factory,
and procures for herself some other fixed abode in the parish.
This girl's quasi- domicile would not cease; she does not
cease to inhabit a fixed residence in the parish, though she
changes her place of residence, her intention of continuing
a resident of the parish, and of continuing for herself a fixed
abode in the parish remains unrevoked. Her quasi-domicile
therefore continues.

May I, in conclusion, again thank my reverend corres-
pondent for his kind and courteous permission to publish his
letter in the RECORD ; it has enabled me, I hope, to allay any
false alarm that may have been occasioned by the sentence
quoted from last month's RECORD.

II.

OBJECTIONS TO THE DECISION OF THE I. E. RECORD REGARDING
" CLANDESTINITY AND DOMESTIC SERVANTS."

Ruv. Sin, — In the January Dumber of the RBCOKD,
a case is decided in reference to 'Domestic Servants and Clandes-
tinity,' which disturbs the consciences of many, and alarms not a few
both in regard to marriages already contracted, and to those about to
be contracted. For numerous cases come under the decision in the
RKCORD, and practice hitherto regarded as safe is now in danger of
being disturbed owing no doubt to the weight deservedly attached to
Theological answers in the BKCOUD. There is not, therefore, any

172 Theological Questions.

apology needed for setting forth all reasonable doubts in order to have
them cleared up.

" In the case proposed,1 the girl had had a quasi- domicile ; but it is
decided she has relinquished it before her marriage. Accordingly,
the marriage was celebrated in presence of a parish priest who was
not in law a proprius parochus of the girl. The marriage was, there-
fore, invalid.

" Many, however, still maintain that the girl in question had not
relinquished her quasi-domicile, such as constituted the parish priest of
the place a proprius parochus in or dine ad matrirnonium.

" There appears to be solid reasons for this opinion, at least, when
the case is limited to the third of the three hypotheses made at p. 82,
'Leaving her former mistress she may, during the interval before her
marriage, spend a few days successively with her acquaintances in
the parish, or she may lodge in ono particular house, or she may go
directly from the house of her mistress to the parish priest, get married
and leave the parish.' The hypothesis I have marked in italics is for
me the practical one. Those who maintain the quasi- domicile in
or dine ad matrimonium had not been relinquished, give the following
reasons : —

" 1. From analogous cases, v.g., a sponsa sends away all her effects
from her father's house to the house of the sponsus ; on the day
appointed for the marriage she leaves her father's house, goes directly
to the paiish priest, gets married, and leaves the parish. Such a
marriage is valid, so also is the marriage in the case proposed.

" 2. Subsequent habitation is not required.2 A post factam
occurrence could not make a marriage valid.

" 3. It is stated at p. 82 : — 'A quasi-domicile ceases when the two
conditions necessary for its inception cease." It may be contended
that this statement is scarcely accurate considering the meaning
assigned to the conditions in the solution of the case. For the con-
ditions which originated the quasi-domicile may cease, yet the quasi-
domicile may not cease. For example : a person intends to reside
only six or at most seven months in a given parish, he takes a house
and begins to live there. He has from that instant a quasi-domic He*
After five months he determines to change his residence to another
house in the same parish, so that he might live there more com-
fortably for the remaining month or (wo. He has not relinquished
his quasi-domicile on removing to the second house. Who would say

1 I. E. RECORD, Jan. 1889, pp. 80-83.

2 Benedict XIV., In. Const. : Faucis.

Theological Questions. 173

it ? Yet both conditions by which the quasi- domicile had been
initiated have ceased. Thefactum habitationis in the first mentioned
house in the parish has ceased. He now lives in house No, 2. The
intention of residing in the parish per majorem anni partem has also
ceased. He now intends to reside only for the remaining month or
two in the parish.

"4. It would appear, therefore, that ihefactum habitationis ought
to get a wider interpretation than is given to it in the solution of the
case proposed by M,H., the enquirer in the last number of the
KECORD. Although it always pre-supposes somefxed residence, it is
not confined to one house or to the precincts of a house. It is the
factum habitationis in paroecia. One is just as much a resident of the
parish, while in the parish church as while in one's own house in the
parish. The girl in question was just as much a resident of the parish
on her way to the parish priest to get married as she was a few minutes
before that in the house of her mistress. She did not go to the parish
church directly from her mistress more vagantis ac itinerantis, but more
vere proprieque habitantis, In the eye of the law, therefore, she had not
relinquished ihefactum habitationis in paroecia. Accordingly, she had
not relinquished her quasi- domicile.

"5. I shall content myself with citing one authority. It covers
not only the third hypothesis which I have singled out, but even the
first and second hypotheses : — ' Sedulo curandum est ut parochianus,
vel parochiana non deserat suum quasi-domicilium ante diem cele-
bration is matrimonii, sed maneat in parochia sive in eodem, v.g ,
famulatu, sive in alia domo intra parochiam, usque ad contractual in
ea matrimonium. secus enim qnasi-domicilium dispareret,'1

u I remain, Very Rev, Sir,

"Yours faithfully,

" C."

Had this letter reached the Editor a little earlier, the
necessity of a special answer might be obviated. The answer
to the preceding question could be easily adapted to both
questions. I purpose now to regard the arguments of this
letter as so many objections to the decision already given,
and to reply to them singillatim.

Obj. 1. "From analogous cases, &c."

In reply to this objection, I will set down in parallel

1 Feije : De Impedimentis et Dispensationibus Matrimomalibus, Ed. tertia,
229,3°.

174

Theological Questions.

columns my analysis of these supposed analogous cases,
leaving to the readers of the RECORD to judge of the
analogy : —

I.— THE CASE OF THE SERVANT. IT. — THE ANALOGOUS CASE.

1. A sponsa sends away all her
effects to the house of the spo?isus.

2. Her parental home is still
her home, and if the marriage
were prevented she would return
home, as she would from Mass on
Sunday.

3. Having still a home in the
parish, she presents herself for
marriage to her parish priest.

1. She finally and irrevocably
leaves the home of her late
mistress.

2. She excludes the intention
of returning.

3. She removes all her effects.

4. She is perhaps succeeded by
another servant.

5. If any mishap prevented the
marriage she could not return to
her late residence. It had ceased
to be her residence.

6. She has neither a home in
the parish, nor the intention of
continuing a resident with a fixed
abode in the parish ; on the con-
trary, leaving the parish she has
a positive intention of not con-
tinuing a resident, of not procuring
for herself another permanent
home in the parish.

7. Thus homeless in the parish
she presents herself to the parish
priest.

Obj. 2. " Subsequent habitation is not required. A post-
factum occurrence could not make a marriage valid."

A us. Transeat. Where was it stated that a subsequent
habitation was required ? Where was it mentioned that a
post-factum occurrence could make a marriage valid ? If a
person has ceased before his marriage to have a fixed
residence in the parish, and has ceased to intend to reside
henceforward in any fixed residence in the parish, he has
lost his quasi-domicile in the parish. Domiciliary habitation
will no doubt generally continue for some short time
after marriage, but not necessarily. If the quasi-domicile
snapped the instant matrimonial consent was given, the
marriage would have been validly contracted.

Theological Questions. 175

Obj. 3. " The exposition of the conditions necessary for the
cessation of quasi- domicile was scarcely accurate. For ex-
ample : A person has commenced a quasi-domicile ; after the
fourth month he removes to a second more convenient house
intending to reside there for the remaining two months of
the half-year. Who would say he had lost his quasi-
domicile ? Yet the factum habitationis in the first mentioned
house had ceased ; he lives now in house No. 2. The intention
of residing in the parish per majorem anni partem has also
ceased. He now intends to reside only for the remaining
month or two in the parish."

Ans. (a) Quid ad rem ? This man's intention of continuing
a resident in the parish remains intact, neither formally nor
virtually revoked. The servant in the case contemplated left
her residence, resolved, too, not to provide for herself another
home in the parish, and therefore ceased to have the intention
of continuing to reside in any fixed home in the parish.

(b) If the writer had merely stated that the exposition, of
the conditions necessary for the cessation of quasi-domicile
were scarcely accurate, I should not dispute his statement.
" A quasi-domicile," I wrote, " ceases when the two conditions
necessary for its inception cease." And again, " Two things
are required to acquire a quasi-domicile, factum and animus
. . . The person shall have the intention of residing in
the parish per majorem anni partem" As we shall see, it is
not necessary that these two conditions shall literally continue
the whole time. In the example given the man changes his
residence, nor has he the intention of resi ding per majorem
anni partem in house No. 2 ; nevertheless he retains his quasi-
domicile. Hence, I would not dispute the objection in this
form.

The correspondent, however, says that the exposition is
scarcely accurate, " considering the meaning assigned to the
conditions in the solution of the case." Here I join issue
with him. The exposition considered in itself was sufficiently
accurate in all truth, but it did not preclude the possibility of
cavil. The context did.

Before referring to the context let me again briefly state
the conditions necessary for originating a quasi-domicile. In

176 Theological Questions.

the last number of the RECORD I was extremely nervous to
deviate, even in words, from the hallowed definitions of the
theologians. I will now rather describe how quad-domicile
originates.

Intention is the first active element of quasi-domicile in point
of time. A person intends to become a resident in a parish,
before he actually commences to live there. Intention differs
from election : " Actus ii voluntatis quorum alter proponit
finem assequendum alter statuit medium adhibendum, ita dis-
tinguuntur, ut prior, eaque sola dicatur intentio, altera vero
electio appelletur."1 Therefore to acquire a quasi-domicile
there is (a) the intention of becoming and continuing a
resident in the parish ; the intention of establishing for
oneself some real home in the parish for the greater
part of a year. There is (b) the electio mediorum ; a person
selects some particular house in the parish, and resolves
to reside therein. And there is (c) the executio mediorum ;
he actually commences to reside in his home. He is then a
resident of the parish. Of course it would equally suffice to
take lodgings for the major pars anni, and the quasi-domicile
once established will continue until the conditions necessary
for its inception cease. Now to return to the objection.

" Suppose a person removes to a second more convenient
house for a few months, what change takes place ?"

He has been living in the parish for some time. In
changing to his new fixed abode, he does not cease for a
moment, in the common estimation of men, to reside in
the parish, " quemadmodum ceteri qui habent domicilium
in parochia." As well might you say that a person changing
from one suite of rooms to another e.g. in a college ceases
during the interval to be a resident.

Again the intention of continuing a resident of the parish
continues without interruption. The intention of continuously
preserving for himself a real home in the parish perseveres.
The electio mediorum no doubt changes. He selects a new
house in which to continue to reside; but the cessation, and
a fortiori the change of one of the conditions, does not
destroy a quasi-domicile.

1 \Valsh ; Tractatus de Act. Humanis, No. 148,

Theological Questions. 177

" But the inteution of residing per majorem anni parteiu
has ceased. He now intends to reside only for the few re-
maining months."

Might I suggest that this appears like a quibble ? Is
there question of the inception of a new quasi- domicile ?
Most assuredly no. It is not necessary to have at each
moment the intention of residing per majorem anni \_novi]
partem. At the inception of quasi-domicile a person shall
have the intention of residing in the parish per majorem anni
partem ; but afterwards it becomes the intention of continuing
there with a fixed residence to the end of that same major
pars anni.

Does our correspondent give this objection as a fair
interpretation of my last answer ? If so did he read the
following sentences : — <cThe person shall have the intention, of
residing in the parish per majorem anni partem" " Actual
residence in some fixed . . . home, and the intention of residing
in the place, for the greater part of a year . . . are essential
to the inception of a quasi-domicile."

Obj. 4. The fact am habitations ought to get a wider inter-
pretation. It is the factam habitationis inparochia. One is just
as much a resident of the parish, while in the parish church,
as while in one's own house.

Ans. No doubt a person is not required to remain per-
manently within doors, in order to continue his quasi-domicile.
As long as quasi-domicile continues, the individual is a
resident of the parish, whether in his own house, or in the
parish church, or even outside the parish. But destroy your
quasi-domicile, give up your home, and the intention of
continuing to reside in any fixed abode in the parish, and
you cease to be a resident of the parish. Was the labourer
described in the preceding answer departing as a resident ?
Was he departing from the parish (lmore vere proprieque
habitantis T Was he not literally departing more itinerantisl

Obj. 5. The authority of Feije.

Ans. How does our correspondent translate the sentence,

" sed maneat in parochia sive in eodem e.g. famulatu, eive in

alia domo intra parochiam ?" Does he render it, "let her

remain in the parish, either v.g. in the same employment, or

VOL, X. M

178 Theological Questions.

in some other house in the parish ?" Then as the gentleman
would attach so much importance to the word "house5'
(domus) in connection with quasi-domicile, we [are entitled
to ask, whether it shall be a house that is inhabited ; or will
it suffice to enter, and rest for the night before marriage in
some deserted habitation V And how can a solitary night's
lodging in a strange house, prolong the quasi-domicile of a
person, who has no home in the parish, and who has formally
or virtually revoked the intention, of continuing in any fixed
residence in the parish ? Again we may ask, shall the house
be a human residence ; or will an animal habitation suffice ?
And how could a night's rest in such an abode (domus)
prolong one's quasi-domicile ? Moreover if mere continuance
in the parish is sufficient for the continuance of quasi-
domicile, why not remain for a few nights under the cover of
some sheltry hedge ; or why not sleep in the open air beneath
the canopy of heaven ?

The passage quoted has a different meaning. The author
is insisting on the necessity of continuing the quasi-domicile
up to the time of marriage: " Sedulo curandum, ut parochianus,
vel parochiana non deserat suum quasi- domicilium, ante diem
celebrationis matrimonii." For the continuance of quasi-
domicile a home in the parish is necessary; therefore the
person intending to get married shall continue to reside in
some home e.g. in the home of his late employer ; or should he
have left that, he shall continue to reside in some other
home in the parish : " Maneat in parochia sive in eodem
e.g. famulatu, sive in alia domo." By " domus" I understand
therefore a house that, in the common estimation of men, is
a real home for the person about to be married.

D. COGHLAN.

[We are obliged to hold over for next month our answers to other
important Theological Questions. — ED. I. E. R.]

L 179 ]

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

THE CEREMONIES OF SOME ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS.
SECTION III. — THE CHOIR. — ARTICLE i.

POSITION AND FORM OF THE CHOIR. PLACE OF HIGHEST
RANK IN CHOIR.

The space immediately in front of the principal altar of a
church, and round about it, is called the sanctuary. The
sanctuary is reserved for those ceremonies which are per-
formed at the altar.

The space occupied by the clergy who assist at the sacred
functions is known as the choir. Sometimes the floor of the
sanctuary is raised one or two steps above the floor of the
choir ; sometimes both are on the same level1. In the latter
case the respective limits of the sanctuary and choir are
determined only by the ends of the choir-benches or stalls.2

In connection with the choir, three questions of great
practical importance present themselves — 1. What is the
proper position of the choir in reference to the altar?
2. What is the form of the choir ? 3. What is the first place,
or place of highest dignity, in the choir? We will answer
these three questions in order.

1. The position of the choir is regulated by the position
of the altar. Usually the front of the altar is towards
the nave of the church ; but the altar may be so placed
that the back of it, and not the front, faces the nave.
When the front of the altar is towards the nave, the
choir is between the altar and the people, and the altar
is against the wall of the apse, or at a very little distance
from it. But when the back of the altar faces the nave, the
altar, it is evident, must be at a distance from the wall, and
in this space the choir is situated.3 In this latter case, there-

1 Bourbon. Introd. aux Ceremonies Romaines, n. 47. 2 Idem.

3 Caerem.^Epis., L 1, c. 13, nn. 1, 2. Bourbon, loc. cit., n. 75. Vavasseur,
part 2, c. 2, n. 124.

180 Liturgical Questions.

fore, the altar is between the choir and the nave, and the
celebrant at the altar faces the people. The great Basilicas
in Rome are arranged in this manner.1

In the churches of some religious and in many churches
in France the altar, though between the choir and the nave,
is turned, not towards the choir, but towards the people, so
that the back of the altar is actually facing the choir. This
arrangement was introduced by the religious orders with the
object of screening themselves from the gaze of the people in
the church while reciting the Divine Office,2 and was
borrowed from the religious by the secular clergy of
France. But, however convenient this arrangement may
be for religious, it is wholly unsuitable for secular churches3,
and cannot be adopted or maintained in them without the
sanction of the Holy See.4

In modern churches the altar is usually either against the
wall or close to it, and hence the choir is merely a continua-
tion of the sanctuary, stretching out towards or into the nave
of the church. This is the arrangement we shall have prin-
cipally in view, but where necessary we shall refer to the
other arrangements mentioned.

2. The choir is generally ^rectangular in form. Choirs
having the altar between them and the nave of the church
are, however, curved or semicircular in the side opposite the
altar ;6^but this form, as is evident, would not suit churches
in which the choir is between the altar and the nave. For
this curved row of stalls would entirely shut off the altar from
the view of the people. In this case it is usual to place the
stalls or benches in parallel rows on each side of the choir.6
These rows are terminated at one end by the sanctuary ; at
the other by the balustrade or grille, which usually separates
the choir from the people, Where, however, the shape of the

1 Vavasseur, loc. cit. note.

2 Ue Conny. Ceremonial Romain, 1. 1, ch. 1, note.

8 " Cette disposition," says Bourbon (loc. cit. note) "motivee par les
regies ou les usages des religieux serait inopportune dans les eglises du
clerge seculier." In another place the same writer says, " Un choeur
place derriere 1'autel est contraire a la tradition remain e."

4 Revue des Sciences Ecclesiastiques, vol. 14, p. 69.

5 Vavasseur, loc. cit. and plates 2 and 3. Bourbon, n. 75.

6 Vavasseur, ibid, plate.

Liturgical Questions. 181

church, or other local circumstances will permit, it is not
forbidden to erect stalls or benches facing the altar at the
end of the choir opposite the altar.1 Thus arranged, the
stalls will run along the three sides of the rectangle. It will,
however, be generally convenient, if not necessary, to have
a passage through the rows of stalls facing the altar.

There may be several rows of stalls on each side of the
choir. They should be so arranged that the clergy occupy-
ing the stalls on one side would, when seated, have their
faces towards those occupying the stalls on the opposite side.2
The stalls may be either all on the same level, or the front
row on either side may be tower than the row immediately
behind it.3

3. As the position of the choir varies with the position of
the altar, so does the place of highest rank in the choir vary
with the position of the choir. In choirs situated on the op-
posite side of the altar from the nave of the church, the place
of highest rank is, as the French Rubricists put it, au rond-
point, or at the centre of the curved row of stalls facing the
altar.4 In cathedrals with this arrangement of the choir, the
bishop's throne occupies the position indicated.5 The place
second in rank will then be to the right of the first place ;
andtthe third in rank will be to the left; and so on alternately.
From this it follows that, when the choir is opposite the
nave, the Epistle side is of higher rank than the Gospel side,
contrary to the common rule. The reason for the departure
in this case is, that the places take their rank not from the
altar or the crucifix, but from the bishop, whose right is
towards the Epistle side.

When the choir is in the nave of the church, or between
the altar and the nave, the Gospel side has its proper rank,
and the first place in the choir is that nearest the altar on the
Gospel side ; the second, the corresponding place, on the
Epistle side and so on. In France this rule was not for a long

1 Bourbon, n. 78. Revue, vol. xiv.,p. 261.

2 Bourbon, n. 75. 8 Idem, n. 77.

4 Bourbon, n. 75. Vavasseur, loc. cit. and plates. Revue den Sciences
I&cl&iastiyues, vol. xiv., p. 260.

5 Caeremoniale Episcoporum, 1. 1, c. 13, p. 1, and authors generally.

182 Liturgical Questions.

time, and is not, perhaps, even yet, universally admitted.
French masters of ceremonies — whose practice, we are sorry to
say, has found its way into places distant from France — held :
first, that in the allotting of places in choir there was no
general rule which all were bound to follow, but that each
church was free to follow its own customs; and, secondly,
that at least when the altar is separated from the choir,
even by a large sanctuary, the Epistle side should rank
higher than the Gospel side, and the first places should be
furthest from the altar.1

-4

But these contentions of the older French Rubricists, we
need hardly remark, are quite unfounded, and have been ably
disposed of in recent days by several of their own learned
countrymen.2 The Ceremonial regards it as a first principle,

1 The writer of the article " Choeur," in the Dictionnaire des Ellen
Sacres, referring to the two positions which the choir may occupy, writes :
" Les tins (choeurs) sont separes et distants de I'autel, et les plus digues
du choeur en sont communement les plus eloignes, comme Ton voit dans
les eglises de France ; dans ceux-ci le cote de 1'Epitre est le plus digne."
The character of the separation necessary to justify so radical a departure
from the established usage is shown by a writer in the Rtvue des Sciences
Eccttslasliqncs, to whom we have already frequently referred. He thus
writes, vol. xiv.,p. 201 : " En suivant cette theorieles plus dignes devraient
etre les plus Eloignes de I'autel toutes les foia que le choeur se trouvc
separe de I'autel par un large sanctuaire."

2 Thus writes Mgr. de Conny (loc. ell.} " Le cote le plus digne est
celui de 1'evangile, et la premiere place, celle qui est la plus rapprochee
de T autel." In a note he adds, «' Ces regies ressortent clairemenC da cere-
monial, lequel a ete ecrit en vue d' une disposition du choeur danw laquelle
1' eveque a son siege du cote de 1' evangile, c'est & dire a la droite de 1' autel
et le clerge se place de telle facon que les plus dignes soient le plus pres
de I'autel, et preferablement du cote le plus digne, qui est le cote droit du
crucifix de 1'evangile. . . . Du reste le systeme de placer les plus dignes
le plus loin de 1'eveque ou de I'autel rompt avec tons les principes du
ceremonial, et il en rend souvent les prescriptions impracticables."

Bourbon, n. 79, uses nearly the same words. " Les places les plus
dignes sont les plus rapprochees de 1' autel," and n. 80. "An choeur lo
cote le plus digne est celui de 1' evangile, lors meme que le choeur serait
separe de 1' autel par un large sanctuaire." Indeed this author boldly
asserts that even where local circumstances make it necessary for the
dignitaries to take the places farthest removed from the altar, the gospel
side is still to be regarded as of higher rank.

Vavasseur, loc. cit. says " Les plus dignes sont les plus rapprochees de
1' autel, et le cote de 1' evangile est le plus digne." The same author
adds in a note " Si 1' on excepte le cas ou le trone est au fond et en face de
1' autel le ceremonial ne suppose jamais un choeur oil les plus dignes soient
les plus eloignes de 1' autel.'' Favrel has the very same words. Tit. 3, ch. J.

Liturgical Questions. 183

about which there can be no question, that the canons of
highest dignity should be next the bishop, whose throne is
placed on the gospel side of the sanctuary. The gospel
side since it is to the right of the crucifix should certainly
rank above the epistle side ? Moreover, if the gospel side
of the choir does not rank above the epistle side why is the
bishop's throne placed at the gospel side? And if the clergy
of highest rank should be farthest distant from the altar, on
what principle, or for what reason are the principal clergy
removed from beside the bishop, to give place to their
inferiors ? Why is the bishop left among or beside the
inferior clergy, and not placed at a distance from the altar
among the principal clergy? These arguments plainly have
the same force with respect to non-cathedral churches as to
cathedral churches. For though in the former there is no
throne, still the choir regulations must be the same in both,
otherwise endless confusion would result.

The first place, then, is on the gospel side, and nearest
the altar. But when there are several rows of stalls or
benches there are several places equally near the altar.
It remains, therefore, to determine in what row the first
place is situated. To do this we must revert to a distinction
already made. Either the rows of stalls are all on the
same level, or those on the same side rise gradually
one above the other from the front to the back. In
the former arrangement the front row ranks first, and hence
the highest place in the choir will be at the end next
the altar of the front row. If the stalls are arranged accord-
ing to the latter plan the chief place is at the end of the
back row nearest the altar.

ARTICLE n. — ORDER OF ENTERING CHOIR.

There are two ways in which the clergy may enter choir.
These are called by Kubricists the processional and the non-
processional entry. The processional entry, if fully carried
out, requires the clergy to walk two and two from the
sacristy to the choir, preceded by the acolytes, and followed
by the celebrant clad in sacred vestments.1 But even, when

1 Vavasseur, Part yi., sect. 1, ch. 5.

184 Liturgical Questions.

the acolytes do not precede the clergy, nor the celebrant
follow them, the entry may still be regarded as processional.1
There is, however, a difference in the order which the clergy
hold in the procession according as they are accompanied or
not accompanied by the celebrant and the acolytes. In the
former case those of highest rank are in the rere of the pro-
cession, and next the celebrant ; those of lowest rank in front*
and next the acolytes. In the latter the positions are reversed.
The clergy of highest rank head the procession, those of
lowest rank bring up the rere.2

This distinction as to the order in which the clergy should
enter choir is indicated in the Ceremonial* and is given by
Kubricists generally ; and from the same sources, moreover,
we learn that the more solemn processional entry should be
made on all the great feasts, and may, if the clergy please
be made on any day.4 In no case, however, should the clergy
enter in this solemn processional manner unless for a function
which requires the celebrant to be adorned with sacred
vestments.6

This change of order among the clergy entering choir for
the different circumstances in which they enter is somewhat
difficult in practice, and is apt to cause from time to time
considerable confusion. It would be convenient, then, could
it be dispensed with altogether, so that the clergy might
always preserve the same order. And if we accept the
authority of the writer of the article in the Dictionnaire des
Rites Sacres already referred to, there need be no difficulty
about this. According to this writer the custom is almost
universal for the clergy of lowest rank always to go in front,
those of highest rank always in rere of the procession.6 We
cannot see any very strong objection to the adoption of this
custom.

1 De Conny, ch. 8. De Conny, loc. cit.

8 L. 1, ch. 15. 4 Bourbon, n. 412. 5 Id. 408.

6 " Selon le Ceremonial livr. 1. ch. xv., les plus dignes du clerge doivent
marcher les premiers an choeur quand ils n'y vont pas processionnellemcnt,
neanmoins, parce que 1'usage contraire est presque universellement reyu, on
peut faire marcher les moins dignes les premiers dans toutes les differentes
manieres d'entrer au choeur, et pour tous les offices, soit solennels, soit
non solennels, afin d'&vater on ce point une trop grande singulan'te,"

Liturgical Questions. 185

Ft may be laid down as a general rule, that the pro-
oessional cross is never used in the procession to choir.
There are, however, two exceptions, namely, when the clergy
enter choir to assist at a Pontifical Mass, and when canons
enter in solemn processional order.1 In no case is a fuming
censer carried in the procession ;2 but, if the entry be for a
function, such as exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, for
which the censer is required almost immediately after the
arrival at the altar, the thurifer may carry the censer furnished
with fire, but without incenses

A few minutes before the time for the commencement of
the function at which they are to assist, the clergy assemble
in the sacristy, or if the sacristy for any reason does not suit,
in some other convenient place. They should be dressed in
soutane, surplice and berretta. During the procession to and
from the choir, the berretta is held in front of the breast, both
thumbs being inside the berretta, and the hands joined or
holding a book beneath.

At the given signal all make a moderate inclination of
the body to the cross of the sacristy, and immediately move
forward to the choir. On arriving in front of the high altar
the two who head the procession genuflect ; then rising and
turning towards each other, again make a moderate in-
clination, and retire to their places. Those who follow do,
two and two, precisely as the first two. If the Blessed
Sacrament is not in the tabernacle canons salute the cross of
the high altar with a profound inclination ; all others with a
genuflection.4 If the number of those entering choir be odd,
the last three will walk in a line, the most worthy in the
middle, and, retaining the same relative places, will salute
the altar.

1 Bourbon, n. 416, and note.

2 There is much diversity of opinion among Eubricists on this question.
Bourbon (n. 417, note 1) cites four opinions. I. The fuming censer
should be carried at the head of the procession when the clergy enter to
assist at solemn Mass. 2. The fuming censer can be carried only where
the custom of doing so has been established. 3. When the processional
.cross is used, the fuming censer should also be used. 4 The fuming censer
is never used. The last opinion is adopted by Bourbon, who says it is.
held by the most correct of the modern Rubricists.

3 Bourbon, n. 417.

Bourbon, 425. Vavasseur, part 6, sect, i., ch. 5, n. 30.

186 Liturgical Questions.

Should any one enter choir after the commencement of
functions he will attend to the following rules : — On entering
the choir he will kneel with his face towards the altar, and
pray for a few minutes ; rising, he will salute the altar, the
celebrant and the choir, beginning with the gospel side,
then retiring to his place he will salute the two between
whom his place is situated.1 If, before he arrives at his place,
a part of the function is reached which requires an inclination
or genuflection from those in choir, he will conform to the
others, and remain inclined or on his knees until the part is
finished.

All in choir of a rank equal or inferior to that of him who
enters after the rest have taken their places, if seated rise to
return his salute, and remain standing until he has taken his
place.2

ARTICLE m. — GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR THOSE IN CHOIR.

After that interior devotion, which everyone should try
to excite by attention to the presence of God, there is nothing
of greater importance for those in choir than uniformity in
observing the ceremonies. For this reason every one should
be most exact in performing at the same time and in the
same manner the actions common to all in choir, as in rising
and seating themselves, in covering and uncovering, in
genuflecting and inclining themselves.

The berretta should be taken off with the right hand. It
should not be put on until one is seated, and should be taken
off before one rises. All in choir are uncovered while
standing or kneeling, covered while sitting, except when the
Blessed Sacrament is exposed, or when it is necessary to
make an inclination at certain words or verses. On these
occasions they uncover, and holding the berretta in the right
hand rest it on the right knee.

When one is uncovered he should always hold his berretta
in his hand instead of laying it on the bench. The book
which one uses can be held resting on the berretta.

When seated the body should be erect, the feet close to-

1 Bourbon, n. 388, 442, 444. Cacrem., 1. 1, c. 18, n. 4.

2 Caerem., ibid. De Conny, 1., ch. 8. Vavasseuij ibid., art. 3, n. 36.

Liturgical Questions. 187

gether, and not stretched out, and every appearance of
lolling, or of seeking an easy position should be carefully
banished, as being highly unbecoming in persons engaged in
worshipping God, in the very house of God.

When it is necessary to change from a sitting to a kneeling
position, one ought not to throw himself forward on his knees
from his seat, but should first rise to a standing position, and
then kneel in the ordinary way. Similarly when returning
from the kneeling to the sitting position, one ought first to
stand erect, and then take his seat.

No one in choir should use any other book than that in
which the prayers of the function in which he is engaged
are contained. Neither should any one give himself up to
his private devotions, but every one ought to join in the reci-
tation of the public prayers, and consequently no one should
make any movement or sign not prescribed for the prayers
said in choir.1

ARTICLE iv. — ORDER OP DEPARTURE FROM CHOIR.

The rule generally given for leaving choir at the close of
any function, is that the clergy should depart in the order in
which they entered.2 This, of course, refers only to the
solemn or processional departure. For just as the clergy
may enter choir before the arrival of the officiant in any
order they please, so may they, after the departure of the
officiant, leave in any order they please. Moreover, even
when the entry is not strictly processional, custom has, as we
have seen, sanctioned that the clergy of highest dignity
should always bring up the rear. Similarly, then, when
leaving choir those of highest dignity may go in front, and
the officiant may leave at the head of the procession, or if
the clergy do not leave the church by the same door as the
officiant, he may leave immediately that the function is ter-
minated, without waiting, as many suppose he should, until
all have left choir before him.

The clergy then, when leaving choir, beginning with
those of highest rank, will meet two by two in the centre of

1 De Conny, loc. cit. Vavasseur, loc. cit., ch. 6, n. 53.

2 Pe Conny, loc. cit. Bourbon, n. 425 Falise, sect. 3, ch. l,sec. iii.

188 Correspondence.

the choir, genuflect before the high altar, and take their
departure.

If any one is obliged to leave choir before the termination
of the function, he will salute his two immediate neighbours,
descend from his place to the centre of the choir, genuflect
before the altar, and, lastly, salute the choir, beginning with
the side on which the officiant is, if he is present, but with
the Gospel side if the officiant is not present.1

D. O'LOAN.

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE IRISH CATHOLIC DIRECTORY.

A LETTER AND A REQUEST FROM HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP

OF DUBLIN.

4 RUTLAND-SQUARE,

DUBLIN, 25th January, 1889.

VERY REV. AND DEAR SIR,

You are of course aware that the continued and apparently
increasing irregularity in the publication of our Irish Catholic
Directory is a subject of loud complaint among the clergy. The
matter is sometimes spoken of as if the Irish Bishops as a body were
in some way accountable for this irregularity. Sometimes the com-
plaints take the form of remonstrances addressed personally to me as
Bishop of the Diocese in which the publication takes place. 1 think
the time has at length come for clearing up the confusion that seems
to exist on the subject, and for taking some practical step to put an
end, once for all, to a state of things which I know is regarded, and
surely with very good reason, by many good friends of ours, both in
Ireland and out of it, as by no means creditable to the Irish
Church.

I was requested by my venerable colleagues, at our general
meeting in June, 1887, to act for our Episcopal body in this matter.
I feel, then, that I owe it to their Lordships as well as to myself to make
it known that, short of a transfer of the publication to other hands,
every conceivable means of securing the punctual appearance of the

t Dictionna.ire des Rite$ Sacres art. " Clioeur.''1

Correspondence. 189

Directory at the beginning of the year has now been tried, but
without success.

I speak, of course, throughout of the " Irish Catholic Directory "
properly so called. The same cause of complaint, but in a lesser
degree, existed until recently in reference also to our Latin Ordo. In
both cases the same steps were taken to secure punctuality of
publication. In the case of the Ordo, as the clergy are aware, the
effort so made was successful. In the case of the " Irish Catholic
Directory " it has proved a total failure.

It would be superfluous now to refer in detail to the efforts made
in the course of 1887, in the hope of securing the timely publication
of the Directory for 1888.

As regards the present year, the Directory for which has not yet
appeared, I wish merely to mention that in the course of last year,
an ultimatum, expressed in the most decided form, was sent in writing
to the publishers. It was to the effect that the irregularity in publica-
tion could no longer be permitted to continue ; that if the Directory
for 1889 were not published before New Year's Day, some other
arrangements would forthwith be made for the publication of the
Directory in future years ; that it would be quite useless for the
publishers to hope for any departure from the terms of this intimation ;
and that in the event of the Directory for 1889 being delayed in
publication, and of their addressing any remonstrance here upon the
subject, they should not expect to receive any other reply than a
copy of the very clear announcement that had been made to them
by way of timely notice.

Notwithstanding the very notable delay that has already occurred,
I have kept back this letter until the very last day on which, as I
understand, it can be sent in time for insertion in the February
number of the RECORD.

We have now reached the 25th of January, and our Directory for
the year has not as yet made its appearance. It is fully a month
since I received from London the Catholic Directory for England.
Yesterday I received from across the Atlantic the Catholic Directory
for the United States. These facts speak for themselves.

My object in writing this letter is twofold.

In the first place, I wish to make known, as I am sure that very
many friends of Ireland at home and abroad will be glad to learn,
that the responsibility for the strange and vexatious delay in the pub-
lication of the Catholic Directory for Ireland does not rest with the
Irish Bishops .

Secondly, I wish to invite suggestions, as I have no doubt that

190 Document.

many useful suggestions can and will be made by priests throughout
the country, in reference to our Irish Directory generally, its
form and its contents.

The making of new arrangements for the publication of the
Directory seems to afford a suitable opportunity of introducing
into it many useful, and indeed obviously necessary, improvements.
I remain,

Very Rev. and Dear Sir,

Most faithfully yours,

& WILLIAM J. WALSH,

Archbishop of Dublin, $c.} $c.

DOCUMENT.

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS LEO XIII. TO THE BISHOPS OF
IRELAND, IN WHICH THE HOLY FATHER EXPRESSES HIS
SYMPATHY WITH THE BlSHOPS AND THEIR SUFFERING
FLOCKS, AND ANNOUNCES HIS INTENTION TO SEND PRECIOUS
GIFTS TO EACH CATHEDRAL CHURCH IN TOKEN OF HIS
SPECIAL LOVE.

LEO PP. XIII.

ViiNERABiLis FKA.TEB — Etsi cunctas et singulas partes Dominici
gregis, cuius credita Nobis custodia est, paterno amplectamur cari-
tatis affectu ; ad eas tanien potissimum curafertur et cogitatio Nostra,
quas in aliquo esse incommode perspicimus. Scilicet in Nobis expe-
riinur, quod a natura parentibus inditum est, ut prae ceteris eos
foveant curentque liberos, quos aliqua calamitas perculit. Quam ob
rem singular! benevolentia semper dileximus catholicos ex Hibernia
variis et diuturuis casibus veheineuter exercitos : multoque cariores
habere consuevimus, quod mirae fuerunt in patiendo constantiae, nee
ulla vis aerumnarum ad labefactandam minuendamve apud eos avitam
religionem valuit.

Quae monuitnus eos non semel, quaeque postremo hoc tempore
decrevimus, ideo decrevimus et monuimus, quod ea hinc cum veritate
iustitiaque congruere, illinc profutura videbamus ipsis rebus vestris :
neque enim Noster erga vos animus ferre potest, ut caussae pro qua
conteodit Hibernia noceatur quidquam, admiscendo quod possit iure
reprehendi.

lamvero quo testatior haec Rostra in Hibernos voluntas

Notices of Books. 191

sit, munera istuc mittimus, quorum pars est in vestibus, vasis et
oi'namentis, quae in sacra supellectile continentur ; eaque Ojtfiedral
libus Hiberniae Ecclesiis destinamus, quo splendidior ste decor
Domus Dei et divini cultns ; pars alia minoribus donariis constat,
quae Nosmetipsi benedictione lustravimus, eademque veluti iustru-
menta sunt ad siugulorum pietatem fovendam, quibus munerari
privates volumus, prout explicatius significandum tibi curabimus.

Non dubitamus, quin vel hinc magis magisque appareat, paternam
in Hibernos caritatem Nostram permansisse semper eamdem. Qua
quidem caritate sunt etiam futuri digniores, si docilem animum fiden-
temque Nobis gerere perrexerint, attenteque caverint eorum fallacias\
qui consilia Nostra in deteriorem partem non dubitant interpretari, ut *
convellant, si fieri possit, spectatum illud in Ecclesiam catholicam \
obsequium, quod est in praecipuis Hibernorum laudibus ponendum, a
patribus et tnaioribus, tamquam maxima et nobilissima hereditas,
acceptum.

Optima quaeque gratiae caelestis munera adprecantes Tibi,
Yenerabilis Frater, Clero et populo cui praesides, Hiberniaeque
universae, Apostolicam Benedictionem peramanter impertimus.

Datum Romae apud S. Petrum die XXI. Dec. An.
MDCCCLXXXVIIL, Pontificatus Nostri Undecimo.

LEO PP. XIII.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

ST. PATRICK : His LIFE, His HEROIC VIRTUES, His LABOURS

AND THE FRUITS OF His LABOURS. By the Very Rev.

Dean Kinane, P.P., V.G., Cashel. Dublin : Gill & Son.

THE Venerable Dean of Cashel diocese has added one more to

his list of invaluable books. He has chosen for his literary labours

subjects of the most solid and profitable devotions in the Church,

and the works he has written have this great merit that, while they

supply to the educated and enlightened, on the whole, more edifying

reading than far more pretentious volumes, they bring the practice

and pleasures of devotion home to the poorest and humblest of the

people. It is not for us to say what great profit has been derived by

priests and people from his works on the Blessed Eucharist, on the

Sacred Heart, on the Immaculate Mother, and on St. Joseph* The

192 Notices of Books.

good done by these works, great though it has been throughout the
length and breadth of Ireland, is not by any means confined to our
own or even to English speaking countries. " Der Wahre Pelikan,
oder Liebe Jesu im Allerheiligsten Altarssacramente," the German
version of his " Dove of the Tabernacle " has a wide circulation
among the Catholics of the Fatherland. Some of the above mentioned
works have also been translated into French, Italian and Spanish.
But we believe that his latest work, The Life and Labours of St.
Patrick, will become even more popular than any of its predecessors, at
all events in Ireland and America. The fact that the zealous and
venerable author has received most complimentary letters from two
cardinals, seven archbishops, and a large number of bishops, and
that the preface is written by the Archbishop of Gashel, leaves
absolutely nothing for us to say by way of recommending the work.

With regard to its literary form we can testify that it is ex-
ceedingly simple and well adapted to the end the author has in view.
It makes the subject accessible to all readers, and disposes the con-
tents in the most natural order. A few grammatical slips, and words
misapplied in sense, can be easily corrected in a second edition.

It was of course unavoidable to discuss the subject of the Saint's
birthplace, but, without going much into the labyrinth of controversy
that enshrouds it, the author declares plainly his predilection for the
opinion of Dr. Lanigan, which " gives to France the glory of being
his native land." From chapter to chapter we follow the simple
narrative of the Saint's life and labours with suitable prayers now
and then addressed to him that he might still watch over the faith
in this island, and guard his children from the dangers that beset
them.

It is hardly necessary to say that we give this little book a hearty
welcome. Coming as it does, fresh with the warmth of piety and
Christian faith, it is as the " salt of the earth " amidst the flood
of pestilential books and perodicals that pour in daily amongst our
people. J. F. H.

PASSING THOUGHTS FOR LENT AND HOLY WEEK. London :
Burns & Gates (Limited).

THOUGH this attractive booklet is intended chiefly for Lent, it
may be read with great profit at any time, particularly during a
Retreat.

It depicts a few scenes preceding and following our Redeemer's
death with great vividness; and a wonderful unction pervades the
whole tiny volume. E. M.

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

MARCH, 1889.

THE RECITATION OF THE DIVINE OFFICE.

WRITERS deduce from various passages of Sacred
Scripture that the Apostles compiled certain forms of
public prayer which, at specified times of each day, were
recited by the first Christians generally, and which, as a
compiled formula of public worship, might legitimately be
regarded as the book of Divine Offices in protoplast. The
Sacred Scripture does not, it is true, make definite mention
of such compilation, nor does it designate 'in specie infima the
prayers that were thus recited ; but it testifies to the fact
that at stated hours the early Christians daily congregated
for prayer, and that those stated hours were recognised by
precisely the same distinctive names as our " Canonical
Hours." Thus, it tells us of certain events which occurred
" when Peter and John were going up to the Temple ad
horam orationis Nonam ;" how " Peter went up to the higher
places ut oraret circa horam Sextam ;" how " Paul and Silas
praised God in prayer Media nocte," &c. This method of
fixing events might not per se and of necessity point to an
antecedent establishment of " Canonical Hours ;" but since
those determinate periods of the day are spoken of as home
orationis, it is manifest that, whatever might have been the
selection and arrangement of the prayers themselves, there was
beyond controversy an actual specification of certain prescribed
hours which were known to be devoted to public prayer.

It is no very trying stretch of imagination to fancy
that the devotional exercises assigned to those successive
VOL. X. N

194 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

assemblings, were neither of absolutely identical form, nor
taken up without reference to order and system ; and, on the
easy assumption that the exercises were methodically diver-
sified, we have traced to the Apostolic times the essence and
substance of the Divine Office. Even the generic form of the
Divine Office is sufficiently indicated in the Epistles of
St. Paul ; as, for example, in the Epistle to the Ephesians :
" Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns, and spiritual canticles ; singing and
making melody in your hearts to the Lord ; giving thanks
always for all things, in the name of our Lord Christ, to God
and the Father." (chap, v.) It is only natural, therefore, to
find Tertullian, amongst the earliest ecclesiastical writers,
describing the daily periods ot public worship as " Horae
Apostolicae, Tertia, Sexta, Nona," &c.

No one, of course, contends that an identical form of
liturgical prayer constituted the Divine Office universally
throughout the Church of the first centuries. Like the form
of tonsure and the fixing of Easter time, it admitted acci-
dental variations in different provinces. At no period,
however, was any province without some recognised Divine
Office ; and, notwithstanding all their aberrations, we find
its recitation even still regarded as a duty amongst the
schismatics of the fifth and sixth centuries. In further
evidence of the Apostolic origin and universal adoption of a
legalised public worship in minute correspondence with our
Divine Office, writers mass together unmistakable passages
from the Acts of the Council of Antioch in the third century,
and from the writings of St. Justin, Tertullian, St. Clement
of Alexandria, Origen, St. Basil, Theodoret, &c.

While these facts are beyond all controversy, the origin of
that particular compilation, no w universally called the Breviary,
is involved in considerable obscurity — no doubt because of its
great antiquity. Traces of it are plainly discernible in the
works of Cassian in the fifth century ; and St. Benedict, who
lived a century later, and who in all probability followed the
Roman usage, prescribed in detail the psalms, lessons and
prayers to be recited by his followers in each division of the
" Office." The monks of the Monte Casino Monastery held

The Recitation of the Divine Office. 195

in great reverence a manuscript written in the year 1100,
which was entitled " Breviarium, sive Ordo Officiorumpei totam
anni decursionem." It does not, of course, profess to be an
original compilation of prayers ; but, to an elaborate and
artistically executed copy of those in common use throughout
the Church, it appends a directory or guide for the due and
befitting recital of them. Benedict XIV. (Tnstit. xxiv.) tells
us that " in eo ritus totius Ecclesiastici Officii, et pro ipsius
recitatione, Sacroque faciendo, caeremoniae continentur."
The learned Pontiff thinks that the Benedictine Breviary is —
in that specific form and under that name — the earliest of
which we have historical cognisance ; he therefore declines
to accept the more common opinion that the first Breviary
was that compiled by the Franciscan Fathers, approved of
by Pope Nicholas III., ordered to be used " per omnes Urbis
Ecclesias, and known as the Officium Breviatum CuriaeRomanae.

Curiously enough, it is from Peter Abelard's writings
against St. Bernard that the clearest light is shed
upon this particular controversy; for he states in his
Epistola Apologetica (written in 1140 — just a century before
the Franciscan Order received the approbation of Pope
Honorius III.) that an " Officii Divini Compendium
[Breviarium] per omnes Komae Ecclesias jam tune inductum,
probatumciue fuisse." It is, however, right to observe —
even parenthetically — that ecclesiastical writers generally
maintain that the Franciscan Breviary was for a long time
commonly used in the Church, and constituted the ground-
work of the Breviary " revised " and prescribed for the
Universal Church by Pope St. Pius V., in obedience to the
Decree of the Council of Trent.

Having said so much (and yet so little) regarding the
historical origin of the Breviary, there are some matters of
practical utility to which reference may be made with
advantage. In pursuance of the object immediately in view,
this paper excludes all reference to those long and valuable
dissertations in which our theologians discuss the best
methods of so reciting the Divine Office as to secure the
largest measure ot merit before God. Such dissertations lie
altogether outside the scope of the present paper. We shall

196 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

rather take what is, in some degree, the opposite course,
and, with a view to removing those anxieties and scruples
that very commonly shadow the discharge of a duty intrin-
sically onerous and involving many grave responsibilities,
consider what manner of recitation is required, and will be
absolutely sufficient, to discharge the obligation. There
need be little fear that those who are obliged to recite the
Divine Office will err through a deficiency of fervour and
recollection — conscious, as they must be, that it consists
chiefly of the very words of the Holy Ghost Himself, and,
as to the rest, of those prayers and spiritual readings which,
under His inspiration, the Church has formulated : conscious,
too, that, in the words of St. Liguori, " a hundred private
prayers can never have the efficacy of a single petition presented
in the Divine Office" (Selva). One word more by way of pre-
face or apology: the following notes are strung together
with little or no pretention to order or method — merely as
so many cuttings taken from the works of approved authors in.
intervals of comparative leisure.

I.

" Ne invertatur ordo Horarum, absque justa causa" is
a universally accepted rule ; but amongst the " justae causae
inversionis" theologians recognise the circumstance that
frequently occurs — when, namely, the Breviary is not at
hand, and it is reasonable, desirable, or convenient to dis-
pose of a portion of one's obligation by reading Lauds and
the subsequent Hours from the Diurnal. Matins may then,
" absque culpa," take last place. Again : it sometimes
happens that " inter orandum advertaste aliquid omisisse" —
for example, one of the Hours, a Commemoration, the
Suffrages of the Saints, or the Ferial or Dominical Prayers —
should this occur, the rule prescribed by La Croix and other
approved writers is " perge et supple in fine."

Furthermore : even though one should not advert to the
unconscious omission of any portion of the Office until the rest
of it had been hours ago recited, " potes earn solam postea
supplere . . nee opus est aliquid aliud repetere" (ibid).
Lehmkuhl goes much farther when he adds — and the observa-

The Recitation of the Divine Office. 197

tion involves more than oiie important principle — " Si ad
marmm non habeas Breviarium, et scias ex memoria psalmos
possis, ne temporis dispendium facias , Lectiones Nocturnorum
remittere, postea suppleturus, et reliquum Nocturnorum nunc
recitare." All this read side by side with the teaching to be
referred to in the fourth paragraph manifestly meets another
very possible case. Should a priest be taken away after
midnight to a " sick call," miles from his home, there is
nothing to prevent him, " ne temporis dispendium faciat,"
from reciting " ex memoria" all of that day's Office of which
he has a distinct recollection. He will thus be enabled to
" beguile the weary way," and occupy his time well and
profitably.

II.

The teaching of La Croix, Lehmkuhl, and the others
rests on the commonly accepted principle that "singuli
psalmi imo et fere versus, singulaeque Lectiones vel orationes
habent completam significationem, et satis uniuntur vel per
intentionem contitoiandi, aut, si haec absit, saltern per hoc
quod intra diem, aut tempus quo durat obligatio, addantur"
(Concma, La Croix, Gury, &c.). When this principle is con-
ceded it is easy to infer that "interrumpere unum Nocturnum
ab aliis, etsi fit sine causa, non est peccatum, modone nimiafit
interruptio. S. Alphonsus concedit tres horas" (LehmkuhlJ.
Nor can it be a violent straining of the principle to infer
with Gury that " si adsit justa causa, cujus gratia Nocturni
separari debeant, intervallum illud pro ratione illius causae
etiam protrahi potest."

The question then naturally suggests itself, " an vel
quomodo ille peccet qui. recitato uno Nocturno in vigilia,
reliquam Matutirii partem tola nocte interjecta recitat T
Gury replies that this is perfectly justifiable, " rationabili
de causa v. gr., si Officium sit valde productum, ut
Officium Dominicae, et recitato primo Nocturno, quis sit
valde defatigatus, vel somno obrutus, &c. . . . justa
enim de causa interruptio quaelibit licita est." La Croix
quotes Tamburini, Gobat, and Stoz to the same effect, and
has nothing more decisive to say against their teaching than
" hoc non facile practicarem." No one should do it lightly ;

198 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

but the slender "non facile" of La Croix is more than
counterpoised by the " rationabilis causa," and this illustrious
theologian may well be taken as adopting their view.

III.

Occasionally it will happen that in the middle of an
Hour, or even in the middle of a psalm, some "causa
utilitatis propriae vel alienae," some " ratio urbanitatis vel
charitatis," will suggest the desirability of interrupting the
Hour or psalm. In this event Lehmkuhl says that "absolute
loquendo pergi potest ubi recitatio fuerat relicta." But he
strongly counsels the repetition of the Hour, or at least of
the interrupted psalm, " when only a small part of the Hour
or psalm has been read, or when the interval has been pro-
tracted." This he believes to be necessary as a preventative
against possible irreverence — not, however, to secure the
substantial discharge of the obligation. In justifying this
practice of resuming " ubi recitatio relicta fuerat " Lehmkuhl
and the others are simply consistent ; but the theory, read
in all its fulness, seems to strain the principle almost to
snapping.

JV.

" Lit quis licite possit anticipare vel postponere
debitum tempus Horarum, sufficit quaevis causa utilis vel
honesta . . . major devotio, sive quies, tempus aptius
ad studendum et simile" (St. Lig., L. iv., n. 173). It would
be a work of supererogation to specify any of those familiar
causes relied on to justify the postponement of any of the
Hours ultra delitum tempus. It is more to the point to inquire
what causes would justify the reading of Vespers and Compline
before noon. In developing the " causa quaevis justa et
houesta " which would be sufficient, theologians enumerate,
in addition to those mentioned by St. Liguori, Ci publica
lectio, concio paranda, periculum impedimenti obventuri, iter
obeundum, labor manuum et caetera id genus."

AVith this latitude of interpretation, and the still greater
latitude which it suggests, we can hardly doubt that they would
permit the anticipatory recitation of Vespers and Compline if
a man foresaw that, by thus reciting them, he could the more

The Recitation of the Divine Office. 199

freely enjoy some lawful relaxation, for example, during his
summer holidays; if he foresaw that, being thus set free for
the day, he could devote his time without interruption to
profitable secular study ; and, a fortiori, if he foresaw that,
by thus anticipating, he would be enabled and stimulated
and " erubesced " to devote his free time — when it should
come — to that most salutary of practices, the reciting of
Matins and Lauds in vigilia. Here, beyond controversy, is a
" causa utilis et honesta," and Concma, with all his inordinate
rigour, having established that it is a " minus malum antici-
pare quam postponere," adds that " nulla culpa patratur, ne
venialis quidem, quum justa anticipandi causa adest." By
the way, it is interesting to observe that throughout this
entire matter, the rigorist and benign theologians effect
an almost perfect volte face; for while Suarez is revealed an
uncompromising Conservative, Concma takes his place in
the vanguard of advanced Liberalism.

V.

Theologians generally teach (1) "non peccat qui
Horas submisse orat loco etiam sordidissimo ;" and (2) "nullus
situs corporis est de praecepto." " Quare," adds Lehmkuhl,
" rationabili de causa etiam decumbens [in lecto] Officium
Divinum recitare aliquis potest." This is also the teaching of
very many others as summarised by Gury, who says : " quae-
cumque autem causa mediocris ab omni culpa excusabit, v. gr.,
morbus aut infirmitas quaelibet, dolor capitis, defatigatio, vel
si quis node dormire nequeat, Officiujn recitare potest, qnin
surgere teneretur" In immediate connection with this the
question may be asked ,"an sit culpa non servare rubricam, ex
qua preces quaedam genibus flexis sunt recitandae ?" Of course
the answer is that, "si agatur de recitatione extra chorum, nulla
est culpa, quippe ex consuetudine et communi interpretatione
haec rubrica solum chorum respicit.'' To this Gury subjoins
the exceedingly useful observation : " Idem dicendum de signo
crucis et de aliis signis in choro usitatis" By remembering this
decision, guaranteed as it is by legitimatised custom and the
common interpretation of theologians, travellers in railway
carriages and other conveyances will sometimes protect

200 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

themselves from scarcely suppressed insult, and the recitation
of the Divine Office from irreverent comment. There is no
necessity whatever for any — much less a demonstrative —
tunsio pectoris or the making of the signum crucis, nor, in the
circumstances that ordinarily occur, is such a challenging
protestation of faith easily defensible.

VJ.

(1) " Valet axioma Officiumpro Officio" — at least when the
Office which we unthinkingly substitute for our own is not
notabiliter brevius. If it be, there seems to be a decided pre-
ponderance of opinion obliging us to supply from our own
Office pro rata omissionis. For example, if instead of the
" Sunday's " Office we have read that of a martyr, they tell
us to add the psalms of the First Nocturn of the Dies Dominica.

(2) Can we deliberately make an exchange of Offices?
"Ilia permutatio, modo ne sit in notabiliter brevius, ex
mediecri causa raw facta, peccatum non est, v. gr., si quis
loco Officii proprii recitat idem de Communi, quando proprium
Officium sine incommodo haberi nequit" (Lehmkuhl, S. Lig.,
Layman). By an a fortiori argument this decision must
prove a relief to those who, journeying to a distance, find
that they have taken with them the wrong quarter of the
Breviary, and cannot, without giving or undergoing con-
siderable trouble, procure the current quarter. On those
exceptional and rarely occurring occasions, they are justified
in reading de Communi In the case of the ''Night Call"
alluded to above, and in all similar emergencies, those theo-
logians would sanction the recitation of a prayer de Communi
instead of that peculiar to the day, nor would they hold us
bound de praecepto to afterwards supply the proper prayer.

(3) With all this indulgent interpretation, they are emphatic
in asserting that, should we find that we have read the same
Hour twice, we cannot, by applying the axiom Officium pro
Officio, omit a subsequent Hour of like length.

(4) " Error corriyitur ubi deprehenditur." If, therefore, it be
discovered — say, at Prime — that a wrong Office is being
recited, the subsequent portion must be recited as prescribed
in the Ordo^o matter how dissimilar and seemingly discordant
the component elements of the Office may be when completed.

1 he Recitation of the Divine Office. 201

(5) "Si quis mutando Officium erraverit," it is not unlawful
to recite, on the day set apart for the Office which we have
just now read by mistake, the Office that has been over-
looked : but it is more commonly and authoritatively held
that we should rather avoid making a second alteration in —
rather divergence from — the Calendar, and should read the
same Office a second time in preference. De Lugo has
written a long, interesting and instructive chapter to establish
this teaching.

VII.

" Pronunciatio vocalis est de substantia praecepti."
This, as an axiomatic principle, is admitted by all, at least
for secular priests ; but there is a considerable diversity of
interpretation in fixing the volume of vocalisation that is de
substantia. There were two extreme standards, both of which
have been long since abandoned : The first would regard as
sufficient a mere recitatio mentalis, or, as some describe it, a
"reading with the eye." No one would now think of
defending its sufficiency; " certo non suffidt" (Lehmkuhl).
The second would exact " quod quis recitat ita alte, ut a
praesentibus audiri posset." While steering clear of either
extreme Saurez emphatically requires such externation of
voice " ut te ipsum audire possis." La Croix vehemently
asserts " dicendum esse cum Castropolao et aliis communiter,
debere [verba] ita proferri ut te possis audire, si nullum foret
impedimentum, quia verba quae auditu percipi non possunt,
non videntur esse verba, sed potius inchoatio verborum facta
in gutture vel intra dentes."

It will be observed that the argument of those theologians
does not affirm a direct necessity of hearing the words, which
is nowhere prescribed; but it rests on the assumption that
such a formation of words as is essentially involved in a true
"pronunciatio vocalis" renders them positively audible — even
though we should try to repress them. This much seems in-
disputable, that in a real " pronunciatio vocalis " the
words must be distinctively articulated, and articulation
requires the independent and effective employment of those
individual organs of speech — the tongue, the throat, the
teeth, the lips — without which words cannot be distinctly

202 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

formed. What is called " pronunciatio in gutture vel intra
dentes" leaves some of those organs at least partially
quiescent : the words so formed would not, if externated,
stand forth, each complete in its own unabated fulness ; and
such imperfect formation of words, in the judgment of La
Croix " cum aliis communiter" is a halting and mutilated
travesty of " pronunciatio vocalis."

But is there no substantive medium between pro-
nunciation "intra dentes aut in gutture" and that "qua
te ipsum audire potes?" St. Liguori, Lehmkuhl, &c.,
affirm that " vocalis pronunciatio habere potest, etsi recitans
se non audit," and they teach the sufficiency of such pronun-
ciation— always assuming, as an indispensably necessary
condition, that it be not "intra dentes aut in gutture," but
that the <; voces et syllabas suis organis efformatas fuisse."
When Lehmkuhl adds "probabile tantum earn pronunciationem
sufficere, quae ne a loquente quidem exterius audiatur," he
raises no question as to the interpretation of the law, which is
itself unalterable and must be absolutely fulfilled ; but merely
affirms the probability of a man's succeeding in fully forming
his words " silenti voce" On this matter each man must, by
actual experiment, establish his own individual capability ;
and unless he satisfy himself as to the question of fact, he has
no escape from the obligation of so externating his words
" ut se ipsum saltern audire valeat." In shorter form : The
fulfilment of the obligation rigorously and imperatively
requires such a casting and fashioning of the words that if
those words were rendered separately sensible, each would
be in all its syllables an articulate vox humana. If this be de
facto accomplished, the obligation is probably, and therefore
(according to Lehmkuhl), sufficiently fulfilled. If not, not.

Material remains in abundance for many interesting
paragraphs. For example : What intention and what species
of attention suffice for the discharge of this duty ? What is the
effect of voluntary distraction upon the recital of the Divine
Office, and upon prayer generally ? Can a priest, sojourning in
a strange diocese, substitute for the Office of his own Ordo the
shorter Office prescribed in the place of his sojourn ? &c., &c.
These may be discussed in a subsequent paper.

C. J. M.

[ 203 ]

ANCIENT IRISH SCHOLARS.
DICUIL THE GEOGRAPHER.

ONE of the most interesting monuments of ancient Irish
scholarship is Dicuil's treatise, De Mensura OMs Terrae
written so early as the year A.D. 825. It is not very credit-
able to the Irish learning of the present day that no attempt
has yet been made even by any of our learned societies to
print this little work in Ireland. It is to French scholars we
are indebted for printing and annotating Dicuil's treatise. In
1807 the editio princeps was published by M. Walckenaer from
two manuscripts in the Imperial Library of Paris. In 1814
M. Letronne produced a still more accurate edition, enriched,
too, with many learned notes, and important dissertations, in
which he shows the advantages that scholars may derive
from a careful study of this geographical treatise of the Irish
monk. There is no doubt that M. Letronne expended much
time and labour in the execution of this work, of which the
full title is as follows : — Recherches Geographiques et Critiques
sur Le JAvre De Mensura Orbis Terrarum compose en Irlande
au Commencement du Neumeme siecle par Dicuil. This work is
now very rare, and hence we shall present our readers with
a brief account of this most valuable and interesting monu-
ment of ancient Irish learning.

Unfortunately we know nothing whatsoever of the per-
sonal history of Dicuil except what can be gathered from a
few incidental references which he makes to himself in this
treatise ; but these, though very brief, are clear and definite.
He tells us first of all that his name was Dicuil, and that he
finished his task in the spring of the year A.D. 825. Like
most of his countrymen at that time, he was fond of poetry,
and gives us this information in a neat poem, written in Latin
hexameters at the end of the MS., to which we shall refer
again. He also implies in his opening statement, or prologue,
that he had already written an Epistola de questionibus decem
Artis Grammaticae^ which was probably intended to be copied
and circulated amongst the Irish monastic schools of the
time, but of which we know nothing more. He tells us that

204 Ancient Irish Scholars.

a certain Suibneus (Suibhne), or Sweeny, was his master
to whom under God he owed whatever knowledge he
possessed. His native country was Ireland, which he des-
cribes in affectionate language as "nostra Hibernia," — our
own Ireland — in opposition to the foreign countries of which
he had been speaking. Elsewhere he calls it in accordance
with the usage of the time nostra Scottia. He also adds when
referring to the islands in the north and north-west of Scot-
land, that he had dwelt in some of them, he had visited
others, more of them had he merely seen, and some of them
he had only read of.

This is really all the information we have about Dicuil,
and from data so meagre, it is very difficult to identify
Dicuil the Geographer, amongst the many Irish monks who
bore that name.

By a careful examination, however, of these and some
other facts to which he refers, we can conjecture with some
probability where and by whom he was educated.

When speaking of Iceland Dicuil refers to information com-
municated to him thirty years before by certain Irish clerics,
who had spent some months in that island. This brings us
back to A.D. 795, so that when Dicuil wrote in 825, he must
have been a man considerably advanced in years. We may
infer, too, that his master, Suibhne, to whom he owed so
much, flourished as a teacher at a still earlier period than
A.D. 795. There were several abbots who bore that name
between A.D. 750 and A.D. 850 ; but it appears to me that the
master of Dicuil must have been either Suibhne, Abbot of
lona, who died in 772, or Suibhne, son of Guana, Abbot of
Clonmacnoise, who died A.D. 816, and the former appears to
be the more probable hypothesis. If Dicuil were, suppose,
seventy-five when he wrote his book, he must have been
born in 750. He would then be about sixteen years of age
when Suibhne, Vice- Abbot of lona, came over to his native
Ireland in 766, where he remained some time. Suppose
that Dicuil returned with him as a novice in that year, he
could have been six years under the instruction of Suibhne
before that abbot's death in 772. It is likely that Dicuil
remained in lona for several years after the death of his

Ancient Irish Scholars. 205

beloved master, it was, doubtless, during these years that
he visited the Scottish islands, and dwelt with some of the
communities whom St. Columba had established there. On
this point his own statement is clear and explicit.

But towards the close of the eighth century a storm burst
upon the heads of the devoted inmates of these religious
houses, when they were slain or scattered abroad. In
A.D. 794 the Danes devastated all the " Islands of Britain,"
and in 795 they attacked and plundered lona itself. In 798
they renewed their inroads, and harried "all the islands
between Erin and Alba." lona was burned again by " the
gentiles " in 802, and the family of Hy, to the number of
seventy-eight persons, was slaughtered by them four years
later. Then nearly all the survivors fled to Erin, and built the
City of Columcille, in Kells, next year, A.D. 807, to which, shortly
after, the relics, or at least some of the relics, of the founder,
were solemnly transferred. It is highly probable that it was at
this period, when the community of lona was dispersed, that
Dicuil returned to his native country. It is very difficult,
however, to identify him with any of the holy men who bore
that name, and whose festivals are recorded in our calendars.
Colgan mentions nine saints of this name ; some of whom,
however, certainly flourished at a much earlier period.

The founder of lona, Columcille, with his kinsmen, originally
came from Donegal, and the monastery seems to have been
principally recruited at all times by members of the
Cenelconaill race. Amongst the saints who were called Dicuil,
or Diucholl, were two who were venerated in Donegal ; one the
son of Neman, whose memory was venerated at Kilmacrenan
on Dec. 25 ; the other was Dicuil of Inisho wen, whose feast-day
is Dec. 18th. The latter is described as n hermit ; and it may
be that our geographer, after his return from lona, retired
to a life of solitude in Inisho wen, and there, towards the close
of his life, composed this treatise, of which the most valuable
portion is that containing the reminiscences of his early life
in the Scottish islands.

The chief difficulty against this hypothesis, that Suibhne,
Dicuil's master, was the Abbot of lona who died in 772, is
the great age at which, in that case, the pupil must have

206 Ancient Irish Scholars.

written his book, in A.D. 825. The monks of those days,
however, were often intellectually arid physically vigorous at
the age of eighty, and even of ninety years.

If, however, anyone prefers the other hypothesis, which
certainly fits in better with the dates, then we must
assume that Dicuil was trained at the great College of
Clonmacnois, which at this period was certainly the most
celebrated school in Ireland, if not in Europe. Suibhne, we
are told, was abbot for two years before his death^in 816 ; but
had been, no doubt, for many years } reviously, a fer-legind,
or professor, in Clonmacnoise. It was nothing new for the
youoger monks to travel to other religious houses in pursuit
of knowledge and sanctity; and in this way Dicuil, like
so many of his countrymen, would visit lona and the Scottish
islands.

The treatise De Mensura Orbis Terrae is especially valu-
able as affording evidence of the varied classical culture that
existed in the Irish monastic schools at this period. In the
prologue the author tells us that he derived his information
mainly from two sources ; first, from the Report of the Com-
missioners whom the Divine Emperor Theodosius had sent
to survey the provinces of the Roman Empire; and secondly,
from the excellent work of Pliny Secundus — that is, the
Natural History which is so well known to scholars. Dicuil
complains that the manuscripts of the Report in his posses-
sion were very faulty ; but still, being of more recent date
than Pliny's work, he values it more highly. He adds that
he leaves vacant places in his own manuscript for the
numbers, in order to be able to fill them in afterwards when
he can verify or correct them by collating his own with
other manscripts of the Report. He also quotes numerous
passages from other writers, who, I am afraid, are not very
familiar to the classical scholars of our own times. The first
of these works is that of Caius Julius Solinus, known as
the Polyhistor. Of his personal history we know as little as
we do of Dicuil himself. He flourished about the middle of
the third century, and appears to have borrowed his matter,
and sometimes even his language, from Pliny's Natural
History. The contents of this work of Solinus may be

Ancient Irish Scholars. 207

inferred from the title of an English translation, published in
1587 : "The Excellent and Pleasant Work of Julius Solinus,
Polyhistor, containing the Noble Actions of Humaine Creatures,
the Secretes and Providence of Nature, the Description of Coun-
tries, the Manners of the People, $c., §c. Translated out of
the Latin by Arthur Golding, Gent." Another work, equally
unknown to the present generation, but frequently quoted
by Dicuil, is the Periegesis of Priscian. It is a metrical trans-
lation into Latin hexameters of a Greek work bearing the
same title, which was originally composed by Dionysius,
surnamed from that fact Periegetes, or the " Traveller," in
Goldsmith's sense. He appears to have flourished in the
second half of the third century of the Christian era.

Such are the principal authorities whom Dicuil follows ;
and as he knew nothing of foreign countries himself, he
cites his authorities textually for the benefit of his own
countrymen. It is surely a singular and interesting fact that
we should find an Irish monk, in the beginning of the ninth
century, collating and criticising various manuscripts of
these writers either in some Irish monastic school a.t home, or
in the equally Irish school of lona, though surrounded by
Scottish waters and in view of the Scottish hills.

For us, however, the information which Dicuil gives us
of his own knowledge, or gathered from his own country-
men, is far more valuable; and to this I would especially
invite the reader's attention.

In the sixth chapter, when speaking of the Nile, he says ;

" Although we never read in any book that any branch of the
Kile flows into the Red Sea ; yet Brother Fidelis1 told in my presence,
to my master Suibhne (to whom, under God, I owe whatever know-
ledge I possess), that certain clerics and laymen from Ireland, who
went to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, sailed up the Nile for a long way/'

and thence continued their voyage by canal to the entrance
of theKed Sea.

This Irish pilgrimage to Jerusalem is worthy of notice,
for many of our critics where they find mention of such pil-
grimages to Rome and to Jerusalem in the Lives of our early

1 It might be rendered a trustworthy brother.

208 Ancient Irish Scholars.

Saints, seem to regard it as an exaggeration, if not a kind of
pious fraud. But here we have the testimony of one in every
way worthy of credit, who himself spoke to such pilgrims
after their return from the Holy Land.

Then their testimony is peculiarly valuable in reference
to a vexed geographical question regarding the existence of
a navigable canal in those days from the Nile to the Red
Sea. A canal called the " River of Ptolemy " and afterwards
" the River of Trajan," was certainly cut from the Pelusiac
branch of the Nile to the Red Sea at Arisnoe. It was certainly
open for commerce in the time of Trajan, but during the
decline of the Roman empire became partially filled with
sand. Trajan, it seems, however, when re-opening the canal
connected it with the river at a point higher up the river than
the old route, opposite Memphis, near Babylon, in order
that the fresh water might flow through the canal and help
to keep it open. Under the Arabians this canal of Trajan
was re-opened, but geographers have asserted that it became
choked shortly afterwards and remained so ever since. The
testimony of the Irish pilgrims quoted by Dicuil is the only
satisfactory evidence that we now possess to prove that this
canal was open at the end of the eighth century for the pur-
poses of commerce and navigation.1

The pilgrims also give some interesting information with
reference to the Pyramids, which they call the " Barns of
Joseph." " The pilgrims," he says, " saw them from the
river rising like mountains four in one place and three
in another." Then they landed to view these wonders close
at hand, and coming to one of the three greater pyramids,
they saw eight men and one woman and a great lion stretched
dead beside it. The lion had attacked them, and the men in
turn had attacked the lion with their spears, with the result
that all perished in the mutual slaughter, for the place was a
desert and there was no one at hand to help then. From top
to bottom the pyramids were all built of stone, square at
the base, but rounded towards the summit, and tapering to a
point. The aforesaid brother Fidelis measured one of them

1 See Smith's Dictionary of Geography.

Ancient Irish Scholars. 209

and found that the square face was 400 feet in length. Going
thence by the canal to the Red Sea, they found the passage
across to the eastern shore at the Road of Moses to be only
a short distance. The brother who had measured the base
of the pyramid wished to examine the exact point where
Moses had entered the Red Sea, in order to try if he could
find any traces of the Chariots of Pharaoh, or the wheel
tracks ; but the sailors were in a hurry and would not allow
him to go on this excursion. The breadth of the sea at this
point appeared to him to about six miles. Then they sailed up
this narrow bay which once kept the murmuring Israelites
from returning to Egypt.

This is a very interesting and manifestly authentic
narrative. Another interesting chapter is that in which
Diouil describes Iceland and the Faroe Islands. "It is now
thirty years," he says, " since certain clerics, who remained
in that island (Ultima Thule) from the 1st of February
to the 1st of August, told me that not only at the
Summer solstice (as Solinus said), but also for several days
about the solstice, the setting sun at eventide merely hid him-
self as it were, for a little behind a hill, so that there was no
darkness even for a moment, and whatever a man wished to
do, if it were only to pick vermin off his shirt — vel pediculos
de camisia abstrahere — he could do as it were in the light
of the sun, and if he were on a mountain of any height, he
could doubtles see the sun all through." This way of putting
it is certainly more graphic than elegant, but it is at the same
time strictly accurate, and shows that the Irish monks had
really spent the summer in Iceland. For the arctic circle
just touches the extreme north of Iceland, and therefore in
any part of that country the sun would even at the solstice
set for a short time, but it would be only, as it were, going
behind a hill to reappear in an hour or in half an hour. So
that by the aid of refraction and twilight a man would
always have light enough to perform even those delicate
operations to which Dicuil refers.

He then observes with much acuteness that at the middle
point of this brief twilight it is mid-night at the equator, or
middle of the earth ; and in like manner he infers that about
VOL. X. 0

210 Ancient Irish Scholars.

the Winter solstice there must be daylight for a very short time
in Thule, when it is noon-day at the equator. These observa-
tions show a keen observant mind, and would lead us to infer
that Dicuil like his countryman Virgilins, who flourished a
little earlier, had been taught the sphericity of the earth in the
schools of his native country. He says also in this same
chapter, what is certainly true, that those writers are greatly
mistaken who describe the Icelandic Sea as always frozen, and
who say that there is a perpetual day from Spring to Autumn,
and perpetual night from Autumn to Spring. For the Irish
monks sailed thither, he says, through an open sea in a
month of great natural cold, and whilst they were there
enjoyed alternate day and night except about the Summer
solstice, as already explained. But one day's sail further
north brought them to the frozen sea.

Dicuil's reference to Iceland is interesting from another
point of view. In almost all our books of popular instruc-
tion, and even in many standard works on geography, it is
Btated that the Danes, or Norwegians, " discovered " Iceland
about the year 860, and shortly afterwards colonized it
during the reign of Harold Harf'ager. But Dicuil clearly
shows that it was well known to Irish monks at least more
than half a century before Dane or Norwegian ever set foot
on the island, as is now generally admitted by scholars who
are familiar with Icelandic literature and history.

The following interesting passage which shows the roving
spirit that animated some of the Irish monks at that period
is contained in the third section of the same seventh chapter.
" There are several other islands in the ocean to the north of
Britain, which can be reached in a voyage of two days and
two nights with a favourable breeze. A certain trustworthy
monk (religiosus) told me that he reached one of them by
sailing for two summer days and one night in a vessel with
two benches of rowers (duorum navicula transtrorum). Some
of these islands are very small and separated by narrow
straits. In these islands for almost a hundred years there
dwelt hermits, who sailed there from our own Ireland (nostra
Scottia). But now they are once more deserted, as they
were from the beginning, on account of the ravages of the

Ancient Irish Scholars. 211

Norman pirates. They, are, however, still full of sheep, and
of various kinds of sea birds. We have never found these
islands mentioned by any author."

It is quite evident that Dicuil here refers to the Faroe
Islands, which are about 250 miles north of the Scottish
coast. A glance at the map will show that they are rather
small, arid separated from each other by very narrow
channels, and in this respect differing from the Shetland
Islands, to which this description would not therefore apply.
Besides, the Shetlands are only 50 miles from the Orkneys,
about 100 from the mainland, and hence could easily be
reached in a single day by an open boat sailing before a
favourable wind ; whereas the islands occupied by the Irish
hermits could only be reached after a voyage of two days
and a night, even in the most favourable circumstances.
The word " nostra Scottia " of course refers to Ireland;
for up to the time that Dicuil wrote, that word had never
been applied to North Britain. Skene, himself a learned
Scot, has shown by numerous citations from ancient authors
that beyond all doubt the name " Scottia " was applied to
Ireland, and to Ireland alone, prior to the tenth century.1
Up to that time the name of Scotland was Alban or Albania.

The love of the ancient Irish monks for island solitudes is
one of the most remarkable features in their character.
There is hardly an island round our coasts, which does not
contain the remains of some ancient oratory or monastic
cells. But they did not always remain in sight of land.
Inspired partly with the hope of finding a "a desert" in
the ocean, partly, no doubt, also with a love of adventure
and a vague hope of discovering the " Land of Promise,"
they sailed out into the Atlantic in their currachs in search
of these lonely islands. Every one has heard of the seven
years' voyage of St. Brendan in the western ocean. St.
Ailbe of Emly had resolved to find out the island of Thule,
which the Roman geographers placed somewhere in the
northern sea. He was, however, prevented from goiug
himself, but " he sent twenty men into exile over the sea in

1 See Introd, to Celtic Scotland, page 3, vol. I.

21 2 Ancient Irish Scholars.

his stead."1 St. Cormac the Navigator, made three voyages
in the pathless ocean seeking some desert island where he
might devote himself to an eremitic life. It is highly
probable he went as far north as Iceland ; for Adamnan tells
us that he sailed northwards for fourteen days, until he was
frightened by the sight of the monsters of the deep, when
he returned home touching on his way at the Orkney Islands.
When the Norwegians first discovered Iceland in A.D. 860,
they found Irish books, and bells, and pilgrims' staffs, or
croziers, which were left there by men who professed the
Christian religion and whom the Norwegians called " papas "
or " fathers." Dicuil, however, gives us the earliest
authentic testimony that Iceland and the Faroe Isles
had been discovered and occupied by Irish monks long
before the Danes or Norwegians discovered these islands.
Of Ireland itself, Dicuil unfortunately gives us no information.
He was writing for his own countrymen, and he assumed
that they knew as much about Ireland — " our own Ireland" —
as he did. The only observation he makes in reference to
Ireland is that there were islands round the coast, and that
some were small, and others very small. But he takes one
quotation from Solinus, who says that —

l( Britain is surrounded by many important islands, one of which
Ireland, approaches to Britain itself in size. It abounds in pastures
so rich, that if the cattle are not sometimes driven away from them
they run the risk of bursting. The sea between Britain and Ire-
land is so wild and stormy throughout the entire year that it is only
navigable on a very few days. The channel is about 120 miles
broad."

Dicuil, however, good Irishman as he was, does not quote
two other statements which Solinus made about the prae-
christian Scots — for he wrote before the time of St. Patrick —
first, that the Irish recognised no difference between right
and wrong at all; and, secondly, that they fed their children
from the point of the sword— a rather inconvenient kind of
spoon we should think. In fact the Romans of those days
knew as little, and wrote as confidently about Ireland as

See Reeve's Adamnan, page 169, note.

Ancient Irish Scholars. 213

most Englishmen do at present, and that is saying a good
deal.

There is one incidental reference in Dicuil — chapter v
section ii. — which is of the highest importance, because it
settles the question as to the nationality of the celebrated
Irish poet, Sedulius, the author of the hymns Crudelis Herodes,
and A solis ortus Cardine, in the Roman Breviary. Dicuil
quoting twelve lines of poetry from the Report of the Com-
missioners of Theodosius, observes, that the first foot of the
seventh and eighth of these hexameter lines is an arnphimacrus.
Here are the lines : —

" Conf ici ter quinis aperit cum fastibus annum.
Supplices hoc famuli, dum scribit, pingit et alter."

"At the same time," says Dicuil, " I do not think it was from
ignorance of prosody these lines were so written, for the
writers had the authority of other poets in their favour, and
especially of Virgil, whom in similar cases our own Sedulius
imitated, and he, in his heroic stanzas, rarely uses feet
different from those of Virgil and the classical poets." " Noster
Sedulius," here applied to the great religious poet by his
own countryman, in the ninth century, settles the question
of his Irish birth, The reader will observe also, what a keen
critic Dicuil was of Latin poetry, and will probably come
to the conclusion that they knew Prosody better in the Irish
schools of the ninth than they do in those of the nineteenth
century.

In the closing stanzas of his own short poem on the
classic mountains, Dicuil implies that he finished his work in
the Spring of 825, when night gives grateful rest to the
wearied oxen who had covered the seed-wheat in the dusty
soil.

" Post octingentos viginti quinque peractos
Summi annos Domini terrae, aethrae, carceris atri,
Semine triticeo sub ruris pulvere tecto,
Nocte bobus requies largitur fine laboris."

* JOHN HE ALT, D.D.

[ 214 ]

THE ACTION OF DIVINE GRACE IN THE SOULS
OF THE JUST.— 11.

THE gifts of the Holy Ghost are the medium through
which God acts supernaturally on the souls of the
just. Hence it is that these gifts are necessary for good
works and for perseverance in grace.1 Their peculiar effect
is to render the soul docile to the guidance of the Spirit of
God. In rank and dignity they occupy an intermediate
place between the theological and infused virtues. The
theological virtues unite the soul immediately to God, who
is their object. All supernatural action of the Holy Ghost
on the souls of the just is directed to the promoting of this
union. Hence this union of the soul with God is said to
regulate the action of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. In other
words, the gifts of the Holy Ghost are subordinated to the
increase of faith, hope, and charity within the soul of man.2

The infused virtues are divided into two classes — the
moral and intellectual. The intellectual infused virtues may
be all grouped under the head of prudence. This virtue
perfects the judgment in deciding upon the relative merits
of human actions. It is no doubt a high intellectual endow-
ment, but still it is inferior to the gifts of wisdom, under-
standing, counsel, or knowledge, which have the effect of
bringing the intellectual attributes of God into contact with
the human mind.

The moral virtues — justice, fortitude, and temperance —
are all measured and directed by the intellectual virtues, and
are consequently subordinate to them. If, therefore, the
gifts of the Holy Ghost transcend in excellence the super-
natural intellectual virtues, it is clear that they also excel the
moral infused virtues.

If, however, we consider the theological virtues in
their operations, we shall find that they depend upon the
gifts of the Holy Ghost. The virtue of charity, for instance,

1 Summa Theologica, i., ii., 68, 2. 2 Summa Theoloyica, i., ii., 88, 8.

The Action of Divine Grace in the Souls of the Just. 215

is not capable of passing from quiescence to action without
the help of grace. " No man can say the Lord Jesus but by
the Holy Ghost," 1 Cor., xii , 3. Acts of faith, hope, or
charity, therefore, can only be exercised in virtue of the pre-
vious operation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Charity, the chief of the theological virtues, may be con-
sidered as a habit and as an act. As a habit, it is the source
from which the gifts of the Holy Ghost spring. The gifts
invariably accompany it, and invariably disappear with its
extinction.1

Actuated charity or charity in act, on the other hand,
supposes the previous actuation of one of the gifts of the
Holy Ghost. Under this aspect it is posterius natura, subse-
quent in the order of existence to the gifts.

The distinction between habitual and actual charity is
forcibly exemplified in many doctrines which have the note,
at least, of theological certainty. Thus we are told that,
when our Lord is said to have increased in wisdom and age
and grace, we are not to understand that the habit of charity
increased in his soul. His acts of charity were multiplied as
his years advanced.

Again, in describing the perfection which is the aim of
the religious life, theologians tell us that this perfection does
not consist in the increase of the habit of charity within the
soul. On the contrary, they maintain that the habit of
charity may go on increasing while religious perfection is
growing less.2 Every good work done in the state of grace
increases the habit of charity. The just man, therefore, as a
rule, increases from day to day in habitual charity. Still it
may happen that from distraction, dissipation, and other
impediments of actual grace, the frequency of his acts of
charity grows less.

In such a state of things we have an exemplification of
the common doctrine that venial sins lessen our love of God.
They do not lessen our habitual charity; but they prevent it

Spiritus Sancti cormectuntur sibi invicem in caritate ita scilicet
quod qui caritatem habet omnia dona Spiritus Sancti habet quorum nullum
sine cariiate haberi potest, i., ii., 68, 5.

2 Suarez de Virtuteet Statu Reliyionis, lib. 1., cap. iv., 11.

216 The Action of Divine Grace in the Souls of the Just.

from existing and displaying itself in frequent acts. Whenever,
therefore, a just man, while increasing from day to day in
habitual charity, falls off in the frequency and fervour ol his
acts of the love of God, a condition of things arises which
may be termed one of the anomalies of the spiritual life.
The normal condition of the spiritual man exhibits a daily
increase in the habit of charity, and a daily increase in the
frequency and fervour of his acts of the love of God. The
case of our Lord is no argument against this statement.
Filled with the plenitude of sanctity from the moment of
His incarnation, the human soul of Christ multiplied His acts
of the love of God, though owing to the perfection of the
subject, it was impossible that these acts could produce an
increase of habitual charity in His will.

The action of Divine Grace in the souls of the just
will be best exemplified by tracing the nature and
qualities of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. AVisdom is a
knowledge of things human and divine through their highest
cause, who is God. It has for its subject the intellect of man,
and it enables him to form correct judgments of all things.
Every thing created is an emanation of God's power, wisdom
and goodness. The wise man exhibits these attributes in
their highest participation within his own soul, and his judg-
ment, illuminated by Divine light, is enabled to discern and
trace the being and operation of the Divinity in all which is
submitted to his consideration. The habit of wisdom is an
aid both in the contemplative and active life. In contem-
plation it enables us to judge truly of God, His angels and
His saints, and of all the high truths which are connected
with the Trinity and Incarnation. In its bearings upon the
active life, it enables us to direct human actions according
to the relation in which they stand to God.1

AVe may conclude this paper by pointing out what an aid
the gift of wisdom is in the study of theology, dogmatic and

1 Superior autem ratio, ut Augustirms dicit, intendit rationibus supernis,
scilicet divinis, et conspiciendis et consulendis ; conspiciendis quidem
secundum quod divina in seipsis contemplatur ; consulendis autem secundum
quod per divina judicat de humanis actibus per divinas regulas dirigens
actus humanos. (ii., iii., 3.)

Reliquiae Dominicae. 217

moraJ. These two sciences suppose, in their acquisition, the
exercise of human industry. This industry is exerted in
diligently profiting of our teachers and our books ; but it is
exercised in a still higher and more effectual form by peti-
tioning God for an increase of wisdom. It was by
supernatural wisdorcrthat the Doctors of the Church obtained
their pre-eminence in theological learning. St. Thomas was
in the habit of stating that it was not by study chiefly that
he became learned, but by the infusion of supernatural light.
It is also related of him that shortly before his death he
stated to one of his intimate friends that all that was con-
tained in his voluminous writings seemed to him as nothing,
in dignity and importance, compared with the knowledge
which he then possessed of divine things. The gift of
wisdom had gone on developing and increasing within the
soul of the saint, and, as death approached, it began to
assume the aspect and hues of that consummate and celestial
wisdom which is the portion of the blessed.

WILLIAM HAYDEN, S.J.

RELIQUIAE DOMINICAE.— II.

THE TITLE OF THE TRUE CROSS.

A MONGST the Greeks and the Romans, and wherever
IJL their laws had force, there was the custom of having
the crime for which a person was condemned to death pro-
claimed to the people when the sentence of the law was about
to be executed. That was done in various ways. Sometimes
a public crier proclaimed it ; but it was usually inscribed on
a tablet of wood, and was called Titulus or Album Praetoris.
This tablet was either borne before the condemned person
on his way to the place of execution, or was suspended
from his neck, or, if convenient, affixed to the instrument of
punishment. History affords instances of each as practised
by the Romans, both at home and through the provinces.

218 Reliquiae Dominicae.

Eusebius1 mentions, amongst the particulars of the martyrdom
of St. Polycarp, that a crier called aloud the cause for which
he was about to suffer : — " Polycarpus confessus est se Chris-
tianum esse." Eusebius describes elsewhere2 the martyrdom
of St. At talus of Lyons. He says that the martyr was carried
around the amphitheatre, and that a tablet was borne before
him bearing the inscription : — " Hie est Attains Christianus."
Dio Cassius writes of a Roman slave who was8 condemned to
death by his master, and who was made to carry through
the market-place an inscription which made known the cause
of his master's vengeance. History has left instances also in
which the cause was affixed to the instrument by which the
sentence of the law was to be carried out. Such was the
case in the crucifixion of our Divine Lord.4 St. John (chap.
19, v. 19) says, u And Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it
upon the cross ; and the writing was : — ' Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews.' This title, therefore, many of the Jews
did read, because the place where Jesus was crucified was
nigh to the city ; and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek,
and in Latin."

Those who have read what appeared in recent numbers
of the RECORD5 about the finding of the True Cross, will
remember that part of it is preserved in the Church of
Santa Croce, in Rome. In that Church also is to be seen
a piece of wood about nine i&ches long, by about six inches
wide, and about two inches thick. It bears traces of three
lines of words carved on it. Three of its edges have been a
good deal eaten away by time ; and some of the words at
both ends have disappeared altogether. The last traces of
the top line can be discerned in five or six apparently shape-
less? curves that remain ; and the letters that remain of the

1 Hist. Eccl., Lib. iv., cap. 15. St. Ambrose similarly describes the
martyrdom of St. Agnes.

2 Hist. Ecclj Lib. v., cap. 1. la Vita Caligulae, cap. 38, he gives a
similar instance.

3 Lib. liv.

4 We preserve the tradition of it in the letters 1. N.R.I, affixed to
crucifixes. According to some it is not done quite correctly. They say
that the True Cross was of the form of a T ; and that the title placed above
it gave it the form of the cross we use.

5 See I. E. RECORD (Third Series), vol. ix.; pp. 961, 1109, Nos. 11, 12
(Nov., Dec.), 1888.

Reliquiae Dominicae. 219

other two can just be deciphered. It is closely fitted into a
reliquary, and is padded on every side with red silk, evidently
to preserve it from going to pieces. That piece of wood is
shown to visitors as the veritable title that was affixed to
the Cross on which our Saviour died ; and the purpose of
this paper is to show the grounds on which the tradition
rests.

After what has been said to show that St. Helena found
the cross, little need be done to show that she also found the
title. One almost follows from the other. The title was
fixed on to the cross when our Saviour suffered on it; and
when His Body was taken to the tomb, the cross, with the
title attached to it, was taken there also, or buried close by.
And some writers, who bear testimony to the finding of the
cross 300 years after, bear testimony also, and equally clear,
to the finding of the title ; they, in fact, attest the finding of
both in nearly the same words.1 St. Ambrose and St.
Chrysostoin even say that it was by the title the Saviour's
cross was distinguished from the thieves' crosses. St. Ambrose
describes how St. Helena, when the three crosses came to
light, was at a loss to know which was the Saviour's cross,
and how in her perplexity she bethought herself of the title
and inscription that it bore ; and he continues : " Hinc col-
lecta est series veritatis ; Titulo crux potuit Salvatoris."

The True Cross was, therefore, known by the title, because
the title was there to mark it out and distinguish it from the
other two. St. Chrysostom says that " the Lord's cross was
known by the title; for the crosses of the thieves had not a title."
It is not to our purpose now to inquire why the thieves'
crosses had not a title;2 it is enough for us to know that
they had not, and that, according to two Fathers at least,
the Saviour's cross was thus distinguished from them. But
it may be as well to say here as elsewhere, that even though
the other two crosses had titles, the Saviour's cross could
nevertheless be identified by its proper title, which bore an

1 References have been given already in November number, vol. ix.,
p. 961, and need not be reproduced here.

2 Card. Toletus (Comment, in Joan.) says that probably the title was
used only in the case of notorious culprits.

220 Reliquiae Dominicae.

inscription recording the cause why He was put to death.
Rufinus, in the same sentence in which he testifies to the
finding of the cross, says, " and there was also there the title
which was written by Pilate in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew
letters, but that did not clearly enough determine the cross."

Similarly, Socrates writes : — " Together with these the
tablet was also found on which Pilate had declared in different
languages and letters that Christ crucified was King of the
Jews." Sozomen says, " And a tablet was found separate
on which, in words and letters of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,
this was written — * Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.' "i
There is, as will at once be noticed, a circumstantial discre-
pancy between the testimonies of St. Ambrose and St.
Chrysostom on one side, and Rufinus, Socrates, and Sozomen
on the other. According to the two former the title was
attached to the cross at the time of the discovery, and was
the key to its identification ; according to the others the
cross was not identified by the title, for, not being fixed to
any of the three, it might have belonged to either. But
that makes no matter ; for according to them all it was at
least lying about in the same place where the crosses were
discovered, and was found with them ; indeed, the crosses
and the title curiously reveal each others identity.

The main fact then seems wholly beyond reasonable
doubt, namely, that in the same place where St. Helena
found the cross, and, at the same time, a tablet of wood was
also found. The writers just cited, and several others who
might be cited, unanimously attest it ; and if such harmony
in the clear evidence of so many witnesses be not enough to
establish a plain and simple fact, it is hard to see how any
fact of early Christian times, or, indeed, of times less remote,
can be established at all. The tablet of wood, however, is
one thing ; its identity with the title of the True Cross is

1 Hist. Eccl, Lib. 2. (To be found in Migne's Patrologia Graeca,
vol. 07, page 931 : — ''Kai xw ^ «^° £v\ov iv rd£et \€VKw/J,aTos prj^aat KUL
ypdp.p,:.(riv cEp/3aiKors 'EAA^viKoI? re KCU 'PtityiatKOtr, TCI orjXovvra- 'lysovs 6
Na^cojjcuos 6 ftaaiXevs T±V 'louSateoi/." Migne says in a note — " Mihi non
dubium est quin Sozomenus scripserit raSe dr)\oi>v, supple £vAoz/."

Probably the tablet was painted white and the letters painted red, as
was the custom with the Romans j hence the term Album Praetorist

Reliquiae Dominicae. 221

another thing. But if we gather around the simple fact that
has already been secured, certain considerations and details
that should occur to anyone present at the discovery and
acquainted with the Roman and Jewish customs concerning
capital punishment as well as with the history of the Sacred
Passion, suggestive coincidences at once appear which seem
to fix its identity with all the certainty that historical
evidence can beget.

The Saviour's cross certainly had a title attached to
it at the time of the crucifixion. We have, it is true,
no positive evidence that the title was buried with it,
but neither is there any reason to think that it was not.
But, being attached to, and no doubt considered by the
officials of the law as part of the cross, one is disposed, in the
absence of any evidence, to think that it was buried with
the cross. It is the plain and natural thing to suppose.

At any rate, when, 300 years after, St. Helena found the
cross she also found a title in the same place where the cross
was. That title can be no other than the one on which was
inscribed the cause of our Saviour's sentence ; and for these
reasons : It answers all the description of a title such as
those used in cases of capital punishment. It did not belong
to the crosses of the two thieves, both because, as is com-
monly believed, the thieves' crosses had not titles, and, again
because the inscription on it would not answer the cause
why they were put to death. Moreover, St. Ambrose and
St. Chrysostom say, that it was found not only lying in the
same place with the True Cross, but was even attached to
it, and that by it the True Cross was distinguished from the
other two. If we could be sure of that, the cross and title
would identify each other ; but we cannot, since others say
it was not so. However, with all before our mind, would
not any of us, if present at the discovery, be inclined, even
without further reason, to the conviction that the title found
by St. Helena was that of the Saviour's cross?

But that is not all. The title that was found deter-
mines itself. Sozomen describes it as it was then, and his
description of it leaves no doubt about its identity. He says
that, inscribed on it in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, were the

222 Reliquiae Dominicae,

words: " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews;" — the very
words which, according to St. John, were used for the
title of the Saviour's cross, and in the three languages in
which the Evangelists say they were written. With those
thoughts before us, it is not easy to see how one could
honestly refuse to identify the title found with that of the
Saviour's cross. If we consider them with the mind of giving
them their true meaning, and of realising their full force,
they almost constrain us into the conviction.

The whole question, then, turns on whether the authorities
quoted be worthy of faith as witnesses of the simple facts they
give us. The same witnesses bear testimony to the finding of
the cross and of the title, and so both must stand or fall
together. And they do not, it is well to recollect, speak of
them as the cross and title, but distinctly as the True Cross and
the title that belonged to it ; and that, not in the manner of
controversy or of pleading, as if anyone were likely to dispute
it, but in the manner of unconscious certainty and simple
narrative as if nobody dreamt of illusion or deceit. Of St. Cyril,
who may have been present at the discovery, it must be remem-
bered, that he did not attest it on purpose and for its own
sake. Probably to do so in his time would secure the distinc-
tion of being thought a mono-maniac, one capable of surprising
the public any day by assuring them that the sun was up.
He appealed to Golgotha on which he stood, and to the
recently discovered cross as evidences that the Saviour
suffered and had arisen, if we would doubt it, he says,
" why, the wood of the cross would convict us."

The discovery is spoken of by everyone who gives testi-
mony of it, as a thing taken for granted by all, and doubted
by nobody. Their credibility has already been discussed at
length,1 and it would be redundant to discuss it again. But
it has been suggested to the writer that it would have been
better not to have kept exclusively, in the article on the
Cross, to the objections there considered, but to have dealt
also with objections brought forward in recent years. If it
was not done then, it was because it seemed unnecessary

1 See I. E. RECORD, vol. ix., p. 961, et seq. Nov. 1888.

Reliquiae Dominicae. 223

and it seems so still. The objections given by recent adver-
saries, when any are given at all (as is not the rule), are but
the old ones refurbished, and even sometimes spoilt. How-
ever, as this is a convenient occasion, for the sake ot any
who maybe interested in it, three recent writers are selected
who deny, and with a vengeance, the authenticity of the
Cross and Title. One is the Rev. Frederick William Farrar,
the writer of the article on the " Cross '' in Smith's Dictionary
of the Bible ;* another is the Rev. Robert Sinker, the writer
of the article on the same subject in Smith's Dictionary of
Christian Antiquities ;2 the third is the Rev. C. Boutell, the
writer of the article on the same subject in the new edition of
the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was completed in last year.3
In the Dictionary of the Bible the following is written : —

'• But even if the story were not so intrinsically absurd 4 (for,
among other reasons, it was a law among the Jews that the cross was
to be burnt — Othonis Lex. Rab. Ser. supplicid), it would require far
more probable evidence to outweigh the silence of Eusebius. It
clearly was to the interest of the Church of Borne to maintain the
beliet and invent the story of its miraculous multiplication, because
the f ale of relics was extremely profitable, To this day the supposed
Title, or rather fragments of it, are shown to the people once a year
in the Church of Sta Croce in Borne. Those sufficiently interested
in the annals of ridiculous imposture, may see further accounts in
Baronius, Jortin, Schmidt, and in a paper read by Lord Mahon before
the Society of Antiquaries, February, 1831."

They must certainly be very strong reasons that could
provoke such language as that. It is really hard to please him ;
I suppose he would want to have the thing proved by
mathematics. It is established just as all historical facts are
established, and by stronger evidence than can be given for
many that are accepted without question. But, for some
persons, whilst evidence that is little stronger than conjecture
often puts the brand of certainty on things of a profane
character, to establish an event bound up in any way with

1 Vol. i., page 367 (Murray, London, 1863). Article on the " Cross,'
by Rev. Frederick William Farrar, M.A. ; Assistant Master of Harrow
School; late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. (The present Archdeacon
of Westminster Abbey.)

2 Vol. i.,page 504 (Murray, London, 1875). Article on the " Cross,"
by the Kev. Robert Sinker, M.A., Librarian, Trinity College, Cambridge.

3 Encyclopedia Britannica. 9th Edition ; vol. vi., 1877.

4 The italics are in the article itself.

224 Reliquiae .Dominicae.

not only be enough to beget conviction, but must even be
so strong as to preclude the possibility of evasion ; in other
words, no evidence will do.

We have already seen that the silence of Eusebius1
is not quite so certain that it may be taken for granted ;
and, moreover, that even though it were certain, his
testimony to a simple fact is not so indispensible that his
silence would neutralize the distinct evidence of witnesses
quite as reliable as he. Neither does the second reason justify
a denial of the discovery, much less a contemptuous denial.
Indeed, to call a (l story intrinsically absurd" — and " absurd"
with an emphasis — for the reason given, seems to betray
one whose prejudice, for the occasion, ran away with his
critical faculty. Even though, as asserted, a law existed
with the Jews that bade the burning of the cross by which
sentence of death was executed, such a law would surely
bear an exception. That our Saviour was taken down from
the cross on the day of His crucifixion and buried, was by
dispensation from the Roman law,2 according to which cruci-
fied criminals should be left hanging on the gibbet until
their bodies had corrupted away, or were consumed by birds
or beasts. That not a bone of His was broken was an
exception to the Jewish law.

And how comes it then that the alleged Jewish law
about the burning of the cross is so inviolable that
anything involving an exception to it is " intrinsically
absurd ?" The adage of the schools must have its way —
" contra factum non valet argumentum ;" and the exis-
tence of a law, which may admit an exception, is not proof
against distinct and positive testimony that there has been
such an exception, any more than a priori proofs can reason
facts out of existence. Let us take it in a more tangible
way. By privilege, or somehow, an event takes place to-day
against some well-settled law of the constitution. The event
is recorded by at least one person who is living at present,
by several in the near future, and it lives for centuries without
contradiction in the undisturbed belief of the world. AVhat
Catholic piety, the evidence which is called for that must

1 See I. E. KECOHD, vol. ix., p. 961, et seq., Nov., 1888.

2 Leg, Corpora f. f, De Cadaveribus punitor.

Reliquiae Douiinicae. 225

should we think of a person turning up in the far future — •
in the fortieth century — and calling it a " story intrinsically
absurd," because, forsooth, he is able to quote against it an
Act of Parliament in force in the reign of Queen Victoria ?
But it is not even true that such a law existed amongst the
Jews. If the Rev. Mr. Farrar had carefully looked into
Baronius,1 whom he invites us to consult, he should find cited
there the Talmud Alphesi, and two Jewish Rabbins, to show
that it was quite otherwise ; and on their authority he says : —
" Separatim pariter sepelienda instrument* ilia quibus mors illata
fuisset nempe, cruces, clavos, enses, lapides, pro mortis genere
quo quis interiisset." Calmet2 tells us also that the instrument
of death was buried, and on the authority of Jewish Rabbins
and of the Sanhedrim Halac. But it is well worth while to
read his vehement denial in the light of the very sentence
preceding it. He says : " Besides Socrates and Theodoret,
it is mentioned by Runnus, Sozomen, Paulinus, Sulpicius,
Severus and Chrysostom; so that Tillemont says that nothing
can be more certain." All those are, according to himself,
witnesses in favour of the authenticity of the relics; and
yet, in the face of their evidence, he says that, putting aside the
intrinsic absurdity of the story, " it would require far more
probable evidence to outweigh the silence of Eusebius."
" Probable," indeed, and a probability so slight, too, that
the mere silence of Eusebius would balance probability far
greater ! With the above evidence before us — evidence
admitted and given by himself — not to speak of more that
shall appear presently, nor of the arguments that can be
developed from it all, and considering, moreover, all that can
be said to show that Eusebius is also a witness, it would seem
indeed that even the silence of Eusebius is less probable
than is the evidence in favour of the discovery. When a
person can wind up with such an unhesitating and cordial
denial, even after such proofs as he himself has given, it
would be interesting to know what credentials should the
witnesses have, or of what nature should their evidence be, in

1 Annales. An. 34, No. 130.

2 Dissertatio. De Suppliciis. Commentar. Tom. ii. See also Barfcolocci
Bibliotheca RabUnica.

VOL. X. p

226 Reliquiae Dominicae.

order to outweigh the supposed silence of Eusebius, and merit
belief. Nor is even this all. He omits, among others, the
most important witness of all, namely, St. Cyril of Jerusalem,
who might have been present at the discovery, and who
attested it twenty years after the event. But let us allow
the Rev. Mr. Sinker to fill up what the Rev. Mr. Farrar
has left out. He says : —

" The earliest mention we have of the finding of the Cross is in
the Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem ; and he also alludes to it in a
letter to Constantius. . . . From the beginning of the fifth century
onwards, all ecclesiastical writers take the truth of the narrative in
its main for granted, though some varieties of detail occur."

He then cites Socrates, Sozomen, Ambrose, Sulpicius
Severus, Rufinus, Paulinus and Gregory of Tours. " Cyril
of Alexandria," he says, " refers to it as the current history
of his day," and " Chrysostom evidently believed in the dis-
covery of the Cross, and speaks of the practice of carrying
small portions of it about as amulets." All this the Rev. Mr.
Farrar should have known, and should have mentioned.
Such admissions, followed by such denial, is not unlike the
feats of certain dialectical acrobats one occasionally meets
with, who run through the proofs of a proposition, and then,
just to show what they can do, offer to take up and stand by
the other side. One cannot help asking himself, after all
this, whether, if the indispensable Eusebius had distinctly
attested the discovery, would admission come, even with
him, from those who deny it without him ? If so many and
such witnesses cannot even give a decent probability to a
simple fact, and the Rev. Mr. Farrar says they cannot, it would
be a curiosity to know how the vast stores of information to
be found in the two Dictionaries were come by. The reason
why the Rev. Mr. Sinker disbelieves in the discovery of
the Cross is, " that in the Itinerarium Burdegalense? the record
of a journey to Jerusalem in A.D. 333, there is no reference
to the finding of the Cross." But the reply to the objection
brought trom the silence of Eusebius supplies the answer to

1 Anyone who may wish to see this Itinerary, will find it in Migne's
Patrologia Latina, vol. viii., page 791.

Reliquiae Doininicae. 227

that. Moreover, since the Cross was found beside the tomb
of our Saviour, if not in it, there was only one place to be
mentioned, and it is but natural that the pilgrims would
mention it in connection with the Body of our Lord rather
than in connection with the Cross. The Rev. C. Boutell says : —

"The well-known legend of the 'Invention of the Cross' . . .
rests on the current testimony of four Byzantine ecclesiastical his-
torians— Rufinus, Socrates, Theodoret and Sozomen . , . and whose
story was accepted and supported by Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose
and Chrysostorn (see also Tillemont Mem. Eccles. and Jortin's remarks)
. . . Three crosses were found, and with them the Title placed by
Pilate's command on the Cross of Christ, lying apart by itself. A
festival to commemorate the discovery of this relic was soon estab-
lished ; pilgrimages undertaken in order to obtain a siirht of it next
followed ; then fragments of the sacred wood were sold at high prices
to wealthy votaries ; and, after a while, in order to meet the exigencies
of the case, the Roman ecclesiastical authorities assured the increasing
crowds of anxious purchasers that the wood, if no longer working
miracles of healing, exercised a power of miraculous self-multi
plication."1

If all this be truth, all the world for centuries must have
been fools, except the "Roman ecclesiastical authorities,"
who were knaves. But, if there be one thing more than
another that the words just quoted prove, it is that the
writer of them, to say the best of him, did not break his
heart inquiring into the evidence on which " the well-known
legend," rests. It is not true that the discovery of the cross
rests on the testimony of the four Byzantine historians just
named. It rests on their testimony and on that of many
others besides, they, by the way, being not the most important.
It is not true that Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, and
Chrysostom accepted the story from those four Byzantine
historians ; and for a simple reason which the writer of the
article ought to have known before he undertook to sit in

1 See article on the " Cross '' in the Encyclopedia. Having seen
reference made in the Tablet to the fact that the article on " Monasticism "
was entrusted to Dr. Littledale, 1 looked over it and others bearing on
Catholicism ; and certainly the boast of the impartiality of the Encyclopedia
is an empty one. A refutation of the errors and mis-statements about
Catholic doctrine and practices, which are to be found in the Encyclopedia,
if bound together, would make a goodly volume, and a useful appendix
to it in libraries.

228 Reliquiae Dominicae.

judgment on an ecclesiastical tradition 1500 years old. St.
Cyril, St. Ambrose, and St. Chrysostom died before any
of the four historians from whom we are told they accepted
the story. St. Cyril attests the discovery in one of his
Catechisms which he gave in A.D. 347 : St. Ambrose attests
it in his oration on the death of Theodosius the Great in
A.D. 395 ; and yet the readers of the Encyclopedia Britannica are
informed that these borrowed the legend from Socrates and
Sozomen who even bring their histories down to the year
A.D. 439, in the reign of Theodosius the Younger, and from
Theodoret who lived later still. He might as well have told
us that Hume and Lingard plagiarised Lord Macaulay and
Green. If Tillemont be responsible for such palpable
anachronisms as these, the less notice that is taken of
Mr. Boutell's recommendation to consult him the better, but
such patent inaccuracies are very unlike Tillemont. It is a
fitting finish to all this that he choruses the Rev. Mr. Farrar
in making the indispensable charge of imposture, simony,
and fraud against the Church. What a curious contrast the
critical faculty of these writers presents, when it is a question
of bespattering the Church, and when it a question of
identifying a relic I For the former any evidence is sufficient,
for the latter no evidence is enough. 'Tis a pity they have
not placed side by side the evidence in favour of the dis-
covery which they reject, and the evidence for those
ecclesiastical impostures which they assert ; for we would then
have an opportunity of marking the variations of their critical
barometer, it is a curious thing that St. Helena's visit to
the East is admitted ; that she built a basilica on Calvary is
admitted ; almost every fact connected with her oriental pil-
grimage is admitted ; and all on the authority of those very
historians with whom we have been dealing. It is only when
they tell us that she also found the Cross and the Sepulchre
that their evidence is discarded ; against the discovery of the
Sepulchre an alibi is proved ; the finding of the instruments
of the Passion is refuted a priori ! It is quite clear that the
relic is the red rag all through. Looking back over the
observations just made I admit they could be done without
or cast perhaps in a milder form ; but as they are written

Reliquiae Dominioae. 229

there appears no reason for modifying or crossing them out.
Indeed they are mildness itself when compared with the
unbecoming impertinences with which the two writers last
named try to bedaub the Church ; and, after all, it cannot be
said that the Church is less sacred than the writers of two
articles in which inaccuracy and grossness are not the least
prominent features.

I cannot do better than give here a few extracts from an
essay on this subject by one who has never been in the
habit of giving assent without the most searching scrutiny.
Writing on the discovery of the instruments of the Sacred
Passion before he was yet a Catholic, Cardinal Newman1
says (page 150) : —

" If the discovery was not really made there was an imposture in
the proceeding : an imputation upon the Church of Jerusalem, nay
.in the event on the whole Christian Church, so heavy as to lead us
to weigh well which is the more probable hypothesis of the two, so
systematic and sustained a fraud, or the discovery of a lelic, or in
human language an antiquity 300 years old."

At page 152 he says : —

" It seems hardly safe absolutely to deny what is thus affirmed
by the whole Church,"

At page 155, referring to those who dispute the discovery,
he says :—

"The chance is that they have undertaken more than they can
accomplish. For it stands to reason, which party is more likely to
be right in a question of topographical fact, men who lived 300 years
after it and on the spot, or those who live 1800 years and at the Anti-
podes ? Granting that the fourth century had very poor means of
information, it does not appear why the nineteenth should have more
ample."

Let us take it as settled then that the title was found by
St. Helena, and let us carry our thoughts from Jerusalem to
Rome. In the middle of the arch that spans the front of the
apse over the high altar in the basilica of Sta Croce may be
observed a white cross of stucco. Before the church was

1 An Essay on the •' Miracles recorded in^Ecclesiastical^History of the
Early Ages." By J. H. Newman, B.D., Fellow of Oriel College, 1843.

230 Reliquiae Dominicae.

repaired by Benedict XIV. who, as Cardinal Lambertini, was
its Titular, these words — Hie fuit Titulus S. Crucis — written
in golden letters on an azure ground were to be seen where the
white cross is now. The cross of stucco, and before it the
inscription in golden letters, marks the place where the Title
of the Cross was rediscovered by Cardinal Meiidoza in
A.D. 1492. That discovery and identification have been attested
with circumstantial particularity by several trustworthy
authorities since then. 1 select four of them whose oppor-
tunity of knowing it was such as must leave us to the alterna-
tive either of accepting their evidence, or of thinking them
the veriest knaves. One is Cardinal Carvajale who succeeded
Cardinal Mendoza in 1495 as Titular of the church. He had
a passage made from the church down into the chapel of
St. Helena, and on the walls of the passage he had a curiously
wrought and very long inscription put up which still remains.
In that inscription the chapel of St. Helena is recorded ; the
earth brought from Calvary for the formation of its floor, and
the other sacred objects brought from the scene of our
Saviour's Passion to adorn and make it in the words of the
inscription, a " Second Jerusalem " are also recorded. It
tells us that the Title of the Cross was brought to Rome by
St. Helena ; that, enclosed in a leaden case, it lay hid away
from view in a niche over the arch fronting the apse ; that in
the thin piece of tile-work that closed in the niche were
inscribed words telling of the relic that was preserved within,
which words had become almost illegible by time ; that in
the year 1492, during the Pontificate of Innocent VIII.,
whilst the church was undergoing repairs at the expense of
Cardinal Mendoza, the thin piece of work that closed in the
niche fell in whilst the workmen were restoring the inscription,
and exposed the leaden case to their view. On 29th July,
1496, Pope Alexander VI. published a Bull " Admirabile
Sacramentum," granting a plenary indulgence, under the
usual conditions, to all who may visit the basilica of Sta Croce
on the last Sunday of January each year. The reason for
granting the indulgence is given in the Bull itself; it is to
promoteMevotion towards the Title of the True Cross which,
as appears from the Bull, was discovered in the year 1492. By

Reliquiae Dorninicae. 231

order of Gregory XVI. a feast of greater double rite, in
lion our of the Title, is celebrated in the church on the last
Sunday of January, the anniversary of the discovery ; and it
has, by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (15th
April, 1831), a Proper Mass and prayer, which, through the
kindness of the Abbot of the Cistercian Fathers, who are
attached to the church, the writer has seen. On 12th March,
1492, a few weeks after the discovery, Pope Innocent VIII.
with the college of cardinals, after Pontifical High Mass in
the Church of St. Gregory on the Coelian hill, went in solemn
procession to the Church of Sta Croce, to see and venerate
the relic recently found. That visit, several particulars about
the discovery, and a description of the relic that was found
have been left us by Burchardo, the pontifical master of
ceremonies on the occasion, in an official diary which he kept.
He says that the Pope took the relic into his hands and
examined it, as did 'also the cardinals. Moreover a manuscript
has been found in the Vatican library containing, amongst
other things, a letter written from Rome by one Leonardo di
Sarzana to a friend in Volterra. It bears the date of 4th
February, 1492, and is all taken up with the details of the
discovery of a few days before. Besides the particulars
given in the inscription already noticed, we learn from this
letter that on the leaden case which contained the relic was
laid a stone, of an oblong shape and of about the same super-
ficial measure as the reliquary. On this stone the words,
TITULUS CRUCIS, were cut, as if it were placed there in
testimony of the relic over which it was laid ; the stone is
still to be seen in the chapel of the relics. The letter also
gives the length, breadth, and thickness of the relic ; it
mentions a triple inscription in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,
that was carved on it, and even observes that the words of
the Greek and Latin inscription were, like the Hebrew,
written in retrograde order. It gives also a careful description
of the state of preservation in which the words of the three
inscriptions were, and the corroding effect that time had
upon each. The words of the letter itself bearing on this
will be given later on.1 The writer of the letter adds that he
1 AH the details are given by Burchardo also.

232 Reliquiae Dominicae.

himself read the inscriptions, and copied them in the exact
characters in which the letters were formed. That copy, he
says towards the end of the letter, he is not sending to
him to whom he is writing ; but in another letter which
he wrote about the same time to the same person, and
which may be seen in the same Vatican codex, he says
that he sent the copy of the inscriptions he had taken to
Lorenzo dei Medici, whom he calls " certum peritorum
virorum confugium.5'

We shall see later on whether, from an examination of
the relic itself, we are justified in identifying it with the
Title of the True Cross. Meanwhile we may well insist on
the belief in its identity acknowledged by those just men-
tioned, as sufficient to beget conviction in us. Indeed,
they should be very strong motives that could fairly turn us
off into disagreement from the evidence that has been given;
that is, if we consider it with the normal disposition of
accepting a fact, which claims nothing of the miraculous, on
the strength of such evidence as history usually affords.
The identity of the relic discovered with the Title of the
Cross was acknowledged, as we have seen, in the most
solemn way by Alexander VI. four years after the discovery. It
was acknowledged by him who sent the copy of it to Lorenzo
dei Medici, and by the pontifical master of ceremonies, both
of whom examined and knew all about it; by the Cardinal
Titular who had it perpetuated by an inscription; by Innocent
VIII. , the College of Cardinals, and the Roman people who
joined in the solemn procession to visit and venerate it a
few weeks after its discovery. It is beyond human credulity
to think that such solemnities were gone through at the time
and before the world, let us not say to palaver an imposture
on the people, but even to continue anything which sufficient
reasons did not authenticate and place beyond reasonable
doubt. If it be not so, the inscription which is still preserved
in the church can be looked upon only as a monument either
of unpardonable imposture or of almost unpardonable
silliness; so, too, the other solemnities in reference to it
that took place at the time or have taken place since ; and
the same must be said, amongst others, of the Venetian

Reliquiae Dommicae. 233

ambassador who took a fragment of it which he received
from Innocent VIII. to Venice as a treasure which has been
preserved down to our own days. If proofs of its identity
were not in evidence before the authorities of the time, the
fairest conclusion we can come to, perhaps, is, that the people of
Rome, and indeed of the Christian world, were then made up of
two classes — arrant knaves and silly dupes who almost
deserved to be imposed upon. And this suggests how well
it would have been had the Rev. Mr. Boutell lived then, to
stand between the deceivers and the deceived, and let the
light of such historical criticism as the following through
the silly story. He says : —

" The piece of wood supposed to have been inscribed with the
Title placed upon the Cross of Christ, and found with the three
crosses by St. Helena, and retaining traces of Hebrew and Roman
letters, is said to be still preserved at Rome, whither it was sent by
Constantine. After having been lost to sight and apparently
forgotten to remembrance, also, this relic — so goes the story — was
accidentally discovered in a leaden chest in which it had been
deposited by Constantiue ; and both the fact of the discovery and
the genuineness of the relic itself were attested by a Bull of
Alexander -in."

We have already seen what a fastidious critic the Rev.
Mr. Boutell is, and how curiously his fastidiousness in this
respect contrasts with his own accuracy. We have another
instance here. It is indifferent, of course, how the title came
to Rome, or by whom it was deposited in the leaden chest,
but I think there is no authority for saying that it was done
by Constantine. He says that " having been lost to sight
and apparently forgotten to remembrance, also, this relic —
so the story goes — was accidentally discovered," &c. But so
the " story " does not go. He has no evidence — such evidence
as could please so fastidious a critic — to show that it was
"lost to sight," unless in the sense in which a man's money
is lost to sight after he has locked it up in a safe. The Rev. Mr.
Boutell seems to have been imagining it hidden away in a
hole, nobody knew when, where, or by whom. Neither does
" the story go " that it was forgotten. It is true that very little
record has come to us about it from the time of St. Helena to

234 Reliquiae Dominicae.

its re- disco very ; but it is quite another thing to say that it was
forgotten. We may well suppose, and it is the natural
supposition to make, that at least its presence in the Church
of Sta Croce lived through all the intervening time in the
memory of the faithful, especially of those in Rome. It may
be that the tradition as to where it precisely was in the
church was lost, or became more or less confused in the
course of time ; but its presence somewhere in the church
may have been well remembered nevertheless, and the
faithful may have gone there to venerate it just as well as if
they knew where precisely it was preserved. When the
bodies of the martyrs were brought into the churches of the
city to guard against Lombardian desecration, the sites of
the different catacombs faded away from the people's memory
one by one, and it was not until recent years that some of
them were identified ; yet it was never forgotten that there
were such places outside the city where the martyrs and
all the dead were laid in early times. Even their names,
and in a general way their locality, were known to those
who cared to know ; the only thing that had passed
entirely into oblivion, and the only thing difficult to
restore was their respective positions. All memory of where
St. Jerome's grave is in St. Mary Majors is lost, but it is
certain that his body was brought from the East and laid
there.

And as it was with the Roman cemeteries during the
Middle Ages, and as it is with the body of St. Jerome, so it
may well have been with the Title of the Cross in Sta Croce,
without any difficulty in identifying it now occurring to us
thereby. But the " story " does not go that " it was for-
gotten." According to the letter of Leonardo di Sarzaiia
and the Diary of Burchardo there were three seals on the
leaden case that contained it when it was found in 1492 ;
these seals bore the name of Gerardus Cardinalis S. Crucis,
who was no other than Cardinal Gerardo Caccianemico of
Bologna, who was Titular of the church about 350 years
before, and afterwards became Pope Lucius II. It is certain,
therefore, that the Title was not forgotten then. Nor does
it seem to have been forgotten in 1492, before it was found

Reliquiae Dominicae. 235

for the inscription already referred to tells us that Cardinal
Mendoza had given orders to the workmen to restore the
words on the tile-work that indicated the title within, but
which had become almost illegible by time : — " et musivas
illas literas fenestrae reparari fecerit." The words referred
to here are of themselves a sufficient guarantee that the title
was not forgotten ; it seems, as if they were put there pre-
cisely for the purpose of preserving the memory of the
title and of making known where it was kept. If it should
occur to anyone that it was a strange place to put a relic,
the answer is to be found in a custom of the early Church.
We think of relics in churches now with the idea of their
being under the altar or upon it; but it was not so in early
times. Of course, such a thing as having the bones of a
saint in a church was not heard of then ; and such relics as
were kept in churches were usually placed in the walls, often
in the apse.i

Rev. Mr. Boutell also says, " that the supposed title re-
tained traces of Hebrew and Roman letters," which is
another inaccuracy; there were and are traces of Greek
letters also. He is again inaccurate in saying that the
" genuineness of the title is attested by a Bull of Alexander
111." It was Alexander VI. who attested it ; Alexander III.
was dead and buried for 300 years at the time. That may
easily be put down as a typographical error or an inad-
vertence ; but errors of the real sort have already so far
prescribed their claim to a place in his article that it is
hard to say which it is.

It is now time to say something about the triple inscription
on the title. It appears from the words of Sozomen, already
quoted, that all the words, as we know them from the Gospel
of St. John, were legible when it was found by St. Helena.
The following extract from the letter of Leonardo di Sarzana
will show us in what state these were when it was found in

1 See Paulinus, epist. 32, ad Sulpicinm Serverum ; Baronius, anno 112,
No. G ; and Baroriius, anno 330 ; No. 151. Martene — De Antiquis ixitibus
Ecclesiae, Tom. 2, lib. 2, No. 1 2, page 078. Second edition. Antwerp, 1736.

Bosio (La croce Trionfantc} speaks of relics kept behind a mosaic in.
the apse of the Church of Sari. Clemente.

236 Reliquiae Dominicae.

1492. It is better to give the original than a translation of
his words : —

" In quo ligno parte patenti superiore hi tituli triplici ordine, et
his characteribus, et triplice lingua, Hebraica. Graeca, et Latina
sunt impressi, et ut conjici potest, stylo ferreo signati, ac figurati ; et
in primo ordine est Hebraicus, in secundo Graecus, tertio Latinns.
Hebraicus brevisque, et sic se habet ^D *")Jtt JWn* 51 id est
HIESUS NAZARENUS, REX. Graecus sic 1C. Nafapeixfe. 0j
id est HIESUS NAZARENUS, sed dictio Bao-iXevs id est rex non
habet nisi primam literam, id est Beta. Latinus vero sic, et
hucusque IHUS NAZARENUS RE. Rex dictio non est completa,
quia X litera deest."

The following is a less detailed description by
Btirchardo :

" In capsa vero praedicta reposita erat quaedam tabula antiquis-
sima semiconsumpta lignea .... in qua tabula scriptae erant
retrograde Judaeorum more literae Hebraicae, Graecae, et Latinae :
JS • NAZARENUS • RE • Residuum Tituli, viz. X .
JUDAEORUM • deficiebat.

When it was discovered, in 1492, the fourth word had
disappeared from each of the three languages : the rest of
the Hebrew was at least decipherable. The third word also
of the Greek, except its initial letter B, had disappeared ;
and of the Latin the X of the third word had disappeared.
Suarez, Bishop of Coimbra, before returning to his diocese
after the Council of Trent, visited Rome, and from what he
says about the Title, as he found it, we may conclude that
the words Jesus Nazarenus Lex could be made out then ; but
he makes no distinction of language?. From Pagnino (born
1470, died 1541), who was Apostolic Preacher in Rome, we
learn that in his time some at least of the Hebrew letters
were decipherable ; for he observes that the letter Tsade and
not Zain is used in the second word. In 1610, Bosio took a
copy of the triple inscription as it then was ; and according
to that copy the Hebrew words had by that time faded into
mere lines, but were more distinct than we see them now ;
and the word Jesus had disappeared from the Greek and

1 In the Codex the Hebrew characters used are those used by the
Spanish and Italian Rabbins.

The Suppression of Intemperance. 237

Latin. I have before me a copy taken by Nicquet, a Jesuit,
in 1648, which presents it in a similar state ; and another
taken by l)e Corrieris, a Cistercian Father of Sta Croce, about
1830, which presents the state of the Title as it is at present.
Gosselin, a Sulpician Father, had another taken in 1828.

As this paper is already too long, an examination of the
words of the inscription, and of some difficulties against the
authenticity of the Title that arise therefrom, will be taken
up in a future one.

M. O'RlORDAN.

THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE.— I.

•• TYELENDA est Carthago," was the decree of ancient
\J Rome regarding her dangerous rival, and she ceased
not from this policy of destruction till Carthage was laid
waste. Would that Catholic Ireland, " taking unto herself
the armour of God," should declare a war of extermination
against intemperance, with the watch-word, Death to
Drunkenness.

True, thank God, the majority of our people at home
drink intoxicating liquors far less frequently and in smaller
quantities than the people of many other nations, which,
withal, are reputed temperate. Yet, the intemperate minority
amongst us is so numerous, that it is largely represented in
every grade of society, and to intemperance to a very large
extent are to be ascribed the ruin, the sorrows, the sins of
our land — country, town and city. Indeed, though otherwise
we are a most virtuous people, our popular traditions
and customs are perennial sources of this parent-evil.
Despite our love of the just glories of our Nation, ^ e
must own that hateful intemperance is a national evil, and a
national vice.

I shall begin by quoting a passage from the pastoral
letter of our prelates issued from the Synod of Maynooth,

238 The Suppression of Intemperance.

in which this painful fact is set forth with touching
earnestness : —

" With deepest pain, and after the example of the Apostle, weep-
ing, we say that the abominable vice of intemperance still continues
to work dreadful havoc among our people, marring in their souls the
work of religion, and in spite of their natural and supernatural
virtues, changing many among them into enemies of the Cross of
Christ, whose end is destruction ; whose God is their belly ; and
whose glory is their shame. Is it not, dearly beloved, an intolerable
scandal, that in the midst of a Catholic nation like ours, there should
be found so many slaves of intemperance, who habitually sacrifice to
brutal excess in drinking not only their reason, their character, the
honour of their children, their substance, their health, their life, their
souls, and God himself? To drunkenness we may refer, as to its
baneful cause, almost all the crime by which the country is disgraced,
and much of the poverty from which it suffers. Drunkenness has
wrecked more homes, once happy, than ever fell beneath the crowbar
in the worst days of eviction ; it has filled more graves and made
more widows and orphans than did the famine ; it has broken more
hearts, blighted more hopes, and rent asunder family ties more ruth-
lessly than the enforced exile to which their misery has condemned
emigrants. Against an evil so widespread and so pernicious, we
implore all who have at heart the honour of God and the salvation of
souls to be filled with holy zeal."

Since these eloquent words were written, something has
been done, here and there, to reform drinking habits ; and
the success has been commensurate with the efforts made
and persevered in. But no very general national reformation
has been attempted. Consequently, speaking generally, the
old scandalous customs prevail ; the habit of excessive
drinking still holds sway over a large portion of our manhood,
it is, we fear, extending its thraldom over the weaker
sex, hitherto above suspicion ; and it has come to pass, that
heartrending histories of ruin, occasioned entirely by intem-
perance are related day by day. In town and country you
have tales of domestic affliction, distress, disgrace, disease,
premature and often sudden death. In towns, and particularly
in our large cities, we have the proselytising homes, the
brothels, the workhouses and the jails, too well filled, and all
through intemperance. Moreover (and who can think of it
without deep pain and humiliation) we have the abominable
and incredible scenes begotten of drunkenness and

The Suppression of Intemperance. 239

intemperance night after night in the streets of our cities,
and day after day in many a fair and market place throughout
the land.

I shall confirm these statements by some brief quotations.

The Freeman s Journal some time back in a leader on a
kindred subject wrote : —

l< That intemperance is a growing danger to the whole structure
of society no dispassionate observer can deny. That the attempt to
check it by wretched peddling laws has failed, and must fail, experience
proves. If it is to be coped with at all, the reform must be thorough
and based upon some real solid principle."

Dr. Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, writes in
a private letter of recent date —

" Irishmen sober would be the grandest people on earth.
Drinking they are failures — they fill jails and poorhouses. Make
them sober and all Irish questions will care for themselves."

Father Nugent in evidence before a Committee of the
House of Lords, stated : —

" I have been chaplain to Liverpool Borough Jail thirteen years.
It is constantly crowded by drunkenness and prostitution — the vices
of prosperous labour and a large seaport. During thirteen years
over ninety-three thousand prisoners came under my care, and of
these over fifty thousand were females — generally young girls between
sixteen and eighteen years of age. These latter are confirmed
drunkards, leading lives of the most reckless criminal and abandoned
infamy. Of ^those who came under my charge certainly eight out of
every ten are either Irish-born or the children of Irish,"

I am unwilling to multiply quotations, but some testimony
on the actual state of intemperance at home in Ireland may
be sought. Well, the late Cardinal Archbishop of Dublin
in a letter pastoral, after deprecating presumption or
over-weening confidence because of our Faith and purity,
writes : —

" Unfortunately, we do not seek long till we find one wicked
abomination, which is the source of all our crimes and misfortunes,
Thousands of premature graves tell of its ravages. The worse than
premature graves — the proselytising schools which infest our city are

240 The Suppression of Intemperance.

fed by the monster. Our workhouses are thronged by its victims.
Its baleful tyranny is cramming our jails with criminals. Starvation
and nakedness point out its slaves by the hundred in our public
streets. The deep wail of woe, the moan of despair, that burst
continually from many wretched homes, tell of misery which God
alone can measure."

With the foregoing I would connect an extract from a
published letter from his Eminence, addressed to the Very-
Rev. President of the Total Abstinence Society, Halston-
street, Dublin : —

" What is it that is filling the jails, the workhouses, the prosely-
tising schools ? One item of the police report reveals the horrid
secret. There were in Dublin in 1#80, and probably are still, nearly
two thousand habitual drunkards known to the police courts. In
addition to these were, during the same year, seven thousand seven
hundred aud forty-four charges of drunkenness brought before the
police magistrates ; more than one-third of the persons so charged
being women. It is a humiliating confession to admit the trui h of
these sad records, but we will not remedy our miseries by concealing
them."

But his Eminence did riot go through the entire record of
the fruits of our intemperance, he did not depict the most
deplorable infamy of thousands of the daughters of Catholic
Ireland. Of this bitterest ruin and deepest disgrace, in
Ireland at least, intemperance is the cause. Priests and
religious connected with Magdalen asylums know this but
too well. The late Provincial for Ireland of the Nuns of the
Good Shepherd stated in a letter to a priest about to conduct
a retreat for her penitents : —

" The penitents are tempted very strongly to return to the world.
This lasts generally about a year and a half after entrance ; and it
returns occasionally with great violence. Thirst for drink is at the
root of this temptation, as it was in most cases, the cause of all their
crimes. And, even when reformed and returned to the world, thirst
for drink leads them to fall again."

The provincial towns are mostly as bad as the capital
in our present point of view. A. M. Sullivan, writing from
Glengariffto the Freeman's Journal on the " Great Public

The Suppression of Intemperance, 241

Scandal," in September, 1884, describes his experience of the
south as follows : —

" Four nights ago I heard mid-night made hideous, in the square
of an Irish town, by a half-drunken * Catholic,' yelling that he

'wouldn't go home: no, he wouldn't go for J s C 1; and

suddenly the foot-fall of the police patrol being heard, he hushed
his oaths, sprang from the ground, and made off, more afraid

of the village policeman thnn of 'J s C 1,' . . , For

the first time in my life I have every day for Ihe past four
weeks, read the public reports of two large cities in the South
of Ireland, Let us have no 'intemperate language' about it,
but let any one paste day by day in a scrap book the reports as they
appear, and then say if they are not simply sickening, as a revelation
of the barbarism of a population among whom God was preached
centuries ago. I have lived eight years in London, and I fearlessly
say, when put to it now, that I hang my heal for shame on the
comparison of the prevalence of ruffianised blasphemy in the drunken
scenes of the English and Irish cities."

This was written more than four years ago — shortly before
the lamented death of our gifted and noble-hearted country-
man ; perhaps the present state of intemperance is improved.
Yes, a perceptible improvement is shown by the public
statistics in the year 1886, which may well be accounted for
by the " hard times ;" but, unhappily, there has been a woful
relapse in 1887, although the "times " were bad enough. In
fact we see by Thorn's directory, just issued, that the number
of drunkards brought before magistrates in 1886 were 68,681 ;
and in 1887 were 79,476.

It may be said that the poorer classes alone are concerned
in much of what 1 have written; what of the farmers, what
of respectable business people ; members of the learned pro-
fession and others ?

An intelligent and most trustworty old farmer assured
one who asked the information, that, to his knowledge,
" eleven of his personal friends, and about one hundred
and twenty of his acquaintance, were * broken ' by drink."

From one provincial paper, within the last two or three
months, I have taken accounts of three inquests on persons
from the country who met with fatal accidents or died from
exposure while returning drunk from town.

In this fair and market intemperance women and children
VOL. x. Q

242 The Suppression of Intemperance.

had no part, save that of pitiable victims, till later years.
Very many women and girls there are still who, like their
virtuous mothers and grandmothers, blush at being asked
into a public-house. Some, however, have got rid of this
shame-facedness, go to drink alone and in company, and
sometimes are found altered in face and manner ; sometimes
even drunk ! Little boys are brought to the counter or tap-
room by their fathers ; little girls by their mothers !

And the intemperance of country people is not confined
to days spent in town. Large supplies of the strongest
drinks are invariably brought from town by many. The
special messenger to town is often despatched on this business
alone. Public-houses are numerous in almost every district.
Brewers' vans are moveable bars, tempting even the labourer
in the field. Thus, there is an abundant supply and a cor-
responding consumption at all time even in the country.
Moreover, take into consideration the special occasions,
wakes and funerals, [raffles and parties, " machines," &c., &c. ;
and let us also remember that the temptation to drunkenness
and intemperance pursues our people, even into their
amusements, laudable and even necessary in themselves.
Witness the recent pastoral admonition of the Archbishop of
Armagh, in the north ; and, a little before, a public manifesto
of the Archbishop of Cashel, for the south, both addressed to
the members of the Gfaelic Athletic Association. Were these
prelates listened to ? Yes, and most respectfully. Are they
obeyed in this particular ? Not generally at least.

Enough of rural intemperance. What of the "respectable,"
of the wealthy, of the professional, and of the higher classes ?
His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminister
answers : —

" Excess in drink is not confined to the criminal class, nor to the
working classes. There is not a class that is free from it. It shows
up in different forms. Men that have been prosperous in trade have
come to wreck and ruin, and nobody has known until it has been dis-
covered that they had the secret habit of indulging in intoxicating
drink. It has made them careless, expensive, reckless, self-indulgent,
selOsh, unpunctual, untrusty, and at last, false. And when a
trader reaches that moral degradation, lie wrecks and ruins all that
he has and all that are about him. Take another example. I am

The Suppression of Intemperance. 243

speaking of what I know — what I have seen. I have known case
after case of professional men who might have risen to an honourable
state, and might have lifted up all that were about them, who
gradually have begun to decline, and nobody knew why. They
somehow changed in their character. They lost the confidence of
people about them. No one would trust them with the management
of their affairs or the care of their health. What was the reason ?
It was found at last to be the same.

" This sometimes happened in the case of the best educated and
most refined women. Nobody could account for the fluctuations of
their temper, the child in their manner, and a certain dramatic way
of speaking which they adopted. It was supposed to be some nervous
irritability. Nobody could tell what it was, and nobody would
venture to suspect anything evil— until some day it was given out by
the revelations of a servant that had been employed in secret, or by
detection and positive proof. That has happened to my knowledge
in the case of educated and refined w omen. Nobody is safe.

" There is one last fact of which I must say a word. If there
is anything sacred upon the face of the earth, it is home. The home
where the father and the mother and children live together in the
authority of parents, with the obedience of love, sanctified by Faith,
like the Holy Family of Nazareth. And if there is one thing which
pulls down a house, which wrecks it and destroys it, like the leprosy
of old that devoured even the walls and timbers of the houses of the
people of Israel, it is when intoxicating drink and excessive habits
come into a home. It is no longer home. There is neither the love
nor the fidelity of husband and wife, nor of father or mother, nor of
sons or daughters. It becomes a wilderness, and worse than a wilder-
ness, of people full of all manner of evil tempers, miseries, and mutual
afflictions. And this, I must say, not only in the lowly cottage, but
in the great and rich home of the wealthy."1

"Nomine mutafco, fabula de te narratur." All that the
great Cardinal testifies of England is verified, perhaps
more ruinously, in Ireland. In Ireland, also, prosperous
traders and men of business " go down " because of
drink ; professional men and aristocrats in town and country
are not unfrequently spoken of as "victims;" even among
our mothers and sisters, wives and daughters, there are some
who yield ruinously, though mostly in secret, to intemperance;
and besides all this, even our " lux mundi " itself is sometimes
dimmed, and our " sal terrae " spoiled in its savour by this
baneful vice.

It requires the all-seeing eye of God to measure and

i Sermons at Flint, August, 1885.

244 The Suppression of Intemperance.

estimate the woes entailed by drink on " Catholic Ireland ;"
and there has been no adequate reformation since that wail
of woe went forth from her heart in the last plenary synod
of her Pastors. Yet, this evil is of native growth. It is a
curse of our own making ; the cure is in our own hands. Look
at other Catholic nations. How free they are from this
plague ! Remove this evil from Catholic Ireland, and soon
her sorrows would be changed into joys, and the rags of her
wretchedness into the glorious mantle of a holy, peaceful
and prosperous nation.

Death, then, to drunkenness ! This should be the
resolve, deep, abiding, and ever pressing, of the sons and
daughters, and friends of Ireland ; and most of all, of her
bishops, priests, and religious. For such an evil, well may
we all "be made sorrowful according to God; and great
should be the carefulness it worketh in us : yea defence, yea
indignation, yea fear, yea desire, yea zeal, yea revenge," so
that we might show ourselves "to be undefined in the matter."

Of course we are not to rest in resolution alone ; success
depends on execution; and certain means must be employed
for the accomplishment of our desires. These means in our
present case cannot find place in the present article, and
shall be referred to a future occasion.

Before concluding, it may be useful, if not necessary, to
write a few words in justification for having given to
intemperance the foremost place among our many grievances.
I have done so not in ignorance of the many disadvantages,
injustices, and dangers which in this our day challenge the
best aid that we can give towards their redress ; not through
indifference to the actual sufferings and sacrifices of our
people, and of their devoted leaders (whom may God guard
and guide) ; not for want of sympathy with those brother-
priests who in justice, charity, prudence, and discipline take
active measures to save the poor frcm oppression and
destruction, and, undeterred by the armed violence or
judicial penalties of unlawful laws, willingly submit to
" bonds and prisons," as did the true Christians of every
age ; of whom the very Prince of the Apostles wrote :
" Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a railer,

" The Cross and the Shamrock" etc. 245

or a coveter of other men's things; but if as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name."
Yet there seems to me at least, to be no choice left to
any intelligent and candid observer, as to our greatest
national evil. Like our internal disunion, intemperance is
radical. Worse than these disastrous divisions it produces
miseries and crimes varied and multiplied indefinitely,
and affecting us morally and physically, socially and
politically ; it destroys the Christian happiness and worldly
comfort of our families ; it demoralizes and degrades us at
home and abroad; and it is the one road by which our people
are led easily to hell Besides all these positive evils, intem-
perance mars the singular blessings bestowed on us by God's
bounty, and frustrates the benefits secured by human effort.
Further testimony is needless. Here, then, I shall leave off,
deferring my suggestions on the means to be employed to a
future occasion.

MICHAEL KELLY, M.SS.

"THE CROSS AND THE SHAMROCK" IN THE
GOLDEN AGES OF THE IRISH CHURCH.

I.

TO the intelligent student of history the words, " the Cross
and the Shamrock," throw open a rich field for profit-
able study ; to the grateful Christian they indicate a fertile
source of countless blessings ; and to the Catholic Irishman
they are words of the deepest meaning, for they comprehend
the vast treasures of heaven's choicest blessings to his
native land, and the great services of his country in the
cause of truth, justice, and religion.

The Cross and the Shamrock combined bring before us
the happy alliance and the mutual relationship that have for
fourteen hundred years subsisted between Ireland and the
Catholic Church. Need it be added that thus united they
awaken every remembrance and arouse every emotion

246 " The Cross and the Shamrock " in the

associated with the Faith and Fatherland of the Irish
race.

It is hardly necessary to tell the trite little story of the first
alliance of the Cross and the Shamrock. When the difficulty
of believing in the mystery of the Holy Trinity which
St. Patrick was preaching, at the Royal Court of Tara, to
the King and his household, presented itself to their minds,
the Apostle of Ireland held up the shamrock, showed its
triple leaf, and, thus illustrating the mystery, gained an easy
conquest over their minds and hearts for the truths of
Christianity.

It is not for us to describe the rapid work of conversion
that St. Patrick accomplished in the land ; suffice it that in
the lifetime of that one man the whole country embraced
the Catholic faith, and that wherever the shamrock grew,
over it was raised the Cross, exercising a most beneficent
sway throughout the entire land.

Let those who regard the Catholic Church as the
enemy of civilisation and progress, just consider the effects
of the Catholic religion on the early Irish, and they will see
how religion, true civilisation, and real national progress go
hand in hand together.

Previous to the mission of St. Patrick the country was
pagan, and (waiving controverted questions) involved in
such barbarity as existed amongst the pagans of that day.
False gods and idols were worshipped ; natural proclivities
to vice had not the moral and penal obstacles to their deve-
lopment that Christianity and civilisation introduced; the
arts and sciences, if known at all, were known only in a very
rudimentary state; the ordinary comforts of modern life
were unknown; towns were unbuilt, forests unreclaimed,
lands untilled— in a word, the social condition of the ante-
Christian Irish may be, perhaps, compared to that of the
unreclaimed New Zealander of the present day.

Immediately when St. Patrick appeared everything
underwent a change : civilisation appeared ; learning began
to be taught, the arts and sciences to flourish ; paganism
and barbarism vanished like the morning fog before the
rising sun ; civilisation took a deep and extended root in the

Golden Ages of the Jris/i Church. 247

soil, and the true form of Christianity was introduced — not
that form of Christianity which, while it professes to
enlighten, leaves men in the darkness of error and the misery
of doubt ; not a Christianity choked with worldly maxims
and conceited with the extravagances of human stubborn-
ness and pride, but the true form of Christianity, which
raises from the slavery of error and doubt to the freedom of
the sons of God.

Let us mark the most notable changes brought about in
Ireland by the sole and natural action of the Catholic
Church.

The Irish embraced the faith with all the fervour of their
ardent souls. They would be perfect in virtue : they would
part with all their earthly possessions to make sure of their
imperishable crown. " If thou wilt be perfect," they were
told, " sell what thou hast and give to the poor." Chieftains
and kings, Druids and bards, and persons of every age and
rank in life, left their abodes to realize fully Christian
perfection. They went to distant out-of-the-way places,
shunning the eyes of man and seeking in the vast solitude
to do penance and to sanctify their souls. In the vast desert,
on the barren mountain side, along the lonely river, in
the midst of nature's grandest and wildest beauties, holy
men sought solitude for divine contemplation. Numbers,
following in their footsteps, soon found out their retreats.
Identity of purpose and a desire of mutual encouragement
blended them in life and in labour. Their system of sancti-
fication combined the active and the contemplative ; so that,
in reclaiming the barren mountain and in tilling the unculti-
vated valley, as well as in kinging the praises of God and
contemplating His divine perfections, they filled up the
measure of their lives.

The number who thus embraced the ascetic life is
surprising, Skilled in the arts of architecture, they built
separate cells in which at first the abbots, clergy and monks,
lived apart.1 Soon they erected the house for the accom-
modation of strangers in a neighbouring enclosure. But the

1 Petrie, Round Towers, 416.

248 " The Cross and the Shamrock " in the

numbers still increasing to such an extent as " to astonish even
St. Patrick himself ;nl they soon built their monasteries —
those grand old ruins so sadly neglected throughout the
country to-day — as houses where they all lived the
community life. Each monastery had its large chapel —
where the divine praises were recited and the sacred
mysteries celebrated ; each had its large dining hall, its
innumerable cells, its Scriptorium where the Sacred Scrip-
tures were transcribed, its halls where science and learning
were taught, its workshops where trader were learned, and
the arts cnltivated, and each monastery became, in fact, a
hivs of industry, a home ot learning, and an abode of
sanctity.

These monasteries everywhere studded the land, and the
people flocked in crowds after their holy inmates (many of
whom had been chieftains or the children of chieftains)
attracted by their sanctity and stimulated to rivalry by their
example.

The erection of houses around these monasteries became
necessary. The number of these houses, as they clustered
together, soon grew so great that they formed themselves
into villages and towns, the inhabitants of which profited in
civilization and virtue by the learning and example of the
monks. We are told that in Bangor no less than three-
thousand occupied its glorious monastery — the monks sup-
porting themselves by the labour of their own hands. In
other parts of Ireland, as in Clonfert and Clonmacnoise,
similar institutions abounded in the very era in which
Christianity dawned upon the land.

Let those who would accuse Christianity of being a
check to national 'prosperity, just consider what advantages
these communities of laborious, learned, and disinterested
men, were capable of conferring, and let them investigate
what these monastic institutions — the first offspring of the
union of the Cross and the Shamrock — actually did for
Ireland, and, in fact, for the whole world.

They were "hives of industry ;2 and by the untiring

1 MontaJembert, Monks of the West, vol. ii., 395.

2 Cogan, Diocese of Meafh, Introd. xxvii.

Golden Ages of the Irish Church. 249

labour of the monks, the barren mountain was converted
into a profitable farm, the gloomy forest into a garden, and
the lonely island into a paradise." To the monks, adds
O'Connor,1 ' we owe so useful an institution in Ireland as
bringing great numbers together in one civil community."

They were homes of learning. Not merely were trades
taught but letters were highly cultivated. The Sacred
Scriptures,2 theology, philosophy, classics, and psalmody,
were studied and professed with especial care in our Irish
monasteries. Of the languages, the Greek and Latin were
cultivated and, by many, the Hebrew.3

Not merely were the Sacred Scriptures, theology, philo-
sophy, the classics, &c., taught, but the fine arts flourished
to a surprising extent. Music was so cultivated that Ireland
was called " the land of song," and the harp was regarded
as the emblem of her nationality. Poetry abounded ; laws of
consummate wisdom governed the land; the proficiency of
the Irish, as architects and builders, is attested by the
crumbling ruins of their grand old churches and monasteries ;
and their superiority as painters and penmen, is evidenced
from the few remnants that we have of the illuminated
manuscripts — the work of their hands. Aldhelm of Malmes-
bury, a Saxon writer, describes4 Ireland " as rich in the
wealth of science, and as thickly set with learned men as the
poles are with stars." Even at the time of the Saxon
invasion, when England knew not the use of letters,
and when learning was being extinguished on the Continent
owing to the ravages of the Northern barbarians who finally
overturned the Roman Empire, Ireland was the home of
learning, and her monasteries the schools from which educa-
tion was scattered throughout Europe.

The monasteries were also the abodes of sanctity — a
necessary constituent of true greatness, let an infidel world
laugh as it will. On their introduction, paganism and what-
ever barbarism co-existed writh it vanished from the land.
Social life received a new and Christian feature, and virtue

i Dissertations, 201. 2 Reeves, Adamnan, 354.

3 St. Columbanus wrote in Hebrew.

*Sylloc;e Epist. Hib. xiii., in Diocese of Meath, xxxiii.

250 " The Cross and the Shamrock " in the

flourished to an extraordinary degree throughout the whole
country. The stranger met with a hospitable reception in
these monasteries, the ignorant were instructed, and the poor
were clothed and fed. "Kings and princes, the wealthy and
benevolent, seeing what numbers were gratuitously relieved
and educated in Ireland, made the monasteries the vehicle of
their alms, and thus augmented their usefulness. Many of the
wealthy, retiring from the storms and turmoil of life to these
abodes of peace and piety, brought with them a portion of
their riches, so that in a brief period Ireland was covered
with establishments of literature and virtue, hospitality, and
charity, where the child of genius unbefri ended by the world
had a home, where the ascetic had an asylum, arid the
destitute and afflicted a place of comfort and consolation.
Under the shadow of these cloisters saints grew up practised
in virtue, inured to labour, skilled in sacred and profane
learning; and, when called to a more extensive sphere, they
edified the faithful by the holiness of their lives ; they con-
founded the unbeliever by the depth of their learning, and
they were pillars of light in the war of religion with the
powers of hell."1

Their influence was also powerful in the promotion and
preservation of internal peace, and in the interests of justice
and morality it was always most powerfully exercised. In
those ages there was no necessity for National and Board
schools. The enlightenment of these ages did not
require the knowledge of God and His laws to be hidden
from the minds of His creatures. No laws were then in force
creating poverty and punishing it as a crime, and no
relief-institutions — half prisons and half lunatic asylums —
were then in being, providing a relief for the sustenance of
human life, so adulterated by the difficulty of obtaining it
and by the unkindness of its administrators, as to be more of
a terror than a comfort. Fraternal charity springing from
Divine love, provided the means whence the poor were fed,
clothed and taught. A conscientious feeling that such means
were the property of the poor, and an utter disregard for

1 Diocese of Meath, xxvii.

Golden Ages of the Irish Church. 251

personal interests, prevented extravagant expenditure, so
that the largest possible relief reached those for whom it was
intended ; and reached them accompanied by the charm of
Christian sympathy, because administered in the spirit of
Him who has said : " I was hungry and you gave me to eat ;
I was thirsty and you gave me to drink ; I was a stranger
and you took me in."1

II.

Great as were the blessings, spiritual, temporal and
intellectual, that the " Cross " brought to the " land of the
shamrock," so, likewise, were the services that the sons and
daughters of Ireland performed in the cause of the Cross,
and in the interests of civilisation for the world at large.

The monasteries of Ireland brought to her a reputation
and a fame such as have no parallel in history. Their
reputation as the abodes of learning and sanctity attracted
strangers in great numbers to her shores. Strangers flocked
from every part of Europe to receive an education which
Ireland alone could then give. Let us hear the testimonies
of foreigners or Protestants on this subject. Their testimony
cannot be accused of partiality.

Dr. Wattenback, an eminent German antiquary, tells
us2 that Ireland, in the sixth and seventh centuries,
" when the whole western world seemed irrevocably sunk
in barbarism, afforded a refuge for the remnants of the old
civilisation, and that the Anglo-Saxons crossed over to the
Sacred Isle in multitude, in order there to become scholars
under these celebrated teachers in the monasteries of the
Scots " (i.e., Irish).

The Venerable Bede3 gives similar testimony, and adds
that <c all of them were most cheerfully received by the Irish,
who supplied them GRATIS with good books and instruction."

Lord Lyttleton,* in his Life of Henry //., further informs us
that the Saxons brought the use of letters from the schools
of Ireland to their ignorant countrymen, and repeats, what
we have before learned, that numbers both of the noble

1 Matt, xxv., 35. 2 See Cogan, Diocese of Heath} xxxi.

3 His. Eccl. iii., 27. 4 Diocese of Meatli, xxix.

252 " The Cross and the Shamrock " in the

and second rank of English left their country and went " to
Ireland for the sake of studying theology and leading a
stricter life :" and that all these " the Irish most willingly
received and maintained at their own charge: supplying
them with books, and being ttheir teachers without fee or
reward." Sir James Ware1 tells us that the Gauls, as well
as the Saxons, flocked to the schools, or, as he calls them,
" the universities " of Ireland. And we learn from the Litany
of St. Aengus, written at the end of the eighth century, that
Romans, Italians, Egyptians, Gauls, Germans, Britons, Saxons,
Picts, &c., had similarly flocked to Ireland for the same pur-
poses. Moreri, in his historical directory, informs us that
the Saxons received their letters from the Irish, as does also
Dr. Johnson in the preface to his dictionary ; and Moreri
adds, from Sir James Ware's Treatise on the Irish Writers?
that the arts and sciences that subsequently flourished
amongst these people were learned from Ireland, and that
Ireland gav^e " the most distinguished professors to the most
famous universities of Europe, such as Claudius Clemens to
Paris, Alcuinus to Pavia, in Italy, and Joannes Scotus
Erigena to Oxford, in England.

Such, then, were the first results of the introduction of
Christianity into Ireland. Industry, learning, and religion
were so advanced in the country as to attract thither the
natives of almost every country in Europe, and Ireland was
called by universal consent " Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum?
THE ISLAND OF SAINTS AND LEARNED MEN.

III.

Greater fame and greater glory were yet to be won by
the Land of the Shamrock in the service of that Church
whose symbol is the Cross.

It is a remarkable coincidence — no doubt providentially
brought about— that when Ireland was thus converted to
the Catholic Church and developing its powers of greatness,
Europe was being overrun by the Huns, the Vandals, and
the Goths, and civilisation was fast ebbing away. These

Antiquities of Ireland, 2A 0. 2 Book i., cap. 13.

Golden Ages of the Irish Church. 253

barbarian hordes were laying waste the fairest plains of
Europe, desolating its shrines, desecrating its sanctuaries,
prescribing its learning, ransacking its libraries, and paralysing
the civilising influences of religion. The Church itself,
choked by heresy, which was then, as now, supported by the
civil power, was weak to resist the ravages of these enemies
of man. The fairest provinces of the Roman Empire were
deluged in the blood of their inhabitants; anarchy and dis-
order everywhere prevailed. Every vestige of learning and
civilisation was being swept from the face of Europe, and
the lamp of faith itself was being extinguished in the sanc-
tuaries abroad.

It was at this critical juncture of the history of the
Church that God raised up Ireland as a great Catholic nation,
and commissioned her to relight from the " lamp of Kildare's
holy shrine" the extinguished or dimmed lamps of the sanc-
tuaries of the faith in Europe.

Ireland has faithfully fulfilled this commission that heaven
gave her, and has deserved well of civilisation and the
Church for the services thus rendered to them. Let us see
how she executed this commission.

Not merely was Ireland a monastic nation, but she
became, almost at the same time, a missionary nation, and, as
Montalembert tells us, " the missionary nation par excellence"
We cannot fully dwell upon the religious invasions and con-
quests of the Irish missionary saints in the " days of her
greatness and glory." We can only briefly indicate the
testimony of alien or Protestant writers on this subject.

Thierry says,1 in his History of the Norman Conquest, that
no country furnished a greater number of Christian mis-
sionaries, animated by no other motive than pure zeal and
an ardent desire of communicating to foreign nations the
opinions and the faith of their country."

The Venerable Bede tells2 us that " numbers were daily
coming into Britain, preaching the Word of God with great
devotion."

Eric of Auxerre, a French writer, asks in astonishment,

i Book x., 193. 2 Eccl. Hist., lib. iii., cap. 3,

3 Letter to Charles the Bold.

254 " The Cross and the Shamrock " in the

" What shall I say of Ireland, which, despising the dangers
of the deep, is migrating with her whole train of philosophers
to our coasts ?"

Dr. Wattenback, a German, tells1 us that " the Irish went
forth themselves into every part of the world. They filled
England and the neighbouring islands. Even in Iceland
their books and pilgrims' staves were found by the
Norwegians of later times. In France they were every-
where to be met with, and they made their way even into
the heart of Germany . . . while the people, with the
most ardent veneration, nocked in multitudes to hear them."

St. Bernard says2 that " from Ireland as from an over-
flowing stream, crowds of holy men descended on foreign
nations." Lord Lyttleton adds, that " great praise is due to
the piety of those Irish ecclesiastics who (as we know from
the clear and unquestionable testimony of many foreign
writers) made themselves the apostles of barbarous heathen
nations without any apparent inducement to such hazardous
undertakings, except the merit of the work.''

From Ireland, therefore, hordes of learned and holy men
went forth into foreign countries to meet the ravaging
invaders, to protect the remnants of civilization that still re-
mained, to accomplish the grand work of the conversion of
these barbarians themselves in their new countries, and to
rekindle the lamps of learning and religion.

IV.

Not merely did these holy missionaries who thus went
forth to plant, or to revive, civilization and religion in Europe,
perform their spiritual functions with the most splendid suc-
cess ; but they blessed the lands they visited, by establishing
in them innumerable monasteries, to be, as they were in
Ireland, centres of civilization, hives of industry, homes of
learning, and abodes of sanctity. From the immense number
of these pious institutions thus established, we can gather
some idea of the blessings that Ireland then conferred on the
world.

1 In Diocese ofMeath, xxxvii. 2 Vita St. Malachi, c. v.

Golden Ages of the Irish Church. 255

There were founded by the Irish thirteen monasteries in
Scotland, twelve in England, seven in France, twelve in
Armonic Gaul, seven in Lotharingia, eleven in Burgundy,
nine in Belgium, ten in Alsace, sixteen in Bavaria, six in
Italy, fifteen in Rhetia, Helvetia, and Suavia ; and many in
Thuringia and on the left bank of the Rhine.

What blessings of peace, learning, and religion these
homes of the poor and the stranger conferred upon Europe
can be readily imagined. One testimony must suffice.

Mezerai, a French historian of the seventeenth century,
says1 of the Irish monks abroad, that " through the labour of
their hands frightful and uncultivated deserts became soon
converted to most agreeable retreats, and the Almighty
seemed particularly to favour ground cultivated by such
pure and disinterested hands." He adds " to their care we are
indebted for what remains of the history of those days."

When we^know that, at present, vestiges of their foot-
steps are found in every country in Europe ; that districts are
named after them abroad (as many of the districts of Wales
and the Canton of St. Gall in Switzerland) that whole towns2
are named after them in England, as St. Ives in Cornwall
after an humble Irish virgin whose piety sanctified the
locality fourteen hundred years ago ; that the very vehicles
in France are called fiacres after St. Fiacre, the concourse to
whose tomb a few miles from Paris on account of the
miracles wrought at it was so great that the prices of con-
veyance were considerably raised, 'and the saint's name
given to the conveyances themselves ; when we know that,
at present, there are forty-four saints whom Ireland sent
forth, honoured as patrons in England, forty-five ia Gaul, at
least thirty in Belgium, thirteen in Italy, eight in Iceland
and Norway, and one hundred and fifty in Germany ; and
when we further remember that these were such men as
St. Virgilius of Salzburg, the first who discovered the
sphericity of the earth and the existence of the antipodes ;
John Albinus, the founder of the University of Pavia; St.

1 History of France, i. 118.

2 See a Brochure by Dr. Moran, Early Irish Missions, i. 17.

256 " The Cross and the Shamrock" etc.

Cumean, the patron of the Monastery of Bobbio ; St. Gall,
the Apostle of Switzerland; St. Columkille, the Apostle of
the Picts and Scots; St. Colmau, the patron of Austria; and
St. Aidan, the founder of Lindisfarne and the patron of
Northumberland ; when we consider this multitude of Irish
missionaries and of their monasteries, and the character of
the men themselves so eulogised by such monuments of the
services they rendered as described, we can form some idea
of what Ireland has done for civilization and religion in the
days of Europe's greatest troubles, and of the Church's dire
afflictions.

Ireland was then truly an island of saints and learned
men "the Athenaeum oi learning," as she is styled in
Dr. Lynch's Cambrensis Eversus,1 " and the temple of holiness,
supplying the world with litterati and heaven with saints.
Truly doth she appear the academy of earth and the colony
of heaven."

Europe acknowledged her as such, and ranked her in
that position, as a nation, to which her intellectual and
religious conquests entitled her. We have it on unquestion-
able authority that she ranked as the third kingdom of the
world. Even Usher2 tells us that Europe was divided into
four kingdoms ; the Romans ranked first, the Constantina-
politan second, the Irish third, and the Spanish fourth. And
he tells us that, when, at the Council of Constance, England
claimed precedence over France, it was accorded to her as
she had become possessed of Ireland, " on account of the great
antiquity and preeminence of that country." Is this no evidence
of the worth and excellence of our country? Is this no
testimony to her renown 1 Is this not a proof of the great-
ness to which Christianity raised her ? Is this not enough to
silence the sneers, and to evoke pity for the ignorance, that
would hold up Ireland and the Irish to ridicule ?

And what were the relative claims of these great nations
to their rank as stated above ?

Rome is said to have ranked first for her antiquity and the
extent of her sway. Constantinople ranked second because

1 Cap. 25. 2 Brit. EC. Ant., ca . xi., Wks. v., 38.

Theological Questions. 257

the Byzantine kingdom succeeded the Roman Empire,
Ireland ranked third, — not on account of conquests in war —
not because of extent of territory^—" hers was not an
empire purchased by the tears and sufferings of other
nations," remarks1 O'Driscoll, " but by benefits conferred
upon them." Ireland's rank was due to her intellectual
greatness, her civilizing successes, and her religious invasions
over the heart of man ; and, therefore, although third in
order, the character of her merits would place her in a
superior rank and, perhaps justify the poetic description
given of her, as,

'•' First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea."

JOHN CURRY, P.P.

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS.
BUTTER AT THE COLLATION ON FAST DAYS.

REV. SIR, — There is a conflict of opinion among the
priests of this diocese with regard to the use of butter at the
collation in Lent and on fast days outside Lent during the year.

" Some hold that the privilege of using butter at the collation on
the above occasions was granted to the Irish people directly, and
independently of the Irish Bishops. Others say that the lawful use
of butter at the collation depends on the special permission of the
bishop of the diocese in which the butter is used, whilst others
maintain that the, words posse tolerari were wrongfully understood
by some theologians, and that the privilege of using butter at the
collation on fast days was never granted by Rome.

Query 1st. — -'Is butter allowed at the collation in Lent? If so,
is it allowed for a like reason on fast days outside Lent?

2/iJ.— " Is the Bishop's permission required that one may law-
fully use it ? Is it lawful for the people of a particular diocese
to use butter at the collation when the bishop of that diocese states
expressly that it is not lawful.

" CLERICUS."

It is necessary, before replying to the questions of our
correspondent, to describe the history of the Rescript of the

1 Views of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 1(H.
VOL. X. R

258 Theological Questions.

Holy Office, in which the use of butter was alleged to have
been given to the faithful in Ireland. I have not been able
to procure a copy of the Rescript ; but it was substantially to
this effect : — Consuetude sumendi butyrum in collatiuncula
diebus jejunii in Hibernia tolerari potest." When this
Rescript arrived — I think at the beginning of Lent in 1883 —
the presence of the words " consuetudo . . . tolerari potest,"
gave rise at once to considerable uncertainty, and to very
conflicting interpretations.

Some of the bishops, and some theologians regarded the
phraseology of the Rescript as an indirect way of granting a
dispensation. Some were doubtful. And some contended
that the Holy Office gave no permission directly or indirectly
for the use of butter at the collation on fast days.

This state of uncertainty continued until 1885. In that
year some of the bishops were in Rome, and while there
introduced the subject of the Rescript at one of their con-
ferences at Propaganda. One of them informs us that the
Cardinals declared that, there being no such custom as the
Rescript supposed to exist in Ireland, there was no dispen-
sation. They thought that the petition of the Irish bishops
might by accident have been incorrectly or obscurely worded ;
but the petition was found in the archives and proved to
have described the circumstances of the case in the most
clear and precise terms. Nevertheless Cardinal Simeoni and
his colleagues were most distinct and emphatic in their
opinion that we have no licence for butter at the collation.

One of the bishops present at the conference then
informed the cardinals that the people were all using butter
in virtue of the Rescript of 1883, and expressed his opinion
that, considering the ambiguity of the Rescript, and the con-
sequent general use of butter by the faithful, it would be
eminently desirable that all future doubt and anxiety about
the matter should be removed, and that permission should
then at least be granted for the use of butter at the collation
on fasting days. The cardinals were deeply impressed with
this view of the case ; and they directed the Archbishop of
Tyre, Secretary of Propaganda, to send another petition to
the Holy Office on behalf of the Irish bishops. The secretary

Theological Questions. 259

promised to do so ; but so far as I can learn, nothing has
been heard of the subject since.

This is the history of the Rescript " Consuetudo tolerari
potest," Let us now examine what change, if any, it has
caused or occasioned in our Lenten discipline. It is a deli-
cate subject for treatment in a public periodical. If it
is lawful to take butter at the collation on fast days, we
must either hold : (1) that the Holy Offica in some way
sanctioned by its Rescript the use of butter: or (2) that,
though the practice of taking butter at the collation was
introduced under a misapprehension, we have now the
legislator's express or tacit personal consent for its con-
tinuance ; or (3) that we have the legislator's legal consent
for its continuance.

Did the Holy Office give a dispensation, or sanction in
any way the use of butter at the collation on fast days ?

1. Considering the declaration of the Cardinal Prefect of
Propaganda, and the general unwillingness of the Church to
dispense in the law of fasting, we may conclude that the
Holy Office did not give a dispensation. We must bear in
mind that the law of fasting as distinguished from the law of
abstinence, exercises a control, though perhaps indirectly, over
the quality of food which persons who are bound to fast may
take at their collation. The law of fasting in its ancient
rigour allowed only one meal in the day. The collation was
introduced by custom ; and at present the law of fasting
forbids the use of any food outside the principal meal, which
is not sanctioned by custom. It is custom, therefore, which
determines the quantity, quality, and time of the collation,
and, hence, any dispensation regarding the quality of the
food to be taken at the collation would be a dispensation
in the law of fasting, I conclude, therefore, that the Holy
Office gave no dispensation to use butter at the collation.

Did the Holy Office sanction in any way the use of butter
at the collation ?

We must remember that the Irish bishops had addressed
a petition to Rome on behalf of their flocks. This proves

260 Theological Questions.

that in the opinion of the Irish Hierarchy the absence of
butter at the morning' collation was too severe an element
in our Lenten fast. The Holy Office had before it an exact
and precise description of the reasons for the petition. 'Why
then did they neither grant nor refuse a dispensation ? It is
easy to understand why they did not grant a dispensation ;
because the Church never gives a general dispensation in
fasting. But why did they not refuse ? Refusal to dispense
in a law, with which the Church invariably declines to inter-
fere, could not be considered to be harsh treatment to the
Irish bishops. Might we not therefore say that the Holy
Office — though neither dispensing, nor giving any licence to
take butter — having before it an accurate description of our
Irish circumstances, and knowing that there was question
only of a slight1 departure from the strict law of Lent, con-
veyed by its Rescript, that it regarded the Irish case as a
case of Epieikeia, that it regarded us as excused from the
law of fasting to the extent of taking a little butter2 at the
collation? And may we not, a fortiori, infer that in the
judgment of the Holy Office a case of Epieikeia had arisen
when the petition was sent back from Propaganda, made
still more serious by the fact that some bishops had published
in their pastorals that butter might be taken at the collation,
and that the people had commenced to avail of the welcome
privilege thus extended to them?

II.

Assuming that the Holy Office in no \vay sanctioned the
use of butter at the collation, may we plead the express or
tacit consent of the legislator for a continuance of the usage
existing in some places ? We cannot plead the express or
tacit consent of the Pope, because probably he has not
heard of this difficulty. The Cardinal Prefect of Propaganda
is the member of the Sacred College who is charged by the
Pope with the ecclesiastical government of Ireland. We
may therefore say of him what is usually said of legislators.
In 1885 he and his colleagues learned that .butter was being
used at the collation in Ireland. So deeply were they

1 Lehinkuhl, p. 1, 1. 11, p. 770, n. 12U. Ibid.

Theological Questions. 261

impressed with the gravity of the situation that had arisen,
that they directed their secretary to petition the Holy Office
in favour of the Irish bishops. They must, therefore, have
known that there was serious reason for allowing butter
at the collation in Ireland. They must know that not
reply has been given by the Holy Office to the second petition.
Nevertheless, Cardinal Simeoni has not insisted on a return
to the ancient practice of abstaining from butter at the
collation. May we then claim his express or tacit consent
for a continuance of our present practice? We cannot
claim his express consent ; but may we plead his tacit con-
sent? Of course, at the Propaganda conferences there
was no reason why he should urge the bishops to preach
against the use of butter. He could have satisfied himself
that the bishops, without any appeal from him, would insist
on the observance of the law as far as prudence would sug-
gest to them. But we must remember that one of the bishops
told the cardinals that the Rescript was interpreted, and was
being acted on by many, as allowing butter on fast days,
and that they might as well grant a certain and unambiguous
permission. We must remember that a second petition was
sent to the Holy Office, and that nothing has since been
heard either from the Holy Office or the Propaganda on the
subject. May we not, therefore with reason, assume the
tacit connivance of our Superiors with the practice of taking
butter at the collation ?

III.

Assuming that the Holy Office in no way sanctioned the
use of butter at the collation ; moreover that we have not
the personal consent of the legislator for its use : may we
plead the legal consent of the legislator for its lawful
continuance ?

I use those terms in the sense in which they are used in
the treatise De Legibus. A practice has the superior's legal
consent, when he is unaware of the existence of the practice,
but sanctions it in certain enactments of Canon Law.

In order to have the superior's legal consent, it must be a
reasonable practice, and it must be able to plead legitimate

262 theological Questions.

prescription : in other words the practice must have been
legalised by custom. Now manifestly a custom could not
have been yet established for taking butter at the collation.
But we must distinguish three stages in custom, the
beginning, the progress of the custom, and the conclusion.
In the beginning of a custom people generally commit sin ;
unless as with us they may believe they had got a dispensa-
tion. In the progress of the custom people do not commit sin ;
they are excused from the observance of the law. At the
conclusion the custom has the power of abrogating the law.1
Let us therefore suppose that certain bishops and priests
announced to their people that it was lawful to take butter
at the collation — and the people would not have commenced
to take it, unless they had heard from their priests that it
might be lawfully taken ; the people would have commenced
to avail of the privilege bona fide; and now they would
have arrived at that stage of the custom, when the legislator
does not wish to insist on the observance of the law. We
must always remember that some of the highest ecclesias-
tical dignitaries in Ireland believed that the Rescript of the
Holy Office conveyed some favour ; we must remember that
some bishops published this exposition of the Rescript ; and
butter may have been used in those dioceses ever since.
Are we then to suppose that the Holy See requires those
bishops to say to their people, that the Holy Office deceived
them ; that they conveyed erroneous doctrine to the people,
and that the people were violating the law of fasting ever
since — and this, when there is question of the use of a little
butter, (a venial matter) at breakfast ? We must rather say
that, at least in those places where butter has been used for
some time, we have the legal consent of the legislator for
its continuance.

To come now to the questions of our correspondent : —

1°. Is butter allowed at the collation in Lent? I believe,

without doubt, that butter is allowed in those dioceses where

the major and sanior pars populi have been using butter at

the collation for some years ; and if it has been used in the

great majority of dioceses, I would say that a few exceptional

i Salmon : Curs. Theol. A/or., T. 11, c. 6, n, 13.

Theological Questions. 263

dioceses may fall in with the general practice. If these
conditions are not verified, we should have to fall back
on the two first principles : Did the Holy Office in any way
sanction the use of butter ? Or did the cardinals afterwards
personally, though tacitly, consent to a continuance of the
practice? I have briefly explained these principles; and
personally I believe that — considering the original Rescript
and the subsequent petition from Propaganda — we are so far
excused from the original Lenten law that we may take a
little butter at the collation.

2°. May butter be taken on fast days outside Lent? I
have not seen the Rescript ; but I think butter may be taken
on fast days outside Lent.

3°. The bishop's permission is not required that one may
lawfully use butter. What if the bishop expressly states
that it is unlawful ? I must be pardoned if I decline to enter
into this branch of the case. I shall only say that it has
been a very anxious subject for the bishops ; that a bishop
cannot of his own authority dispense in Papal laws ; neither
when Papal laws have ceased can bishops resuscitate them
as Papal laws ; nor when they become doubtful can a bishop
set them up as certain Papal laws. A bishop could in such
hypothesis only command by a diocesan law that the old
usage should continue.

4°. Another correspondent asks whether a confessor may
tell his penitent that it is lawful to use butter at the colla^
tion ? If our exposition of the case be correct, it would be
lawful to tell a penitent that he or she may take butter ; and
it would seem more in conformity with Roman usage to
confine advice to the tribunal of penance, and to particular
cases, than to publish that the law does not further require
abstinence from butter at the collation.

D, COGHLAN.

[Owing to pressure on our space, we are unable to publish in this
number correspondence which we have received on the subject of
Clandestinity discussed in our last issue. — ED. I. E. R.]

[ 264 ]

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.
THE CEREMONIES OF SOME ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS.

PART I.— THE CEREMONIES OF SOLEMN MASS.
CHAPTER I.— CEREMONIES WHICH FREQUENTLY OCCUR.

SECTION I. — THE SIGN OF THE CROSS.

This sacred sign should be always made with the utmost
care and reverence. In making the sign of the Cross on
oneself, the left hand is placed, palm inwards, a little below
the breast. The fingers of the right hand are extended, and
close together ; the thumb resting against the front of the
forefinger, and the palm of the hand turned towards the per-
son. In tracing the lines of the Cross, the tips of the fingers
touch the forehead, breast, and the extremities of the
shoulders.

In making the sign of the Cross over an object which he
is blessing, the minister is either at the altar or he is not. If
at the altar, he places his left hand on the table of the altar ;
but below his breast, if the blessing does not take place at
the altar. The fingers of the right hand are extended as
already described ; the outer edge of the little finger being
next the object. The lines, in this case, are traced by the
tip of the little finger, and should be neither too long nor too
short, but should bear some proportion to the size of the
object blessed.

SECTION II. — THE SALUTATIONS.

Salutation or Reverence is the generic term including
genuflection and inclination. There are two kinds of genu-
flection ; the simple, or genuflection on one knee, and the
double, or genuflection on both knees. The former is made
by bending and lowering the right knee till it touches the
ground beside the inner part of the heel of the left foot.
This genuflection is unaccompanied by any inclination of the
head or shoulders; but unnatural stiffness should also be

Liturgical Questions. 265

avoided. The double genuflection is made by bending first
the right knee to the ground, as in the simple genuflection,
and, while keeping the right knee resting on the ground,
bringing the left knee, bent in the same manner, close beside
the right. The genuflection on both knees is always accom-
panied by a profound inclination of the head,1 which is made
as soon as both knees rest on the ground.

Inclinations are either of the body or of the head. A
profound inclination of the body requires the body to be so
bent that the hands, placed crosswise on each other, will
easily reach the knees ;2 while a moderate or slight inclination
of the body is a less, but still a notable bending of the
shoulders.3 Three kinds of inclinations of the head are very
commonly mentioned ; the profound, which includes a very
slight moving forward of the shoulders, the medium and the
slight. Without entering into the details of these distinctions,
we may remark that the name of the Most Holy Trinity, or
the sacred name of Jesus, naturally calls for a more profound
reverence than does the name of the reigning Pope, or of
the saint whose feast is celebrating — hence the profound and
the slight inclination. The medium inclination is reserved
for the name of Mary, who, being less than God, is still im-
measurably beyond all other creatures.

SECTION III.—" OSCULA."

He who presents anything to the celebrant kisses first that
which he presents, and afterwards the hand of the celebrant ;
but he who receives anything from the celebrant kisses first
the celebrant's hand, and afterwards that which he
receives.

When giving or receiving the celebrant's birretta, custom
has sanctioned the substitution of quasi-oscula for real oscula ;
that is, the birretta need not be actually brought in contact
with the lips, but only raised respectfully towards them.

1 Vavasseur, part ii., sect, iii , ch. ii., n. 166 ; Bourbon, n. 316, note 3.
contra Baldesehi.

2 De Conny L. 1, c. 7 : De Herdt. vol i., n. 42, 2 ; Vavasseur, part iii.,
sect, i., c. 7,n. 4.

8 Bourbon n. 344 ; De Conny loc.cit.

266 Liturgical Questions.

Moreover, many Rubricists are of opinion that the kissing of
the celebrant's hand may be omitted, both when giving and
receiving the birretta ; the inclination of the head, made
while raising the birretta towards the lips, being, according
to them, a sufficient reverence to the celebrant.1 The quasi-
oscula suffice, also, when the cruets or finger-towel are
presented to the celebrant.2

When the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, and at Requiem
Masses, all the oscula which are introduced merely from
respect to the celebrant are omitted. The same is true of the
quasi-oscula. At the distribution of palms on Palm Sunday,
it is the palm that is first kissed, then the hand of the cele-
brant : women kiss the palm only.3

CHAPTER II.— GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE CHOIR, THE
MINISTERS AND THE CELEBRANT.

SECTION I.— GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE CHOIR.

At solemn Mass those in the choir sometimes kneel, some-
times sit, and sometimes stand erect. Moreover, while
standing, they are sometimes turned towards the altar, and
sometimes towards the choir — in chorum ; that is, those on
opposite sides of the choir face one another.

The choir kneels : 1 st. From the sacred ministers' arrival at
the foot of the altar to begin Mass until they ascend the altar
after the ConfiUor* 2nd. At the singing of the Incarnatus
est5 in the Creed. 3rd. From the moment when the celebrant

i Bourbon n. 393.

3 " Si 1'on distribue des cierges ou des rameaux au peuple, les femmes
baisent le cierge ou le rameau niais non pas la main du pretre." —
Bourbon, 403.

4 Prelates and Canons in their own churches stand. — De Conny
h. 8, &c.

5 De Conny, loc. cit., and Falise, loc. cit., No. 5, say~that only the clergy,
who are standing when the choir comes to the Incarnatus est, kneel ; those
who are seated, meanwhile, merely incline profoundly. Martinucci (1. 1,
c. iii., sec. iv., n. 43), on the other hand, says: ". . . . ad Et Incarnatus est
submittet genua (sell. clerus) exceptis praesulibus et Canonicis." The
obvious meaning of the rubric of the ceremonies would seem to favour this
opinion of Martinucci. " Cum versiculus Et Incarnatus estf1 says the
Ceremonial (1. 2, c. 8, n. 53), " cantatur a choro Canonici sedentes capite

Liturgical Questions. 267

has finished the recitation of the Sanctus until after the
elevation of the chalice.1 4th. At the Benediction, before the
last Gospel.

1 he choir sits : 1st. During the singing of the Kyrie frorq.
the time when the sacred ministers seat themselves, or,
if the ministers do not sit, from the time when the
celebrant has finished the recitation of the Kyrie until
the choir has commenced to sing the last Kyrie.
2nd. During the singing of the Gloria, while the sacred
ministers are seated. 3rd. While the sub-deacon sings the
Epistle, and afterwards until the choir has finished the
Gradual or Tract. 4th. During the singing of the Creed,
except at the Et Incarnatus est. 5th. During the Offertory
and the incensing of the altar. Gth. While the celebrant
recites the Communion.

The choir stands : 1st. From the time the sacred ministers
go up to the altar until the celebrant has said the Kyrie, or,
if the celebrant goes to the bench, until he and his ministers
are seated. 2nd. While the celebrant recites the Gloria.

detecto, et Episcopus cum mitra prof undo inclinant caput versus altare,
alii genuflectunt." Wapelhorst (n. 92, 7°) inteprets these words of the
Ceremonial as we have done, and says, without qualification or comment ;
' ' Chorus genuflectit quando Et Incarnatus est in symbolo cantatur."
Finally, Vavasseur (part 7, sect, i., chap, i., art. 2, n. 8, note), after com-
paring the directions of the Ceremonial with certain decrees of the Sacred
Congregations, concludes : 1st. That the canons who are seated ought not
to kneel at the Et Incarnatus est. 2nd. That all the clergy, including the
celebrant and ministers, who are standing, ought to kneel. 3rd. That the
clergy, not canons, who are seated ought to kneel where the custom has
been established, and should be recommended to kneel even where such
custom has not yet been introduced.

1 The Dictionnaire des Rites Sacr/9, in the article already referred to,
directs the clergy not to kneel after the Sanctus until the choir haH sung
Hosanna in excelsis before Benedictus, etc. This is another peculiarly French
custom which we find sometimes adopted in our own country. It is, how-
ever, directly opposed to the Rubrics both of the Missal and of the Cere-
monial, and is of course rejected by every Rubricist of note. " Omnes
genuflectunt . . . dicto per celebrantem Sanctus" (Rubr. Miss. Tit. xvii. 5.)
" Dicto Sanctus omnes tarn in choro quam extra genuflectunt . . . chorus
prosequitur cantiun usque ad Benedictus qui vew't exclusive, quo finite et
non prius elevatur Sacramentum.*' (Caer. 1. 2, c. 8, Nos. 68-70.) With
reason then does De Conny (Joe. cit. note) conclude : " On voit qu'on
s'agenouille aussitot apres avoir recite les Sanctus avec le celebrant et sans
attendre que le choeur en ait termine le chant." See also Favrel, part ii.,
Tit. 2, chap, i., art. 2, n.5 ; Wapelhorst, 92, 5° ; Vavasseur, loc. eft., etc., etc.

268 Liturgical Questions.

3rd, While he sings the Collects. 4th. While the deacon
sings the Gospel, and afterwards until the celebrant, after
saying the Creed, takes his seat. 5th. At the Domimis
vobiscwm and Oremus, before the Offertory. 6th. During
the incensing of the choir. 7th. From the beginning of the
Preface until the celebrant has said the Sanctus.1 8th. After
the elevation of the chalice until the Communion of the cele-
brant inclusive. 9th. From the reading of the Communion
until the end of Mass, except at the blessing before the last
Gospel.

Ike choir stands turned towards the altar as a general rule,
when there is no singing, when the choir sings responses
to the celebrant, and when the deacon sings the Gospel.
Hence they are turned towards the altar : 1st. At the
singing of the words Gloria in excelsis by the celebrant.
2nd. At the Dominus vobiscum, and the Collects. 3rd. During
the singing of the Gospel, and onwards until the celebrant
has intoned the Creed. 4th. At Dominns vobiscum, and Or emus
after the Creed. 5th. During the singing of the Preface and of
the versicles and responses preceding it. 6th. From the
singing of the Benedictus, after the Consecration, until the
Agnus Dei exclusive. 7th. From the giving of the Pax until
after the Communion of the celebrant. 8th. At the Dominus
vobiscum, and Post-communions, and at the last Gospel.

The clergy in choir rise when the master of ceremonies
gives the sign to the sacred ministers to rise, and do not wait
until the celebrant has stood up. Neither do they take their
seats as soon as the celebrant does, but wait until the deacon
and sub-deacon are seated.

Hie choir inclines several times during solemn Mass :
1st. Whenever the Doxology is sung or the Blessed Trinity
named.2 2nd. At the sacred names of Jesus and Mary ; at
the name of the saint whose office is celebrated, or who is
commemorated in the office of the day, and at the name of the

1 See note on page 267.

2 An fieri debeat inclinatio capitis cum pronuntiatur nomen Sanctis-
simae Trinitatis sicut fit cum profertur nomen Jesus ? llesp. Congruere,
ut-fert praxis universalis praesertim Urbis. (S.R.C. 7 Sept, 1816. Tudtn.
iifl 40.)

Liturgical Questions. 269

reigning Pope. 3rd. At the words in the Gloria and Credo
at which the celebrant is directed to incline. 4th. At the
Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro of the Preface,1 and at the
Oremus before the Collects, Post-comimmions and Offertory/

The Sign of the Cross in choir. — The clergy who are
present in choir make, with the celebrant, the Sign of the
Cross on themselves in the ordinary way: 1st. When the
celebrant begins Mass. 2nd. At Deus inadjutorium? 3rd. At
Indulgent-Lain* 4th. While the celebrant says the first words
of the Introit. 5th. At the last last words of the Gloria in
excelsis, of the Creed, and at the Benedictus after the Sanctus?
Gth. At Omni benedictione of the Canon. 7th. At da propitius
pacem of Libera nos. 8th. When the celebrant pronounces
the blessing at the end.7

rlhe choir re-salutes the celebrant and his ministers. As a
general rule, the clergy in choir are already standing when
the celebrant approaches to salute. Should they, however,
be seated, they uncover, rise, and return the salute. They
do not rise to salute any of the sacred ministers unaccom-
panied by the celebrant ; but, when saluted by either the
deacon or sub-deacon, they uncover and incline the head,8 but

1 Part ii., Tit. 2, chap, i., art. 2, n. 7.

2 De Conny loc. cit. These inclinations are all of the head only, and
are more or less profound according to the directions already given on
page 265.

3 Falise, sect, iii., ch. i. ; sect, iii., n. 3, Dictionnaire des Rites Sacres.
4 1 idem.

5 Falise ibi.

0 Vavasseur (part vii., sect, i., chap, i., art. 2, n. 13), and Favrel (part ii.,
Tit. 2, chap, i., art. 2, n. 9), direct the choir to make the Sign of the Cross
while these words are being sung. In support of their opinion they cite a
response of the Prefect of S.C.ll. of October 3, 1851. Falise, however
(loc. cit.), says that Vavasseur aloue of all the authors whose works he had
consulted held this opinion. According to Falise, therefore, the sign of
the Cross should be made, not while the words are being sung, but when
they are said by the celebrant.

7 Falise Hi.

8 Bourbon n. 383, who has the following interesting note : "Le maitre
do ceremonies charge par la S.C. d' ewettre sou avis "sur cette question
s'exprima ainsi ' Ex laudabili et fere universal! consuetudine chorus assurgit
solummodo quando a celebrante salutatur vel idem celebrans ante cum
transit. . . . Ad transitum autem et ad salutatiouem rninistroruni etiani
diaconi et sub-diaconi, chorus caput aperire tenetur.' "

270 Liturgical Questions.

take nc notice of a salutation given by any of the
inferior ministers.

SECTION II. — GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE THURIFER.

The thurifer should be in the sacristy some time before
the hour at which Mass is to begin, in order to prepare the
thurible, light the fire, and put incense into the boat. He
may carry the boat to the credence before the beginning of
Mass, or he may leave it in the sacristy until he carries the
thurible to the altar.1

There are two ways of carrying the thurible, according
as it contains, or does not contain, incense. When the
thurible contains incense, it is said to be carried solemnly,
or in ceremony, and is always held in the right hand, the
thumb passing through the ring fixed in the disc from which
the chains hang, and the middle finger passing through the
ring at the end of the chain by which the cover of the
thurible is raised and lowered.2 The cover should be raised
somewhat, and the thurible gently moved to and fro to
prevent the fire's being extinguished.

When incense has not been put into the thurible since the
fire was last renewed, it is carried in the left hand,3 which
grasps the chains immediately beneath the disc or cover from
which they depend ; or, if the thurifer please, he may carry
the thurible, in this case also, by passing the thumb and one
of the fingers of the left hand through the rings. The hand
in which the thurible is carried, is held at the height of the
shoulders, or higher, if the length of the chains require it.

When approaching the celebrant to have incense put
into the thurible, the thurifer carries the thurible in his left
hand, as described in the preceding paragraph, and the
incense-boat in his right, which should not rest against his
breast. When he arrives in front of the sacred ministers, he

1 Bourbon n. 465 ; De Herdt vol. i., n. 304 and n. M06.

2 Bourbon n. 471 ; De Conny ch. x. But Martinucci 1. 1, c. 1, n. 16,
and Falise sect, iii., ch. ii., direct that the the thumb be in the movable
ring, the middle or little finger in the other. Either plan may be adopted.

3 Martinucci loc. cit., n. 18 ; Bourbon n. 470 ; Wapelhorst cap. 8,
art 5,n. 91, 9°.

Liturgical Questions. 271

hands the boat to the deacon ; with his right hand he raises
the cover of the thurible by means of the ring; then, grasp-
ing with the same hand the chains a little above the cover, he
raises the thurible to a convenient height for the celebrant
to put incense into it. The incense having been put in, he
lowers the cover, fastens it, and presents the thurible to the
deacon, if the celebrant is about to incense.

In presenting the thurible to one who, in his turn, is to
present it to the minister who incenses, the thurifer should
grasp the upper part of the chains with his left hand, and
with his right the part immediately over the cover. But in
presenting it directly to him who is about to incense, the
position of his hands should be reversed. The right should
then be towards the top of the chains ; the left towards the
lower part.1

SECTION III. — GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE ACOLYTES.

Two acolytes are required at a Solemn Mass. They
should be as nearly as possible of equal height. Sometime
before the hour for Mass they repair to the sacristy, vest in
soutane and surplice, and set about preparing the altar, the
credence, etc.

One of them, or both together, light the candles on the
altar. If both, they walk side by side from the sacristy to the
foot of the altar, each carrying a lighted taper. At the foot
of the altar they genuflect in piano, ascend the altar,
make a profound inclination to the crucifix, and a
slight inclination to each other, and then proceed to
light the candles. The first acolyte lights the candles on
the gospel side, the second, those on the epistle side, and
each begins with the candle nearest the centre of the altar.
If there are more than one row of candles, those of the highest
row are lighted first.

In extinguishing the candles after Mass, they begin with
the lowest row when there are more than one row, and in each
row they begin with the candle farthest from the centre of
the altar.

1 Bourbon, n. 472 ; De Conny loc. cit.

'21 '2 JLiiiu'ijical

If the candles are all lighted or extinguished by one
acolyte, he lights first those on the gospel side beginning
next the centre of the altar; but extinguishes first those on
the epistle side, beginning at the corner of the altar.1

The acolytes carry their candles so that the one on the
right has his left hand under the foot of the candlestick, his
right hand round the knob or middle part of the stem ; and
the one on the left, his right hand under the foot, his left
round the knob.

The torch is carried in one hand. When acolytes carrying
torches walk in procession, each carries his torch in the hand
furthest away from the companion at his side, and holds the
other hand against breast.

The acolytes, even while carrying their candles,
genuflect and incline along with the other ministers, and
whenever their position or movements require it. To this
rule, as it regards solemn Mass, there is only one exception.

1 Many very accurate writers give directions for lighting and extin-
guishing the candles on the altar, when it is done by one, which are
altogether, or, at least in part, opposed to the directions given above.
Thus, for instance, Martinucci (1. 1, c. 1, n. 9), Wapelhorst (n. 90-2),
and Favrel (part 2, Tit. 2, chap. 4), direct the lighting of the candles to
begin at the epistle side, the extinguishing at the gospel side ; while De
Conny (loc. cit.~) would have both the lighting and extinguishing to begin
at the gospel side.

It is quite certain, however, that the opinion of Martinucci, &c., as
far as the lighting of the candles is concerned, is incorrect. For the S.
Congregation declared in reply to a question (August 24, 1854). that the
lighting should begin at the gospel side. " An acolythus aut alius accen-
denscereos ante Missam, aut ante aliam sacram functionem incipere debeat
a cereis qui sunt a parte epistolae, ut volunt plurimi auctores, vel prout
aliis placet, ab iis qui sunt a parte Evangelii. Kesp. A cornu Evangelii
quippe nobiliore parte (apud De Conny loc. ciL~}

JSTow, as to the extinguishing of the candles. It is regarded as a first
principle by all the writers whose works we have consulted, with the sole
exception of De Conny, that the extinguishing should not begin at the
same side as the lighting. From this principle, since it is certain the
lighting should begin at the gospel side, it follows that the extinguishing
should begin at the epistle side. The same conclusion follows from the
reason given in the reply of the S. Congregation quoted above, for beginning
to'light the candles at the gospel side, namely, that the gospel side is the para
noUlior. As such, it requires not only that it be lighted before the other,
but also that it remain lighted after the other. "II semble," writes
Bourbon (n. 99), " que lorsqu' un seul eteint les cierges il doit commencer
par eteindre ceux du cote de 1' epitre, et finir par ceux de 1'evangile comme
etant aus places les plus honorables."

Liturgical Questions. 273

During the singing of the gospel the acolytes, with the sub-
deacon, remain immovable ; they neither incline nor genuflect
along with the others.1

The acolytes assist the deacon and sub-deacon to vest ;
they kiss the cross on the maniples and on the deacon's stole
before presenting them. Whenever during the Mass the
sacred ministers sit down, the acolytes raise the dalmatic and
tunic over the back of the bench to prevent their being
crushed.

SECTION IV.— GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE MASTER OF
CEREMONIES.

The master of ceremonies should be perfectly conversant
with the duties of each of the other ministers, otherwise he
will not be able to discharge his own duties. For on the
master of ceremonies devolves the duty of regulating and
well-ordering the whole function in which he is engaged : on
him in a special manner rests the responsibility of securing
that uniformity, which tends so much to impart due solemnity
and grandeur to the ceremonies of solemn Mass. But if he
is not quite familiar with the duties of every one engaged,
he will be either a useless incumbrance, or, instead of main-
taining order, he will merely cause confusion.

He should see that everything is prepared in due time
and arranged in its proper place. He carries to the altar the
missal which the celebrant is to use, and places it on the
stand, having previously arranged the markers, so that he may
be able to find without delay the commemorations, preface,
&c., to be said in the Mass. A second missal, properly marked,
from which the epistle and gospel are to be sung, he carries
to the credence, on which he also places the cruets, the
towel, and the chalice prepared in the usual way, and
covered with the veil and burse. Over all he extends the
humeral veil

He assists at the vesting of the sacred ministers, and at
the proper time he invites them to proceed to the altar.

1 II n'y a que pendant le chant de 1'evangile que les acolytes ne se
mettant pas genoux ; dans tout autre temps ils le font, meme avec leurs
chandeliers ^ la main. Ce'rJm Expligu^ 1. 1, ch. xi,, n. 8.

VOL. X. S

274 Liturgical Questions.

When the time arrives for the ministers to sit down, he invites
them to the bench ; while they are seated he stands, his arms
crossed on his breast, at the right of the deacon ; when they
should uncover he gives them a sign ; and intimates to them
when they are to rise to proceed again to the altar.

SECTION V. — GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE DEACON AND
SUB-DEACON.

In a solemn Mass the deacon and sub-deacon perform
many actions in common. Any want of uniformity, then, on
their part will be very noticeable, and must mar 1 he solemnity
and destroy the decorum of the entire function.

The deacon and sub-deacon take a very important part
in the oblation of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. They act
as the representatives of the Church ; to this office they
are duly appointed and ordained. Next to the celebrant
they are the most immediate offerers of the Holy Sacrifice,
and next to him they come into the closest relationship with
the Divine Victim of the Sacrifice. It is fitting, then, that
they should come to the discharge of their exalted office
with pure hearts, clean consciences, and deep recollection,
and that immediately before Mass they should spend some
time in fervent prayer for grace to perform their sacred
duties in a manner pleasing to Almighty God.

Having finished their prayer they see that the missals are
registered, and the chalice prepared and brought to the
credence, and having washed their hands they proceed to
vest. While vesting they may say the prayers prescribed
for priests, with the exception of that to be said while putting
on the chasuble. This prayer they may say only when
putting on the folded chasubles, which are used at certain
times of the year ; at other times when putting on the dal-
onatic and tunic they may say the prayers said by a bishop
when putting on these portions of the sacred vestments.*

i Ad tunicellam sub-diaconus dicere potest ; Tunica jucunditatis et
indumenta lattitiae induat me Dominus ; et diacomis ad dalmaticaui ; Indue
me, Domine, indumento scdutis et vestimento laetitiae, et dahnatica justitiae cir~
ciimda me temper, prout in inissali pro Episcopo prescribitur. J)e Herdt,
t. 1, n. 305, not. 1.

Liturgical Questions. 275

The deacon and sub-deacon should be vested in amice,
alb, and cincture before it is time for the celebrant to begin
to vest. Before taking their maniples they assist the celebrant
in vesting,1 and when he is completely vested, and not sooner,
they, assisted by the inferior ministers, put on the remainder
of their own vestments. The deacon puts on the stole so
that the cross at its middle part is on the top of his left
shoulder, and its extremities hang down on his right side.

If there is sufficient space in the sanctuary the deacon
walks on the right of the celebrant, the sub-deacon on his
left ; but if the space is narrow, the sub-deacon walks on the
left of the deacon, or before him, both being in front of the
celebrant.

On arriving at the altar to begin Mass, and immediately
after departing from it at the end of Mass, the sacred
ministers genuflect in piano ; at other times on the first step.

When after the consecration it is necessary for the sacred
ministers to pass from one side of the celebrant to the other,
they genuflect twice — first, before leaving that side on which
they are, and secondly, when they arrive at the other side.
During the same part of the Mass if they go from beside the
celebrant to their places on the steps behind him, or from
these places to his side, they genuflect before leaving only,
and not also after arriving at the place to which they go.2

When they change their places before the consecration, as
when they go up to recite the Gloria and Credo with the
celebrant, authors are not agreed on the reverence they are

1 De Herdt (Tom 1, n. 305, not. 1) says that the deacon and sub-deacon
should not assist the celebrant in vesting. He refers to a decree of the
Sacred Congregation as his authority, and quotes De Conny and Cuppinus
as agreeing with him. Now, 1st., this decree on which De Herdt relies
has been interpreted by the Sacred Congregation in a reply given on the
3rd of October, 1851, to refer only to the case when the deacon and sub-
deacon are canons and of equal rank with the celebrant (see Favrel,part ii.,
Tit. 2, ch. vi., n. i., note 2 ; Vavasseur, part vii., sect, i., chap, i., art. 3, n. 23,
note 2, &c.) 2nd. De Conny so far from agreeing with De Herdt is
directly opposed to him. " Quant aux chasubles pliees," he wrote, " S'ils
avaient a s'en servir, ils ne s'en revetiraient qu' apres avoir aide le pretre a
slmUller ;' (liv. II., chap, ii., art. 2.) Cuppinus we have not seen, but every
writer wre have seen, with the sole exception of De Herdt, directs the
deacon and sub-deacon to assist the celebrant in vesting.

2 Bourbon, n. 331. Gavantus, in mis., par. ii, tit. 4, rule 7, lit. m.
Bauldry, par. i., c. xi., n. 11.

276 Liturgical Questions.

to make. The Rubrics are silent, and consequently each
writer may direct as he thinks best. It seems, however,
better that they should make precisely the same reverences
before as after the consecration. This secures uniformity,
prevents confusion, and has in its favour a preponderating
weight of authority.1 They genuflect, also, whenever the
celebrant genuflects. The sub-deacon, however, does not
genuflect during the singing of the gospel.

When genuflecting on the predella, as at the incensation
of the altar, they do not place their hands on the altar. No
one but the celebrant is permitted to do this. When moving
from one place to another they should take care first to turn
the face towards the point to which they wish to go, and
then walk to it in the natural manner. To sidle along, as if
one feared to turn round, is awkward and unseemly. They
should also take care never to turn their back to the altar or
to the celebrant.

SECTION VI. — GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO THE CELEBRANT.

The celebrant should be perfectly familiar with every
detail of the ceremonies of solemn Mass. To secure the
necessary uniformity the inferior ministers are directed to
conform exactly to the celebrant in all actions common to
him and them. But if the celebrant makes mistakes, the
others being unprepared for deviations from the rules they
have learned, will either not try to conform to the celebrant
at all, or, if they do try, will only introduce greater
confusion, and bring out in bolder relief the mistakes of the
celebrant.

The celebrant having complied with the injunctions of
the Rubrics regarding the recitation of Matins and Lauds,
and the preparatory prayers,2 washes his hands and vests
as for Low Mass.

1 Bourbon, loc. cit. De Conny, loc. cit. De llerdt, Tom. 1, n. 118.
Vavasseur, &c., &c.

2 Sacerdos celebraturus missam praevia confessione sacramental!
quando opus est et saltern matutino cum gaudibus absolute. Orationi
aliquantulum vacet, et orationes inf erius positas pro temporis opportunitate
dicat.— (Rub. Miss., Pars, ii., Tit. I.)

No modern Theologian, it is true, maintains the opinion held by
some of the earlier Theologians that the obligation imposed by this

Liturgical Questions. 277

The same ceremonies observed in a Low Mass, the
celebrant of a High Mass will also observe. The parts that
in a Low Mass are read in a loud tone, and in a High Mass
are not sung, he reads so as to be heard by those who are
immediately about him, but by them only.

Every priest who may from time to time be called upon
to celebrate a solemn Mass, should by frequent practice keep
himself familiar with the music of the parts sung by the
celebrant ; otherwise, as sometimes happens, his singing,
instead of being an incentive to piety, and an aid to prayer,
will but pain the educated ear, and bring upon himself
the ridicule of the thoughtless.

SECTION VII.— DIRECTIONS FOR SALUTING THE CHOIR.

The celebrant and his ministers salute the choir when
proceeding to the altar to begin Mass,1 and whenever they
pass per longiorem from the bench to the altar, or from the
altar to the bench.2

When proceeding to the altar the celebrant and the
sacred ministers uncover before saluting ; they then resume
their birrettas, advance to the foot of the altar, again
uncover and salute the altar.3 If they enter the sanctuary
from the epistle side, they salute first that side of the choir ;
otherwise they always salute the gospel side first.

Should the celebrant and the sacred ministers ever go

Rubric of reciting Matins and Lauds before Mass is a grave obligation.
Yet nearly all are agreed that it imposes some obligation, and, consequently
that a priest who without reason, neglects to recite Matins and Lauds
before Mass cannot be held blameless. " Sine ulla vero causa," writes
Lehmkuhl (vol. ii., n. 219, 4) " id facere (stil. non recitare Mat. et Laud,
ante Missarn) communius pro veniati culpa habetur."

From the words of the Rubric it is clear there is no obligation of
reciting the Psalms, &c., given in the Missal as preparatory prayers for the
priest about to celebrate. But as these prayers are given to us stamped
with the approval of the Church, they must be more efficacious than
prayers suggested by the priest's own private devotion.

1 De plus il est essentiel d' ajouter ici qu'en arrivant on salue le
chceur. II n'y aurait d'exception pour le choeur que dans les cas ou le
Clerge ne serait pas aux stalles. Favrel, part ii., Tit. 2, ch. vii., n. 4, note.. \

2 Yavasseur, part vii. sect. i.? chap. i. art. iii., n. 20. Bourbon, u. 371
De C onny, loc. cit. Favrel, loc. cit.

3 Si le Clerge etait au choeur il devrait le saluer en y entrant avant de
faire rinclination ou la genuflexion a 1' autel. Favrel, loc. cit., ch. via. n. 4.

278 Document.

per longiorem to the bench, they salute the altar before
turning round to salute the choir ; and in saluting the choir
they begin with the gospel side. In returning per longiorem
from the bench to the altar they salute the choir before they
salute the altar, and on this occasion, they salute the epistle
side first, because they meet it first.1

D. O'LoAN.

DOCUMENT.

ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF His HOLINESS POPE LEO XIII.,
ON THE OCCASION OF COMPLETING THE YEAR OF HIS
SACERDOTAL JUBILEE.

SANCTISSIMI DOMINI NOSTRI LEONIS DIVINA PROYIDENTIA PAPAE
XIII. EPISTOLA AD PATRIARCHAS, PRIMATES, ARCHIEPISCOPOS
J<;T Episcoros UNIVERSOSQUE CHRISTIFIDELKS PACEM ET COM-

MUNIONEM CUM APOSTOLICA &EDE HABENTES.

VENERABILIBUS FRATRIBUS PATRIARCHIS, PRIM.VTIBUS, AHCHIKPISCOPIS,
EPISCOPIS ET DILECTIS FIUIS CHRISTIFIDELIBUS UNIVERSIS

PACEM ET COMMUNION EM CUM APOSTOLICA SlfiDE HABENT1BUS.

LEO PP. XIII.

VENERABILES F BATHES, DILKCTI FILII, SALUTEM ET APOSTOLICAM
BENEDICT10NEM.

Exeunte jam anno, cum natalem sacerdotii quinquagesimum,
singular! munere beneficioque divino, incolumes egimus, sponte
respicit mens Xostra spatium praeteritorum meiisium, plurimumque
totius hujus iiitei'valli rocordatione delectatur. Nee sane sine caussa :
eventns enim, qui ad Nos privatim attinebat, idemque nee per se
magnus, nee novitate mirabiiis, studia tamen hominum inusitato
modo commovit, tarn perspicuis laetitiae signis, tot gratulationibus
celebratus, ut nihil optari majus potuisset. Quae res certe pergrata
Nobis perque jucunda cecidit : sed quod in ea plurimi aestimamup,

1 lidem ibi. Baldeschi and Bourbon direct them to move forward a
few paces after saluting the epistle side, before they salute the gospel
side. But, as Vavasseur (loc. cit. note) remarks, there is no reason why
they should not salute both sides of the choir without changing their
position.

Document. 279

significatio voluntatum est, religionisque liberrime testata constantia.
Ille enim Nos undique salntantium concentus id aperte loquebatur,
ex omnibus locis mentes atque auimos in Jesu Christi Vicariura esse
intentos : tot passim prementibus malis in Apostolicam Sedem, velut
in salutis perennem incorruptumque fontem, fidenter homines intueri ;
et quibuscumque in oris catholicum viget uomen, Ecclesiam romanam,
omnium Ecclesiarum matrem et magistram, coli observarique, ita ut
aequum est, ardenti studio ac summa concordia.

His de caussis per superiores menses non semel in coelum suspexi-
mus, Deo optimo atque immortal! gratias acturi, quod et hanc Nobis
vivendi usuram, et ea, quae commemorata sunt, curarum solatia
benignissime tribuisset: per idemque tempus, cum sese occasio dedit,
gratam voluntatem Nostrum, in quos oportebat, declaravimus. Nunc
vero extrema anni ac celebritatis renovare admonent accepti beneficii
memoriam : atque illud peroptato contingit, ut Nobiscum in iteraudis
Deo gratiis Ecclesia tota consentiat. Simul vero expetit animus per
has litteras publice testari, id quod facimus, quemadmodum tot
obsequii, humanitatis, et amoris testimonia ad eliniendas curas
molestiasque Nostras consolatione non rnediocri valuerunt, ita eorurn
et memoriam in Nobis et gratiam semper esse victuram.

Sed majus ac sanctius restat omcium. In hac enim affectione
animorum, romanum Pontificem alacritate insueta colere atque
h->norare gestientium, numen videmur nutumque Ejus agnoscere, qui
saepe solet atque unuspotest magnorum principia bonorumex mini mis
momentis elicere. Nimirum providentissimus Deus voluisse videtur,
ia tanto opininnum errore, excitare h'dem, opportunitatetnque praebere
studiis vitae potioris in populo christiano revocandis.

Quainobrern hoc est reliqui, dare operam ut, bene positis initiis,
bene cetera cousequantur : enitendumque, ut et intelligantur consilia
divina, et reipsa perficiantur. Tune denique obsequium in Apostoli-
cam Sedem plene erit cumulateque perfectum, si cum virtutum
christianarum laude conjunctum ad salutem conducat animarum :
qui fructus est unice expetendus perpetuoque mansurus.

Kx hoc summo apostolici mimeris gradu, in quo Nos Dei benfg-
nitas locavit patrocinium veritatis saepenumero, ut oportuit, suscepi-
nius, conatique suuius ea potissiniuin doctrinae capita exponere,
quae maxime opportunaque e re publica viderentur esse, ut quisque,
veritate perspecta, pestiferos errorum afflatus, vigilando cavendoque,
defugeret. \unc vero uti liberos suos amantissimus parens, sic Nos
»lloqui christianos universes volumus, familiarique serrnone hortarj
singulos ad vitam sancte institueudam. Nam omnino ad Christian uni

280 Document.

nomen, praeter fidei professionem, necessariae sunt cliristianarum
artes exercitationesque virtutum ; ex quibus non modo pendet serapi-
terna salus animorum, sed etiam germana prosperitas et fir ma
tranquillitas convictus human! et societatis.

Jamvero si quaeritur qua passim ratione vita degatur, nemo est
quin videat, valde ab evangelicis praeceptis publicos mores privatosque
discrepare. Nimis apte cadere in hanc aetatem videtur ilia Joannis
Apostoli sententia : omne quod in mundo est, concupiscentia carnis est, et
concupiscentia oculorum, et superbia vitae1. Videlicet plerique, unde
orti, quo vocentur, obliti, curas habent cogitationesque omnes in haec
imbecilla et fluxa bona defixas : invita natura perturbatoque ordine,
iis rebus sua voluntate serviunt ; in quas dominari hominem ratio
ipsa clamat oportere. Appetentiae commodorum et deliciarum comi-
tari proelive est cupiditatem rerum ad ilia adipiscenda idonearum.
Hinc effrenata pecuniae aviditas, quae efficit caecos quos complexa
est, et ad explendum quod exoptat inflammata rapitur, nullo saepe
aequi et iniqui discrimine, nee raro cum alienae inopiae insolenti
fastidio. Ita plurimi, quorum circumfluit vita divitiis fraternitatis
nomen cum multitudine usurpant, quam intimis sensibus superbe
contemnunt. Similique modo elatus superbia animus non legi subessc
ulli, nee ullam vereri potestatem conatur : merum amorem sui liber-
tatem apellat. Tamquam pullum onagri se liberum natum putat?

Accedunt vitiorum illecebrae ac perniciosa invitamenta peccandi :
ludos scenicos intelligimus impie ac licenter apparatos : volumina
atque ephemeridas ludificandae virtuti, honestandae turpidini com-
posita : artes ipsas ad usum vitae honestamque oblectationem animi
inventas, lenocinia cupiditatum ministrare jussas. Nee licet sine
metu fatura prospicere, quia nova malorum semina contineuter velut
in sinum congeruntur adolescentis aetatis. Nostis morem scholarum
publicarum : nihil in eis relinquitur ecclesiasticae auctoritati loci :
et quo tempore maxime oporLeret tenerrimos animos ad officia
Christiana sedulo studioseque fingere, tuna religionis praecepta ple-
rumque silent. Grandiores natu periculum adeunt etiam majus,
scilicet a vitio doctrinae : quae saepe est ejusmodi, ut non ad imbu-
endam cognitione veri, sed potius ad infatuandam valeat fallacia
sententiarum juventutem. In disciplinis enim tradendis permulti
philosophari malunt solo rationis magisterio, omnino fide divina
posthabita : quo firmamento maximo uberrimoque lumine remoto in
multis labuntur, nee vera cernunt. Eorum ilia sunt, omnia quae in
hoc mundo sint, esse corporea : homiuum et pecudum easdem esse
origines similemque naturam : nee desunt qui de ipso summo domi-

1 1 Ep., II., 16. 2Job,xi., 12.

Document. 281

natore rerum, ac mundi opifice Deo dubitent, sit necne sit, vel in
ejus natura errent, ethnicorum more, deterrime.

Hinc demutari necesse est ipsam speciem formaraque virtutis,
juris, officii. Ita equidem, ut dum rationis principatum gloriose pre-
dicant, ingeniique subtilitatem magnificentius efferunt, quam par est,
debitas superbiae poenas rerum maximarum ignoratione luant.
Corrupto opinionibus animo, simul insidet tamquam in venis medul-
lisque corruptela morum ; eaque sanari in hoc genere liominum sine
summa difficultate non potest, propterea quod ex una parte opiniones
vitiosae adulterant judicium honestatis, ex altera lumen abest fidei
christianae, quae omnis est principium ac fundamentum justitiae.

Ex ejusmodi caussis quantas hominum societas calamitates con-
traxerit quotidie oculis quodammodo contemplamur. Venena
doctrinarum proclivi cursu in rationem vitae resque publicas perva-
sere : rationalismus, materialismus, atheismus peperere socialismum,
communismum, nihilismum : tetras quidem funestasque pestes sed quas
ex iis principiis ingenerari non modo consentaneum erat, sed prope
necessarium. Sane, si religio catholica impune rejicitur, cujus origo
divina tarn illustribus est perspicna signis, quidni quaelibet religionis
forma rejiciatur, quibus tales assentiendi notas abesse liquet ? Si
animus non est a corpore natura distinctus, proptereaque si, intereunte
corpore, spes aevi beati aeternique nulla superest, quid erit caussae
quamobrem labores molestiaeque in eo suscipiantur, ut appetitus
obedientes fiant rationi ? Summum hominis erit positum bonum in
fruendis vitae commodis potiendisque voluptatibus.

Cumque nemo unus sit, quin ad beate vivendum ipsius naturae
admonitu impulsuque feratur, jure quisque detraxerit quod cuique
possit, ut aliorum spoliis facultatem quaerat beate vivendi. Nee
potestas ulla frenos est habitura tantos, ut satis cohibere incitatas
cupiditates queat : consequens enim est, ut vis frangatur legum et omnis
debilitetur auctoritas, si summa atque aeterna ratio jubentis vetantis
Dei repudietur. Ita perturbari funditus necesse est civilem hominum
societatem, inexplebili cupiditate ad perenne certamen impellente
singulos, contendentibus aliis quaesita tueri, aliis concupita adipisci.

Hue ferme nostra inclinat aetas. Est tamen, quo consolari
conspectum praesentium malorum, animosque erigere spe meliore
possimus. Deus enim creavit ut essent omnia, et sanctities Jacit
nationes orbis terrarum.1 Sed sicut omnis hie mundus non aliter con-
servari nisi numine providentiaque ejus potest, cujus est nutu
conditus, ita pariter sanari homines sola ejus virtute queunt, cujus
beneficio sunt ab interitu ad vitam revocati. Nam humanum genus

* Sap, i, 14.

282 Document.

semel quidem Jesus Christ! profuso sanguine redeinit, sed perennis
ac perpetua est virtus taniioperis tantique muneris : et non est in alto
aliqua sains.1 Quarequi cupiditatum popularium crescentem nammam
nituntnr oppositu legum extiuguere, ii quidem pro justitia conten-
clunt; sed intelligant, nullo se fructu aut certe perexiguo laborem
consumpturos, quamdiu obstiuaverint animo respuere virtutem Evan-
gelii, Ecclesiaeque nolle advocatum operam. In hoc posita malorum
sanatio est, ut, mutatis consiliis, et privatim et publice remigretur ad
Jesum Christum, christianamque vivendi vitam.

Jamvero totius vitae christianae summa et caput est, non indiil-
gere corruptis saeculi moribus, sed repugnare ac resistere constanter
oportere. Id auctoris fidei et consummatoris Jesu omnia dicta et facta,
leges et instituta, vita et mors declarant. Igitur quamtumvis pravi-
tate naturae et morum longe trahamur alio curramus oportet ad
proposititm nobis certamen armati et parati eodem animo eisdemque
arm is, quibus Ille, qui proposito sibi gandio suslinuit crucem.z

Proptereaque hoc primum videant homines atque intelligant qiuiin
sit a professione christiani nominis alienum persequi, uti mos est,
cujusquemodo voluptates, horrere comites virtutis labores, nihilque
recucare sibi, quod sensibus suaviter deLcateque blandiatur. Qui
sunt Ch isti, carnem snam crucifixerunt cum vitiis et concupiscent Us,2 ita
ut consequens sit Christi non esse, in quibus nou exercitatio sit
consuetudoque patiendi cum aspernatione moliium et delicatarum
voluptatum.

Revixit enim homo innnita Dei bonitate inspem bonorum immor-
talium, unde exciderat, sed ea consequi non potest, nisi ipsis Christi
vestigiis iugredi conetur, et cogitatione exemplorum ejus mentem
suam moresque conformet. Itaque non consilium, sed officiuin, neque
eorum dumtaxat, qui perfectius vitae optaverint genus, sed plane
omnium est, mortification em Jesu in corpora quemque suo circumferre*

Ipsa naturae lex, quae jubet hominem cum virtute vivrere, qui
secus posset salva consistere ? Deletur enim sacro baptismate pecca-
tum, quod est nascendo contractum, sed stiipes distortae ac pravae,
'quas peccatum insevit, nequaquam tolluntur. Pars homiuis ea, quae
expers rationis est, etsi resistentibus viriliterque per Jesu Christi
gratiam repugnantibus nocere non possit, tamen cum ratione de im-
perio pugnar, omnem animi statum perturbat, voluntatemque
tyrannice a virtute detorquet tanta vi, ut nee vitia fugere nee officia
servare sine quotidiana dimicatioue possimus. Manere auteni in
baptizatis concupiscentiam vel fomilem Jiaec sancta synodus fatetur ac
sentit, quae cum ad agonem relicta sit, nocere non constniientibus, sed

!Act., iv. a Heb., xii., 1, 2. 8 Galat,, v., 21. 4 II. Cor., iv., 10.

Document. 283

mnliter per Jesu, Christi graliam repugnantibits non valet ; q'uinimo
oni leg/time certarerit, coronabitur.1

Est in hoc certamine gradus fortitudinis, quo virtus non perveniat
nisi excellens eorum videlicet, qui in profligandis motibus a ratione
aversis eo usque profecerunt, ut coelestem in terris vitarn agere pro-
peraodum videantur. Esto, paucorum sit tanta praestantia : sed,
quod ipsa philosophia veterum praecipiebat, domitas habere cupidi-
tates nemo non debet ; idque ii majore etiam studio, quibus renim
mortalium quotidianus usus imtamenta majora suppeditat ; nisi qui
stulte putet, minus esse vigilandum ubi praesentius imminet discri-
men, aut, qui gravius aegrotant, eos minus egere medicina. Is vero,
qui in ejusmodi conflictu suscipitur, labor magnis compensatur,
praeter coelestia atque immortalia, bonis : in primis quod isto modo,
sedata perturbatione partium, plurimum restituitur naturae de dig-
nitate pristina. Hac enim lege est atque hoc ordine generatus homo,
ut animus imperaret corpori, appetitus mente consilioque regerentur :
eoque fit, ut non dedere se pessimis dominis cupiditatibus, praestan-
tissima sit maximeque O|)tanda libertas.

Praeterea in ipsa hurnani generis societate non apparet quid ex-
pectari ab homine sine hac animi affectione possit. Utrumne futurus
est ad bene merendum propensus, qui facienda, fugienda, metiri amore
sui consueverit ? Non magnanimus quisquam esse potest, non
beueficus, non misericors, non abstinens, qui non se ipse vincere
didicerit, atque humana omnia prae virtute contemnere. Nee silebi-
nu,s, id omnino videri divino provisum consilio, ut nulla afferri salus
hominibus, nisi cum contentione et dolore queat. Revera si Deus
liberationem culpae et errati veniam hominum generi dedit, hac lege
dedit, ut Unigenitus suus poenas sibi debitas justasque persolveret.
Justitiaeque divinae cum Jesus Christus satisfacere alia atque alia
ratione potuisset, maluit tamen per stimmos cruciatus profusa vita
satisfacere. Atque ita alumnis ac sectatoribus suis hanc legem im-
posuit suo cruore sancitam, ut eorum esset vita cum moruni ac
temporum vitiis perpetua certatio.

Quid Apostolos ad imbuendum veritate mundum fecit invictos,
quid martyres innumerabiles in fidei christianae cruento testimonio
roboravit, ni^i affectio animi illi legi obtemperans sine timore ? Nee
alia via ire perrexerunt, quotquot curae fait vivere more christiano,
sibique virtute consuleKe : neque igitur alia nobis eundum, si con-
sultum saluti volumus vel nostrae singulorum, vel communi. Itaque,
dominants procacitate libidinum, tueri se quemque viriliter necesse
est a blandimentis luxuriae : cumque passim sit in frueudis opibus

1 Cone. Trid. sess. v,, can. 5.

284 Document.

et copiis tarn insolens ostentatio, xnuniendus animus est contra diviti-
arurn sumptuosas illecebras : ne his inhians animus quae appellant ur
bona, quae nee satiare eum possunt, ac brevi eum dilapsura, thesauruni
amittat non deficientem in coelis.

Denique illud etiam dolendum quod opiniones atque exemplaperni-
ciosa tanto opere ad molliendos animos valuerunt, ut plurimos jam
prope pudeat nominis vitaeque christianae : quod quidem ant perditae
nequitiae est, aut segnitiae inertissimae. Utrumque detestabile,
utrumque tale, ut nullum homini malum majus. Quaenam enim
reliqua salus esset, aut qua spe niterentur homines, si gloriari in
nomine Jesu Christi desierint, si vitam ex praeceptis evangelicis
constanter aperteque agere recusarint ? Vulgo queruntur viris fortibus
sterile saeculum. Revocentur christiani mores : simul erit gravitas
et constantia ingeniis restituta.

Sed tantorum magnitudini varietatique officiorum virtus hominum
par esse sola non potest. Quo modo corpori, ut alatur, panem quoti-
dianum, sic animae, ut ad virtutem conformetur, nervos atque robur
impetrare divinitus necesse est. Quare communis ilia conditio lexque
vitae, quam in perpetua quadam diximus dimicatione consistere,
obsecrandi Deum habet adjunctam necessitatem.

Etenim, quod est vere ab Augustino venusteque dictum, trans-
cendit pia precatio interval la mundi, divinamque devocat e coelo
misericordiam. Contra cupiditatum turpidos motus, contra malorum
daemonum insidias, ne circumvent! in fraudem inducamur, adjumenta
petere atque auxilia coelestia jubemur oraculo divino: Oiate, ut non
intretis in tentationem.1 Quanto id necessarium magis, si utilem dare
operam alienae quoque saluti volumus ? Christus Dominus, unigeni-
tiis Filius Dei, fons omnis gratiae et virtu tis, quod verbis praecepit,
ipse prior demonstravit exemplo ; erat pernoctans in oratione Dei*
sacrificioque proximus prolixius orabat.s

Profecto longe minus esset naturae extimescenda fragilitas, nee
longe mores desidiaque diffluerent, si divinum istud preceptuin
minus jaceret incuria ac prope fastidio intermissum, Est enim
exorabilis Deus, gratificari vult hominibus, aperte pollicitus, sua so
munera large copioseque petentibus daturum. Quin etiam invitat
ipsemet petere, ac fere lacessit amantissimis verbis : Ego dico vobis :
petite, et dabitur vobis ; quaerite, et invenietis ; pulsate, et aperietiir
vobis.* Quod ut confidenter ac familiariter facere ne vereamur,
majestatem numinis sui similitudine atque imagine temperat parentis
suavissimi cui nihil potius, quam caritas liberorum. Si ergo vos, cum
sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestrh, quanto magis Pater vester,

1 Matth., xxvi., 41. 2 Luc., vi., 12. 8 Luc., xxii., 43. 4 Luc., xi., 9.

Document. 285

qui in caelis cst, dabit bona, petentibus se .?1 Quae qui cogitaverit, non
nimiura mirabitur si efficientia precum humanarum Joanni quidem
Chrysostomo videatur tanta, ut cum ipsa potentia Dei comparari
illam putet posse.

Propterea quod sicut Deus universifatem rerum verbo creavit, sic
homo impetrat, orando, quae velit. Nihil est rite aclhibitis precibus
impetrabilius, quia insunt in eis quaedam velut moventia, quibus
placari se Deus atque exorari facile patiatur. Nam inter orandum
sevocamus ab rebus mortalibus animum, atque unius Dei cogitatione
suspensi, conscientia tenemur infirmitatis humanae ; ob eamque rem
in bonitate et amplexu parentis nostri acquiescimus, in virtute Con-
ditoris perfugium quaerimus. Adire insistimus auctorem omnium
bonorum, tamquam spectari ab eo velimus aegrum animum, imbecillas
vires, inopiam nostram plenique spe, tutelam atque opem ejus implo-
ramus, qui aegrotationum medicinam, infirmitatis miseriaeque solatia
praebere solus potest. Tali habitu animi modeste de se, ut oportet,
submisseque, judicantis, mire flectitur Deus ad clementiam, quia
quemadmodum superbis resistit, ita humilibus dat gratiam.z Sancta
igitur sit apud omnes consuetude precandi : mens, animus, vox pre-
centur ; unaque simul ratio vivendi consentiat, ut, videlicet, per legum
divinarum custodiam perennis ad Deum ascensus vita nostra
videatur.

Quemadmodum virtutes ceterae, ita haec etiam, de qua loquimur,
gignitur et sustentatur fide divina. Deus etiam auctor est, quae sint
homini vera atque unice per se expectenda bona : iteraque infinitam
Dei bonitatem, et Jesu redemptoris merita eodem auctore cognovimus.
Sed vicissim pia precandi consuetudine nihil est ad alendam augen-
damque fidem aptius. Cujus quidem virtutis, in plerisque debilitatae,
in multis extinctae, apparet quanta sit hoc tempore necessitas. Ilia
enim est maxime, unde non modo vitae privatorum petenda correctio
esr, sed etiam earum rerum judicium expectandum, quarum conflictio
quietas et securas esse civitates non sinit. Si aestuat multitude im-
modicae libertatis siti, si erumpunt undique proletariorum mimices,
fremitus, si inhumana beatiorum cupiditas numquam se satis con-
secutarn putat, et si quae sunt alia generis ejusdem incomraoda, his
profecto, quod alias uberius exposuimus, nihil subvenire melius aut
certius, quam fides Christiana, potest.

Locus admonet, ad vos cogitationem orationemque convertere,
quotquot Deus ad sua dispensanda mysteria, collata diviriitus potestate,
acljutores adscivit. Si caussae indagantur privatae publicaeque salute,
dubitandum non est vitam moresque clericorum posse plurimum in

Matth., vii,, 11. 2 1. Petr., v., 5.

286 Document.

utramqne partem. Meminerint, igitnr, se lucem mundi a Jesu Christo
appel atos, quod luminis inttar universum orbem ilhistrantis sacerdotis
animam splendesccre oportet.1 Lumen doctrinae, neque illud vulgare,
in sacerdote requiritur, quia muneris ejus est implere sapientia ceteros,
evellere errores, ducem esse multitudini per itinera vitae ancipitia et
Inbrica. In primis autem vitae innocentiam comitem doctrina
desiderat, praesertim quod in eraendatione hominum longe plus ex-
emplo, quam peroratione proficitur.

Lnceat lux vestra cor am hominibus, ut videant opera vestra bonafl
Cujus divinae sententiae ea profecto vis est, talem esse in sacerdotibus
perfect! onem oportere absolutionemque virtutis, ut se tamquam specu-
lum praebere intuentibus queant. Nihil est, quod alios magis ad
pietatem et Dei cultum assidne instruat, quam eorum vita et exemplum,
qui se divino ministerio dedicarunt: cum emm a rebuv saeculi in alti-
orem suUati locum conspiciantur, in eos tamquam in speculum reliqui
oculus conjiciunt ex eisque sumunt, quod imiteutur.3 Quare si omnes
homines caveant vigilanter, oportet ne ad vitiorum scopulos adhaeres-
eant, neu consectentur res caducas appetitione nimia, apparet quanto
id efficere sacerdotes religiosius et constantius debeant.

Nisi quod nee satis est non servire cupiditatibus : illud etiam
sanctitudo dignitatis postulat ut sibimetipsis acriter imperare assues-
cant, itemque omnes animi vires, praesertim intelligentiam ac volun-
tatem, tjuoe summ'im in homine obtinent locum, in obsequium Christi
cogere. Qui relinquere universa disponis, te quoque inter relinquenda
connumerare memento, imo maxime et principaliter abnega temetipswn,*
Soluto ac libero ab omni cupidine ammo, tumdenique alacre et g»ne-
rosnm studium concipient salutis alienae, sine quo nee satis consul-
erent suae. Unus erit de subditis quaestus, una pompa, unaque
voluptas, si quomndo potent parare plebem perfectam. Id omnibus
satngent etiam multa contritione cordis et cor ports , in la bore et aerumna,
in fame et siti, in frig ore et nuditate.5 Cujusmodi virtutem semper
experrectam et ad nrdua quaelibet, proximorum gratia, impavidam
mire fovet et corroborat bonorum coeiestium coutemplatio f requens.
In qua sane quanto plus posuerint operae, tanto liquidius magnitudi-
nem munerum sacerdotalium et excellentiam et sanctitatern intelligent.
Judicabunt illud quam sit miserum, tot homines per Jesum Christum
redemptos, ruere tamen in interitum sempiternum : divinaeque

S. Joan. Chrysost., de Sac, I. III., c. i.

2 Matth., v.. 16.

3 Cone. Trid. sess. XXII., c. i. de Ref.

4 S. Bernard. Declam c. i.

•" Id. Consid., lib. IV., de c. ii.

Document. 287

cogitatione naturae in amorera Dei et intendent sese vehementius et
ceteros excit bunt.

Est ejusmodi cursus ad salutem communem certissimus. In quo
tamen magnopere cavendum, ne qui magnitudine difficultatum ter-
reatur, aut propter diutiirnitatem malorum de sanatione desperet.
Dei aequissima immutabilisque justitia et recte factis praemia reservat
et supplicia peccatis. Gentes vero et nationes, quoniam ultro mor-
talis aevi spatium propagari non possunt, debitam factis mercedem
ferant in terris necesse est. Utique non est novum, successus prosperos
peccanti civitati contingere : idque justo Dei consilio, qui actiones
laudabiles. neque tnim est ulla gens -omni laude vacans, ejusmodi
beneficiorum genere interdum remuneratur : quod in populo romano
jndicat Augustinus contig sse. Eata tamen lex est, ad prosperam
fortunam <>mninr> plurimum interesse quemadmodum publice virtus,
ac nominatim ea, quae parens est ceterarum, justitia colatur. Justitia
elevat gtntem : miseros autem facit popules peccfitum..1 N ihil attinet
considerutionem hoc loco intendere in victricia facinora ; nee exqui-
rere, ullane imperia, salvis rebus suis et ad voluntatem fluentibus,
gerant tamen velut in imis visceribus inclusum semen miseriarum.

Unam rem intelligi volumus. cujus rei plena est exemplorum
historia, injuste facta aliquando esse luenda, eoque gravius, quo fuerint
duttirniora delicta. Nos quidem magnopere ilia Pauli Apostoli sen-
tentia consolatur : Omnia ern'm vestra sunt : vos ay tern Christ^
Chiistus autem Dei.2 Videlicet arcano divinae Providentiae nutu
sic rerum mortalium regitur gubernaturque cursus, ut, quaecumque
hoiniuibus accidunt, omnia Dei ipsius gloriae assen iant, itemque sint
eorum saluti, qui Jesum Christum vere et ex animo sequuntur, condu-
cibilia. Horum vero mater et altrix, dux et custos est Ecclesiae :
quae idcirco cum Christo pouso suo sicut intimo atque incommutabili
caritate copulatur, ita conjungitur societate certauiinum et com-
munione victoriae.

Nihil igitur anxii Ecclesiae eaussa sumus, nee esse possumus :
sed valde pertimescimus de salute plurimorum, qui Ecclesia superbe
posthabita, errore vario in interitum aguntur : angimur earurn eaussa
civitatum, quas spectare cogimur aversas a Deo, et summos rerum
omnium discrimini stolida securitate indormientes. Nihil Ecclenae
par est. Quot Ecclesiam oppugn anmt ipsique perierunt ? Ecclesia
vero coel»s transcendit. . . . Tails est Ecclesiae magnitude ; vincit
impugnuta, imidiis appetita superat . . . luctatur nee prosternitur,
puyilatu certat nee vincitur* Neque solum non vincitur, sed illam,

1 Prov., xiv., 34. 2 L Cor ? m ? 22? 33.

8 S, Joan. Chrvs. Or. post Eutrop. captum habita, n. i.

288 Document.

quam perenni haustu a Deo ipso derivat, emendatricem naturae et
efficientem salutis virtutem conservat integram, nee ulla temporum
permutatione mutabilem. Quae virtus si senescentem vitiis et perdi-
tum superstitione mundum divinitus liberavit, quidni devium
revocabit ? Conticescant aliquando suspiciones ac simultates :
amotisque impedimentis, esto juriura suorum ubique compos Ecclesia,
cujus est tueri ac propagare parta per Jesum Christum beneficia.
Tune enim vero licebit experiendo cognoscere quo lux Evangelii
pertineat, quid virtus Christi redemptoris possit.

Hie annus, qui est in exitu, non pauca, ut initio diximus, revivis-
centis fidei indicia praetulit. Utinam istiusmodi velut scintilla
crescat in vehementera flammam, quae, absumptis vitiorum radicibus,
viam celeriter expediat ad renovendos mores et salutaria capassenda.
Nos quidem mystico Ecclesiae navigio tarn ad versa tempestate prae-
positi, mentem animumque in divinum gubernatorem defigimus, qui
clavum tenens sedet non visus in puppi.

Vides, Domine, ut undique eruperint venti, ut mare inhorrescat,
magna vi excitatis fluctibus. Impera, quaesumus, qui solus potes, et
ventis et mari. Redde hominum generi pacem veri nominis, quam
mundus dare non potest, tranquillitatem ordinis. Scilicet munere
impulsuque tuo referant sese homines ad ordinem debitum, restituta,
ut oportet, pietate in Deum, justitia et caritate in proximos, temper-
antia in semetipsos, domitis ratione cupiditatibus. Adveniat regnum
tuum, ibique subesse ac servire ii quoque intelligant oportere, qui
veritatem et salutem, te procul, vano labore exquirunt. Inest in
legibus tuis aequitas ac lenitudo paterna : ad easque servandas ultro
nobis ipse suppeditas expeditam virtute tua facultatem. Militia est
vita hominis super terram : sed ipse certamen inspectas, et adjuvas
hominem ut vincat, et deficientem sublevas, et vincentem coronas.*

iCf. Aug., in ps. xxxii.

Atque his sensibus erecto in spem laetam firmamque animo,
munerum coelestium auspicem et benevolentiae Nostrae testem, vobis
venerabiles Frates, et Clero, populoque catholico universe apostolicam
benedictionem peramanter in Domino impertimus.
Datum Romae, apud S. Petrum, ipso die natali D. Jesus An.
MDCCCXXXVIII, Pontificatus Nostri undecimo.

LEO PP. XIII.

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

APRIL, 1889.
THE EARTH'S EARLY HISTORY.

(VIEWED FROM A PHYSICIST'S STANDPOINT— AN ARGUMENT FOK

CREATION.)

IT was shown in a former paper1 that tidal friction is
gradually diminishing the speed of the earth's rotation
about its axis ; and we know that tidal friction has been in
operation for ages. The fossil remains of marine plants and
animals found in such profuse abundance in the stratified
rocks, which form the greater part of the earth's outer cover-
ing, recall a time when those rocks were strewn as soft mud
on the bed of the ocean. A glance at the geological map of
our own country will show that not far beneath the surface
there lies an undulating plane of limestone, some thousands
of feet in thickness, extending, with a few slight interruptions,
from the coast between Dundalk and Dublin to the Bay of
Galway, and from the counties of Cavan and Monaghan in
the north, to the confines of Waterford, Cork, and Kerry in
the south. Any one who will take the trouble to inspect an
ordinary quarry lying within this region cannot fail to find
many specimens of marine shells embedded in the rock ; and
a piece of the latter, when reduced to powder and examined
with a fairly good microscope, will reveal the remarkable fact
that nearly the entire substance of the limestone is made up
of minute fragments of shells, and skeletons of worms and
other marine animal forms.

Now, we cannot help believing that these shells and

I. E. KECORD (Third Series), vol. ix., n. 4 (April, 1888), p. 308.
VOL. X. T

290 The Earth's Early History.

skeletons were placed there by agencies similar to those
which we find constantly at work in our own time along
our coasts and at the greatest depths of the ocean.
In their primitive condition, therefore, those rocks were
only the debris of marine animal structures scattered in
great profusion on the bottom of the sea, chemical and
mechanical forces in the lapse of ages gradually cemented
and consolidated them into their present compact form ; and
the action of subterranean heat or, as many geologists
suppose, the subsidence of other parts of the earth's surface,
owing to the cooling and consequent contraction of the
interior, finally raised them above the level of the waves.

The other sedimentary rocks have a history somewhat
similar to that of the limestone ; many of them are even
much older. The greenish slaty rocks of Bray Head and
the Sugar Loaf in Wicklow preceded the age in which
the limestone was formed by an interval probably as great
as that which separates the limestone age from the present.
And during all those long series of years tidal friction was
unceasingly at work. The speed of the earth's rotation,
therefore, must have been greater in the past than it is now.
But it had a limit. At the present rate, a body at the
equator loses about the two-hundred and ninetieth part of
its weight owing to the centrifugal force arising from its
inertia ; and it follows from the law of angular motion, that if
the rate were increased much beyond seventeen times its
present value, all the water on its surface and solid bodies
near the equator not firmly held down by adhesion would
part company with the earth, and commence a new career as
its satellites. There are some who think it was in this way
that the moon, from being once part of our terrestrial orb,
began its separate existence. And, no doubt, some of the
circumstances of its motion would seem to suggest such an
origin. But its density, which is less than three-fifths of the
mean density of the earth, creates a difficulty. Besides this,
the inclination of the moon's orbit to the plane of the earth's
equator being much greater than the small angle of about
-five degrees, which the orbit makes with the ecliptic, would
point to a solar rather than a terrestrial parentage.

The Earth's Early History. 291

A mass of fluid matter suspended in space, and left
entirely to the gravitating influences of its own particles,
would assume a spherical form — as the rain drop does when
falling from the roof, or the molten lead which during its
descent shapes itself to suit the sportsman. If, however,
such a mass were rotated about one of its diameters, it would
cease to be a sphere. As the school-boy's hoop becomes an
oval when set rapidly spinning round one of its diameters,
a spherical mass when rotated becomes flattened towards the
extremities of the axis and widens out in a central plane
perpendicular to it. Now, this is the shape which the earth
is found to have by actual measurement — its equatorial
diameter exceeding the polar by nearly twenty-seven miles ;
and it can hardly be doubted that this peculiar shape is in
some way due to the earth's motion of rotation. But the
thickness and rigidity of the rocks found beneath its surface
are much too great to admit of the earth's present figure
being satisfactorily explained by centrifugal force alone.

We are compelled to go back to a time long before the
oldest of the sedimentary rocks or the water necessary for their
formation made their appearance — a time when the granite
of the Mourne and Donegal Highlands, and the basalt of
Antrim formed part of one vast sea of viscid lava which
everywhere covered the earth's surface. Many vestiges of
this former condition of our globe remain to the present day.
Hot wells and burning mountains may be counted by the
score in both hemispheres ; and the catastrophes of Ischia and
the Riviera in recent years bear witness that even these safety
valves, numerous as they are, sometimes prove inadequate to
relieve the enormous pressure arising from the store of energy
still accumulated in the earth's interior. Many interesting
problems for which science, in its present state, can offer
little more than conjectural solutions are presented by the
earthquake and the eruption of the volcano ; but although
unable to diminish their frequency, or mitigate their intensity,
the doctrine of energy clearly shows that future generations-
will be less afflicted than their predecessors with these
dreadful calamities. Whether arising from the volatilizing
action of red-hot masses on water and other substances

292 The Earth's Early History.

which find their way down through cracks in the upper
strata or, as others suppose, from chemical forces always at
work at great depths below the surface, each fresh outburst
necessarily involves a vast expenditure of energy, and,
therefore, implies a diminution of the residual store.

But, apart from these extraordinary phenomena, the
thermal condition of the rocks near the earth's surface proves
clearly one of two things : either the earth has been
immensely hotter in the past than it is now, or the source,
whatever it may be, whence its present heat is derived
is being rapidly exhausted, it is well known that in sinking
shafts for mining purposes and in boring for wells, when a
certain depth has been reached, the influence of the sun's
heat ceases to be felt. A thermometer placed there will
indicate the same temperature throughout the year ; whereas,
if placed at any lesser depth, the temperature will be found
to change with the seasons. Moreover, when the first stratum
of constant temperature has been passed, it is invariably
found that the greater the depth, the higher the temperature
becomes. The rate of increase is not the same everywhere;
but, so far as observation has yet gone, one centigrade
degree for every hundred feet may be taken as a fair average.
It need not be assumed that this rate of increase continues
to all depths ; and the small distance to which it is practic-
able to penetrate into the earth's interior obviously would
render such an assumption unwarrantable.

But the fact remains that not far beneath the surface there
are strata of rock nearly but not quite concentric with it,
whose temperature at any given point never changes, and
which have hotter strata always below them, and colder strata
always above them. A stratum of this kind, therefore, must
give by conduction to those above it, each second of time?
just as much heat as it receives from the hotter strata below it;
and since the temperature of the upper strata is not increased
from year to year, this heat is necessarily lost by the earth,
'and passes by radiation into space. As this process is con-
stantly going on throughout the entire extent of the earth's
surface, and has been in operation for immeasurable ages in
the past, the amount of heat which the earth has parted with
up to the present must be enormously great.

The Earth's Early History. 293

There are two ways conceivable in which this vast
expenditure of heat may be accounted for : either by
supposing a gradual cooling of the earth's mass, which
was once at a very high temperature throughout, or
by assuming that there are in its interior and in close
proximity substances possessing strong mutual affinities.
When water is thrown on quicklime or mixed with oil
of vitriol, as is known, heat is developed; and in general,
when chemical action takes place between different bodies,
a similar result ensues. Nor can it be denied that with a
sufficient supply of such substances all the phenomena of
Vesuvius and ^Etna, of Casamiciola and the Riviera, might
be produced. But we must regard it as in the last degree
improbable that such substances should be found together
at all parts of the earth's surface where observations have
been made, and in such abundance, too, as to supply heat for
the radiation which has been going on throughout the entire
period of the earth's past history. Besides this, the earth's
spheroidal form requires some explanation ; and this pecu-
liar shape, as before stated, is satisfactorily accounted for
only by supposing, as Leibnitz did, that the earth was once
in the state of a liquid or viscid fiery mass. Physicists
have even gone so far as to estimate roughly the time it has
taken to cool down to its present condition.

The problem, although it cannot be called insoluble, is one
surrounded with very great difficulties, for some of the
important data are as yet but imperfectly known. The melting
temperatures and specific heats of the igneous rocks — such as
granite and basalt — have only been .determined within very
wide limits ; and in such investigations it is obvious that large
experimental errors are almost unavoidable. Taking the
most probable values of all the quantities involved, some
eminent physicists have calculated the period which has
elapsed since consolidation commenced as about ten million
years. Many geologists, however, in spite of physical reasons
to the contrary, demand a period several hundred times
longer to explain the changes which, they say, the strata of
the earth's crust and the fossil remains embedded in them
disclose. As might be expected, the present condition of

294 The Earth's Early History.

the interior is also a subject of controversy ; and while most
physicists maintain that at present the earth is nearly solid
throughout, geologists commonly regard it as a liquid sphere
enclosed within a hollow shell or crust from fifty to a
hundred miles in thickness. But in one thing both physi-
cists and geologists are now practically agreed — that the
earth at a certain remote epoch in its history was an incan-
descent liquid mass, or, at least, was covered all over to a
very great depth with molten rock, so that neither animal nor
vegetable life could have existed on its surface.

Such a state of things cannot have lasted long. A red-
hot mass of liquid radiating into space would soon have its
surface temperature reduced to the point of solidification —
the more so if we assume, as the latest experiments seem to
warrant, that the igneous rocks expand in solidifying, like
water in freezing. The rate of cooling, no doubt, was
greatly retarded by the vast amount of clouds and aqueous
vapour present in the atmosphere ; for the water, which now
covers about two-thirds of the earth's surface, existed then
only in one or other of these forms. But making due allow-
ance for the law of exchanges, and the high absorptive and
radiating powers of vapour of water, it is clear that within
a very few years at the farthest there must have formed on
the surface a solid crust, which has been increasing in thick-
ness ever since.

Seeing, then, that the earth's liquid state was only one of
rapid transition, we are compelled to seek an antecedent
condition of things- in which it had its origin. Of the many
hypotheses hitherto proposed, the one which has met with
most general acceptance among men of science is that
commonly known as the Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace.
In it terrestrial and solar heat, are traced to a common source,
the condensation of nebulous or highly attenuated gaseous
matter which once filled the entire space contained within
the limits of the solar system, extending even beyond it,
and out of which the different bodies of that system were
subsequently formed. The gravitating forces with which
the nebulous particles were originally endowed drew them
towards a common centre ; and the heat produced by their

The Earth's Early History. 205

collisions in falling together raised the temperature of the
mass many million degrees. The impacts of the colliding
particles gave rise to rotation of the whole about an axis
through the centre of gravity ; and the revolving mass thus
formed was the primitive sun. Radiation into the cold
regions of space was accompanied by further condensation
which compensated for the loss sustained ; and, by a principle
known to mathematicians as the 'conservation of areas,'
increased angular motion necessarily followed diminished
volume. The solar mass owing to centrifugal force widened
out more and more in a central plane, and an equatorial ring of
matter ultimately became detached from the parent body.
Preserving its motion unchanged and widening still further as
it separated from the sun, the ring finally broke ; but its
particles drawn together by their mutual attractions assumed
a new spherical form, and became the first of the planets.
The rotatory motion derived from the sun increased as the
planet cooled ; and by a process similar to that in which the
planet itself had its origin, there was gradually evolved from
its substance the oldest of its satellites. Such in brief out-
line are the main features of this famous hypothesis. We
shall see presently some of the evidence on which it rests.

The appearance which the sun's surface presents to the
eye, even when aided by the telescope, naturally suggested
the old notion of a white-hot solid or liquid slowly cooling.
When careful measurements came to be applied, however,
the solar radiation was found to be so enormously great, that
in a globe composed of any known terrestrial substance an
appreciable diminution of temperature should necessarily be
detected even in the course of a few centuries. Combustion
which was next thought of had also to be abandoned when
experiment had shown that there is no process of combustion
known to science at all adequate to explain the source of
solar heat. A mass of coal having the dimensions of the sun
and radiating with the same intensity would be entirely
consumed in less than five thousand years; and a globe of
oil of the same size if set on fire would burr; out in a tenth
of that time. But although it is certain that the sun's store
of heat-energy is being gradually exhausted, still the

296 The Earth's Early History.

unchanged condition of plants and animals at any given
part of the earth's surface during the period of man's history
shows clearly that the diminution which has taken place
during that time is inappreciable compared with the total
amount. The Nebular hypothesis supplied a cause adequate
to account for this immense store, and to preserve the sun's
temperature unchanged for ages to come.

It is a well-known experiment that if a tube closed at one
end be provided with a piston fitting air-tight, on suddenly
driving in the piston enough heat may be developed to ignite
tinder or other inflammable substance placed within the tube.
The pressure arising from the gravitating forces of the nebulous
particles, in the hypothesis we are considering, far exceeded
any attainable by human contrivance. It has been computed
that if the planet Jupiter were brought to rest and reduced
to its original nebulous condition, the pressure on the sun's
surface resulting from its fall would generate heat enough to
maintain the solar radiation, great as it is, for upwards of
thirty thousand years; and a period of twenty million years
would not completely exhaust the store of heat which would
be accumulated if a globe of nebulous matter, extending to
the planet Neptune, were condensed by the gravitation of
its particles to the present size of the sun.

The large volumes of apparently nebulous matter, in
every variety of shape, scattered through space which the
telescope reveals, seem to have suggested to Laplace, and to
Kant before him, the rudiments of their theory. But in the
last century and the first half of the present, even with the
greatly increased space-penetrating powers of the Herschel
and kRoss telescopes, there was no means available to dis-
tinguish with certainty between purely nebulous matter and
dense clusters of faintly visible stars. Neither was it possible
to apply to the solar and terrestrial masses any test by which
the similarity of constituents, which the Nebular Hypothesis
supposes, might be established. These links in the chain of
argument the Spectroscope has since supplied. The number
and position of the bright lines visible in its vapour spectrum
furnish in many^cases, as is known, a more trustworthy means
of detecting the presence of an elementary substance than

The Earth's Early History. 297

the most delicate reagents of the chemist ; and when a beam
of white light from a very intense source passes through a
gas or vapour at a lower temperature, the dark absorption
lines which the gas produces also serve to determine its
nature. In this way about twenty terrestrial substances
have been identified up to the present as glowing gases in
the atmosphere of the sun ; and of the vast number of
meteorites which have fallen to the earth, not even one has
been found to contain any other than terrestrial elements.
Several of the nebulae also which, thirty years ago, were
thought by many to be irresolvable only from want of
sufficient telescopic power, are now known by the character-
istic spectral lines which they produce to be faintly luminous
masses of two well-known gaseous substances. Even the
stars whose distance defies the telescope to give them
magnitude are proved by the vapours which surround
them to have grown from the same primordial matter as the
rest.

But the arguments on which Laplace relied were different
from these. He felt it could not be the result of chance
that all the planets, including the earth, revolve in the same
order about the sun, and in planes inclined to each other at
very small angles. When viewed from the earth the planets,
as their name implies, appear to wander about at random
among the stars on the concave surface of the heavens.
Moving generally eastward, at times they seem to stop, turn
back, and, after another pause, continue their eastward
journey as at first. So long as the idea of a stationary earth
held possession of men's minds, these complicated motions
could only be represented, with any approach to exactness,
by means of the epicycloids of Ptolemy, who assumed that
each planet moves in the circumference of a circle whose
centre describes another circle about the earth. But the
celestial machinery was very much simplified when it was
found that all the appearances which the planets present to
us could easily be accounted for, by supposing that each of
them moves in a nearly circular path about a fixed centre in
the sun. And were it in our power to view the earth and
planets from the sun, in our new position we should see

298 The Earths Early History.

them moving round us in nearly coincident planes, and in
the same invariable order.

Of these remarkable phenomena Laplace's hypothesis
afforded an easy explanation. When condensation had
once commenced in the original nebulous mass, the
rotation due to the impacts of its particles gave rise to
a centrifugal, force which, in the neighbourhood of the
sun's equator where it was greatest, detached in succession,
but at very long intervals, the principal members of our
planetary system. The mutual attraction of its molecules
gave to each as it parted from the sun a new spherical form,
and under the combined influence of its own inertia and the
pull towards the common centre of gravity it continued to
circulate about the latter in the same plane and in the same
order as before. In one case, indeed, separation seems to
have happened under exceptional conditions. The minor
planets with which the astronomers of the last century were
wholly unacquainted now number nearly three hundred, and
fill up the chasm between Mars and Jupiter, where Bode's
law required a planet. While agreeing with the major
planets in the order in which they revolve about the sun, the
minor planets differ from them in this — that the orbits of
some are inclined at considerable angles to the plane of the
ecliptic — the inclination of one being nearly thirty-five
degrees. This circumstance, combined with their number
and the smallness of most of them, has led some astronomers
to conjecture that they are only the fragments of a larger
body which once revolved about the sun in the space they
now occupy. But even without such an assumption, it is
clear that an equatorial ring of matter once detached from
the solar mass might continue to circulate about it unbroken,
as seems to have happened in the case of Saturn's rings; or,
having broken in one or more places, might have formed a
single or several distinct bodies. Nor is it difficult to con-
ceive that differences of temperature and density may have
led to the divergences which exist in the planes of their
orbits.

So long ago as the time of Galileo the motion of dark
spots in nearly parallel lines across the solar disc had con-

The Earth's Early History. 299

vinced astronomers that the sun turns on an axis, and a
hundred years before Laplace's Systeme du Monde appeared,
Cassini had shown that the ecliptic does not differ much
from the plane of the sun's equator. The earth and planets,
too, were known to revolve on axes, and in the Fame order as
the sun — a necessary consequence of their solar origin.
Even the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn — the only ones
then known to exist, were found to follow laws similar to
those of their primaries. But perhaps the most striking
agreement between observation and theory is furnished by a
comparison of the relative densities of the planets and the
rates at which they move in their respective orbits. The
hypothesis of Laplace required that the youngest of the
planets should also be the densest, and that the oldest should
move slowest; for so long as the solar mass continued to
cool and diminish in size, it was a dynamical necessity that
its speed of rotation should increase.

Newton's theory of gravitation once admitted, and the
distances of the planets from the sun accurately known,
astronomers were enabled to determine the mean densities
in some cases with great exactness. As a result, the
densities of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — the
four most distant from the sun are found to be in
striking contrast with those of Mercury, Venus, the Earth,
and Mars. If a cubic foot were cut out of Jupiter
the densest of the first four, it would weigh on the earth
only about a third more than a cubic foot of water ; whereas
a piece of the same size taken from Mercury would be more
than six times as heavy. Again, Neptune, the first thrown
off by the sun, and the most distant planet known to us,
takes nearly one hundred and sixty-five years to perform its
revolution ; while Mercury, the youngest of the planets and
the nearest to the sun, completes its course in less than three
months. At present the sun makes a revolution on its axis
in a little more than twenty-five days, and a point on its
surface at the equator moves over nearly a mile and a quarter
each second of time; owing to its enormous mass, however,
the intensity of gravitation at the surface is such that this
velocity, great as it appears to us, will require to be increased

300 The Earth's Early History.

to more than two hundred times its present value before any
further addition can be made to the numerous offspring of
the SUD.

There has recently t been ^revived, as stated elsewhere,1
another hypothesis — first proposed forty years ago by Mayer
— which differs from Laplace's in regarding the meteoric, and
not the nebulous, as the primitive condition of matter. That
countless myriads of bodies, much too small to be detected
even with the largest telescopes, are flying at enormous
speed through space, cannot now be questioned. The
" shooting stars," with which every one is familiar from
childhood, are visible on any night in the year when the sky
is free from clouds ; and, should the time chosen for obser-
vation be about the second week of August or the middle of
November, hundreds of them may be counted in a single
night. But it is only on rare occasions that these striking
phenomena are seen in their full splendour. The wonderful
display of November, 1866, is still remembered by many, when,
within a few hours, several thousands were observed tracing
their fiery paths, like so many celestial rockets, in the upper
regions of the atmosphere. Owing to their rapid motion,
when meteors enter the air, the friction raises their temperature
to vivid incandescence, many being wholly converted into
vapour, which appears as a luminous trail several miles in
length ; others, which survive, have their rate so diminished
by the resistance that, unable to escape from the earth's
attraction, they fall to its surface. Until recently, physicists
and astronomers were divided as to whether the meteors
should be ranked as part of the solar system; but the
periodic phenomena of August and November, and the still
greater "star showers " which recur at intervals of thirty -
three-and-a-quarter years, have placed beyond doubt that
many of them at least revolve in closed but very eccentric
orbits about the sun. In the heat generated by the incessant
fall of meteors into the sun, Mayer found sufficient compen-
sation for the loss sustained by radiation ; and to the mutual
attractions and collisions of meteoric masses, he traced the
origin of the sun and stars, and of the earth and planets,

1 1. E. RECORD, vol. x., n. 1 (January, 1889), p. 61.

The Earth's Early History. 301

But, whether we conceive the realms of space as once
occupied only by countless swarms of flying meteors, or regard
the latter as originating in the interactions of pre-existing
nebulous particles, the question arises Have the changes by
which the present physical universe has been gradually
evolved, been going on throughout an infinite past, or must
we admit a starting point, and an agent, other than matter,
to give the first impulse ? To this question the physicist is
bound by the principles of his science to give an unhesitating
answer. With him it is an axiom that where work is done
there must be an equivalent expenditure of energy. Whether
the means employed be heated steam, or falling water, or
the muscles of men or animals, the conditions are the same
for all. Nature will have no compromise. It is this prin-
ciple which guides the physicist when he ranks in the same
catagory the mediaeval alchemist, who spent his life in
searching for the philosopher's stone, and the perpetual-
motion inventor of a less distant age. He knows that in the
universe, as we find it, frictionless motion is impossible. A
revolving, rigid and weightless wheel, suspended in vacant
space, is, indeed, conceivable ; but of such rotation we have
no experience ; and we can have none. When the resis-
tances of pivots, and of the air, have been successfully
removed, the friction of the ether — the vehicle of all the
light and heat1 we enjoy — remains to thwart our efforts.
And friction implies the performance of work. The rubbing
of the finest spider thread against the fly-wheel of a steam-
engine would, of itself, if continued long enough, finally
stop the motion ; additional fuel, which will restore the lost
energy, is needed to keep it constantly going. In the
mechanism of the heavens, perpetual motion is no less im-
possible than in any machine of human construction. All
the heavenly bodies known to us move in a resisting medium ;
for absolutely vacant space in a visible universe, as explained
in a former paper,2 is a contradiction. Even the stars, which
we are wont to call fixed, are only seemingly so. Already a

1 The recent experiments of Hertz prove clearly that electromagnetic
action is also due to ethereal vibration.

3 1. E. KECOKD, vol. ix,, n. 4 (April, 1888) p. 308.

302 The Earth's Early History.

proper motion has been discovered in many of them ; and,
were our instruments more perfect, might be detected in all.
Our solar system is no exception to the rule ; and when its
centre of gravity is referred to as a fixed point in the sun, it
is only for convenience' sake; for, like the stars, the sun
itself, and its attendant retinue of planets, are revolving
round the only fixed point in space — the centre of gravity of
the universe.

It needs but little reflection to see that motion such as
this cannot have been going on for ever in the past, and
must eventually come to an end. With the abstract
possibility of eternal matter we are not dealing here. That
we freely concede ; for where the Angelic Doctor1 could not
see a contradiction, we may be pardoned if we fail to find
one. But whether existing as attenuated nebulous particles,
or swarms of meteors, or as distinct solar and stellar systems,
gravitating matter left to itself and moving in a resisting
medium necessarily loses by the friction each second of time
a part of its energy, and, owing to the resistance it experi-
ences, is gradually drawn nearer and nearer to its centre of
attraction. And as the earth and planets will one day end
their career in the sun, for a like reason the sun and stars
after a long but not indefinite period must come together
and form a single mass round their common centre of gravity.
The certainty of such a result in the future is evidence that
the motion of these bodies had a beginning in the past ; for
however slowly they are approaching each other and parting
with their energy, the process, if continued without limit of
time, must have brought them to rest long ages ago. It is
true that in falling together the sun and stars, as also the
earth and planets, may produce by their collisions an amount
of heat and rotation in the resulting mass sufficient to
develop new stellar and planetary systems after the manner
imagined by Laplace. Nay more, it is not inconsistent with
the known properties of gravitating matter that the process
may, be repeated many million times in succession. Still
the end is inevitable ; for each time the store of energy is
less than it was the preceding one. So long as there exists

1 Summa.) p. i,, Qu. xlvi., art. 2.

7 he Celtic Paschal Controversy. 303

a body moving in space, ethereal friction continues to fritter
away its energy of motion in the form of low-temperature
heat.

To suppose, as some have done, that the universe is
infinite in mass in no way affects the argument. Such a con-
ception, besides its many inherent difficulties, involves the
diffusion of matter through unlimited space ; and every
point in that space would be a centre of gravity. In strict-
ness, therefore, the universe would not have a centre of
gravity at all ; and each individual finite system of which
the infinite whole is composed would be influenced only by
the mutual interactions of its own constituent bodies. The
earth and planets would revolve about the sun as if the solar
system alone existed in space ; and whether we conceive
the sun as stationary, or as moving in a straight line in
obedience to the law of inertia, the resistance of the ethereal
medium would long since have exhausted their store of energy.
In whatever light, therefore, the question is regarded, it is clear
that a time must be admitted when the celestial machinery
commenced its motion. From that moment to the present,
slowly but incessantly, it has been running down ; and it
will continue to do so until the universe ends as it began in
a state of tranquil repose — a state from which, if it then
existed at all, it never could have emerged without some
agent, different from matter, to give it the first impulse.

F. LENNON.

THE CELTIC PASCHAL CONTROVERSY.

IT is not easy to estimate the importance which in the
middle of the seventh century attached to those questions
regarding the celebration of Easter, by which, for a period,
the peace of the Church of Great Britain was disturbed.
The controversy was felt through many of the districts in
which the Faith had but recently found a footing amongst
the Saxons. It was also felt in those far earlier and more

304 The Celtic Paschal Controversy.

flourishing missions in Wales, in Norttmmbria, and
Caledonia, which had grown up under the fostering care of
Irish monks ; and unfortunately it was made the occasion of
intensifying the feelings of hatred with which the subjugated
Britons regarded their co-religionists and conquerors the
Saxons. Even the apostle of England was powerless to
remove those misunderstandings.

It should be remembered also, that as the great Celtic
controversy divided the nation, so too it divided the house-
hold of the good King Oswy, Sovereign of the Saxon
Confederation. Thus " two Easter festivals were celebrated "
even in the royal household every year. In the monasteries,
too, the question was fast leading up to a .similar diversity of
disciplinary observance. We find the young and imperious
Wilfred scornfully rejecting at Ripon, the Celtic observances
to which St. Hilda and her religious rigidly adhered, and
which had been hitherto strictly practised at Lindisfarne and
the other great northern monasteries.

Under those circumstances the king's anxiety to have the
question finally decided, was very natural and intelligible.
A conference was accordingly summoned by him, at which
the nobility and representative men of the kingdom were
required to attend, together with its leading ecclesiastics.
It was in truth a national parliament, over which the king
presided in person. The monastery of the royal Hilda, which
flung its shadows from the frowning cliffs of Whitby, over
the heaving bosom of the Northern Ocean, was then one of
the most important in the north of England, and was selected
as the most suitable place for the holding of this most im-
portant convention.

The king naturally looked to Colman, Abbot of Lindis-
farne, then the only bishop of Northumbria, as the most
suitable advocate of Celtic observances. His holy prede-
cessors whose relics were treasured within the walls of his
monastery, as well as the saints of his native land, were
zealous supporters of the system he was now called upon to
explain and uphold.

Though St. Wilfrid did not then hold so high an official
position, he was well and widely known for his learning and

The Celtic Paschal Controversy. 305

sanctity. His influence with the queen, his friendly inter-
course with the young prince, his ardent and untiring efforts
to supersede the Celtic customs by the adoption of the
reformed Roman method, caused him to be regarded as the
most suitable supporter of the opposite side. He was
accordingly selected as its advocate by the king.

Broadly speaking, the sole question before the meeting
was, whether the old Roman system for fixing the date of
Easter, which was introduced into Ireland by St. Patrick, and
then followed in certain portions of the Irish Church, was to
be retained or superseded by the new and reformed Roman
system. It is a matter of interest to know with certainty the
views entertained by those representative men, on a question
of such widespread and absorbing interest. And our interest
will, perhaps, be stimulated, when we find that while
both maintained antagonistic views, and with passionate
ardour, both were ignorant of the real character of the
question which they undertook to discuss. We have fortu-
nately a detailed narrative of their views from the pen of
no less an authority than Venerable Bede.1

At the invitation of the king, the Bishop of Northumbria
spoke in justification of the Celtic usages, and at the very
beginning advanced his strongest arguments in favour of
them. His method of celebrating Easter was sanctioned by
the usages of his saintly predecessors. Was it not the
system introduced by the great national apostle of Ireland,
who brought it with the Faith from Rome ? Was it not
practised for the last two centuries by the saints of Ireland,
whose names were venerated throughout Europe ? Could
they have erred ? His resolution seemed, indeed, to have
been already formed, and to have rested entirely on those
grounds, for he adds : " In reverence for our ancestors we
dare not and will not change." This argument, if incon-
clusive, was at least intelligible. But when he urges that
his predecessors had but followed the example set them by
St. John the Evangelist and St. Polycarp, he betrayed a
lamentable ignorance of the origin and character of those
usages.

Eccl. His., lib. 3.
VOL. X. U

306 The Celtic Paschal Controversy.

Wilfred, in reply, referred to the existing practice in
Rome, which was then adopted almost universally, and
pointed out with unanswerable cogency, that they were only
the Britons and Picts — the occupants of only a portion of
" those islands, who foolishly persist in contradicting all the
rest of the world."

Not content, however, with this unanswerable argument,
he advanced some additional statements which betrayed
equal ignorance of the origin and growth of the contro-
versy. He contended that his system of Piaster observances
had been established by St. Peter, with the approval of our
Lord, and the sanction of Sacred Scripture. Not content with
this groundless statement, he refers somewhat slightingly,
and perhaps offensively, to the Irish saints. He admits,
indeed, that they were servants of God, who " no doubt
loved him in their rustic simplicity with the most pious inten-
tions," but who might find in their ignorance the best pallia-
tion of their errors as regarded the paschal celebration.

There was no question of faith ; neither was there any
question of apostolic discipline, notwithstanding the state-
ments of the disputants. The result of the decision, which
was in favour of Wilfrid, tended, as might have been antici-
pated, rather to widen than remove differences. And what
in effect can be less suggestive of harmony than the graphic
picture of the result left us by Montelambert, which I take
the liberty of transcribing here ? —

" But Colman refused to recognise the decision of the Council.
He could not resign himself to see his doctrine despised, and his
spiritual ancestors depreciated. He feared also the anger of his
countrymen, who would not have pardoned his defection. He deter-
mined to abandon his diocese accordingly, taking with him all the
Lindisfarue monks. He left Northumbria for ever, and went to lona
to consult the Father of the Order or Family of St. Columba. .He
carried with him the bones of his predecessor, St. Aidan — the first
Celtic evangelist of Northumbria — as if the ungrateful land had
become unworthy to possess those relics of a betrayed saint, and
witness of a despised apostleship."

Erroneous in some respects as were the views advanced both
by St. Colman and St. Wilfrid on this question, there can be but
little doubt that they represented the views of numbers in the

The Celtic Pascltal Controversy. 307

Saxon and British missions at that time, on the same question.
At least there can be no room for doubting that the indignant
feelings of the Abbot of Lindisfarne were largely shared by his
countrymen in England at the time. He seems to have
thought that in Ireland too, the tone of feeling was similar.
He was not aware, probably, that the system which he so
earnestly advocated at Whitby, was rejected a generation
earlier by more than half of Ireland.

But to understand clearly the extent to which certain views
advocated at Whitby were erroneous, and unconnected with
the true question at issue, it is necessary to have a clear idea
of the origin and nature of that question. Such knowledge
is also necessary in order that we may grasp the development
and character of the controversy in Ireland. A brief outline
of this large and complicated question will be quite sufficient
for the educated readers of the RECORD.

The earliest authoritative legislation of the Church, on the
Easter question, was at Nice, A.D. 325. There were many in the
Eastern Church, at that period, who held that Christians were
bound by the divine law to celebrate Easter on the same day
as that on which the Pasch was celebrated by the Jews.
This doctrine was condemned as heretical by the Council
and was subsequently known as the quarto-deciman heresy.
As a matter of mere discipline, it was enacted by the Council
that the Easter Festival should be celebrated by the whole
Church, on one and the same day ; and that the day of its
celebration should be the Sunday next after the fourteenth
day of the first lunar month. It was also ordered that it
should not be celebrated before the vernal equinox, lest the
practice ot Christians might ever correspond with the Jewish
practice, as regarded the paschal celebration.

But against that uniformity of discipline of which the
Nicene decrees gave such gratifying promise, there remained
an unexpected difficulty. How was the first lunar month
to be fixed? Was it by retaining the old Jewish cycle of
eighty-four years? Or was it by adopting the reformed
Alexandrine cycle of nineteen years ? The high and well-
established reputation of the Church of Alexandria on ques-
tions of astronomy, militated strongly in favour of the later

308 7 he Celtic Paschal Controversy.

alternative. And, accordingly, to the Alexandrine Church
was entrusted the duty of determining the time for the cele-
bration of the Easter festival. It became its duty also, to
give annually to the Pope timely intimation of the particular
date ; so that it might be published through him, in due
course, to the universal Church. From causes which do not
appear to be clearly stated, Rome, after following the
Alexandrine system for a time, returned to the Jewish cycle.
Meantime the Eastern, and some portions of the Western
Church, such as Milan, retained and followed the Alexandrine
computation. The old abuses, therefore, as regarded uniformity
of discipline, become more marked than ever. In A.D. 387,
Easter was celebrated at Rome on the 18th of April, while
at Milan and at Alexandria, it was riot celebrated till the
25th of the same month. Thirty years afterwards, owing to
the same causes (A.D. 417) Easter was celebrated at Rome,
nearly an entire month earlier than it was celebrated at
Alexandria.

There can be no doubt that the system which prevailed
at Rome in A.D. 417, was that which was introduced by
St. Patrick into Ireland fifteen years afterwards. It was the
system which continued to be observed at Rome until the
middle of the sixth century, when the system of Dionysius
Exiguus, which might be said to correspond with the
Alexandrine, was adopted there.

But the universal adoption of the new Roman system
should be of necessity a matter of some time. In France it
was not universally adopted until the close of the sixth cen-
tury. No wonder its adoption in Ireland should have been
slower still, considering its relatively remote position from
the great centre of Catholic unity.

But as St. Patrick had introduced into Ireland the method
of determining the Easter festival which prevailed in Rome
in his time, so too had St. Augustine brought with him to
England the reformed system, which had been adopted at
Rome but a little time previously. Thus the reformed system
was established by St. Augustine throughout the Saxon
Church in England ; while the districts in which Christianity
had been established earlier by the Celtic missionaries

The Celtic Paschal Controversy. 309

retained the methods bequeathed to them by the apostle of
Ireland. In England, therefore, from the beginning of the
seventh century, the two systems were brought into very
close proximity and inconvenient contrast.

We have seen that St. Colman left Northumbria for ever,
proudly conscious that he had endeavoured to sustain a cause
that was dear to his countrymen. On his return to Ireland,
however, he was roused from his cherished illusion to a
consciousness of the fact that the question had been long
before discussed there, and that the large majority of his
countrymen had adopted the new Easter discipline.

It was in the year 630 that a letter was addressed to the
Irish Church by Pope Honorius the First, recommending the
adoption of the new system but recently adopted at Rome.
A synod was soon after convened at Old Loughlin, at which
the Papal Rescript was considered. As might have been
expected, considering the importance of the occasion, the
attendance was large. The superiors of the most important
religious houses in the southern division of Ireland were
represented there. St. Lessarian presided ; and the Roman
system could have had few more influential advocates at the
time than the Venerable Abbot of Old Loughlin.

The provisions of the Rescript, though vigorously opposed
by St. Fintan Monu, were almost unanimously adopted.
Deputies were immediately despatched to Rome to secure
for the deliberations of the synod the sanction of the Holy
Father. Such a course was in conformity with the customs
of the Irish Church, and with the provisions of its most
ancient and important canons. It is thought by some, and
with a great show of probability, that Lessarian was one of
the deputation. He received Holy Orders at Rome from the
hands of Pope Gregory the Great, and was consecrated
bishop by the reigning Pontiff, Honorius. It is even stated
that he had been sent to Ireland as the Pope's Legate.

Having reached Rome towards Easter, the Irish deputation
had ample opportunities of seeing the practices prevailing
there, and of noticing the conformity to the Roman custom
practised by the representatives of all other countries who
happened to be then in Rome. After a considerable stay, they

310 TJie Celtic Paschal Controversy.

returned to Ireland to testify to their fellow-countrymen that
the decision of the Synod of Old Loughlin was in confor-
mity with the wishes of the Sovereign Pontiff, with the
existing practice in Rome, and with the almost universal
practice throughout the Church. The new Paschal system
was thenceforth followed throughout Ireland, except in the
northern province and in some parts of the Province of
Conn aught.

The north was the stronghold of the Columbian monas-
teries, and Ion a exercised over them the authority and
influence of a parent-house. Through veneration for their
holy founder those monasteries continued to uphold the
discipline which he had taught them. They therefore
objected to the reform, and the north continued to be
the stronghold of the old Irish Paschal usages. Active
influences were brought to bear upon them — not without
some success. The Monastery of Burrow, though Columban,
was induced by the learned and holy Cummian to
accept the new system. This result of his zeal is said to
have roused the anger of Segienus, Abbot of lona, who
seems to have considered the question more in the angry
and factious spirit with which it was regarded in England
than in the calm and pacific spirit in which it was discussed
in Ireland. It is certain that he addressed to St. Cummian a
letter of very strong remonstrance. It was this letter which
drew from Cummian his celebrated Paschal Epistle, which he
addressed to Segienus and others.

This justly celebrated epistle is one of the most remarkable
productions of the age. The erudition displayed by the
writer is marvellous in its extent and variety. It forms a
complete refutation of his adversary ; and it is also regarded
as an exhaustive treatise on the various questions of Scrip-
ture, astronomical computations, history arid patristic
teachings, involved in the various phases of the question
from its origin. For twelve months continuously he had
devoted himself to the study of this great subject. He made
himself familiar with the systems which in the past had
regulated the celebration of Easter amongst the Jews, the
Greeks, the Latins and the Egyptians. He was able to

The Celtic Paschal Controversy.

quote the opinions held on the subject by Origen and Cyprian,
Jerome and Augustine, by Cyril of Alexandria and Gregory
the Great. And with a humility worthy of his great abilities,
he states that he had also consulted the successors of St. Ailbe.
After a learned exposition of the growth and development
of the controversy, he pointed to the existing practices of the
Church of Rome, and in nearly all other countries, to show
with unanswerable cogency the unfitness of maintaining in
Ireland a practice at variance with the practice of the Uni-
versal Church. But the force of his unanswerable arguments
was lost en Segienus and his monks of lona, and, for a time,
on a large number of the Columban monasteries.

On the other hand, a considerable number of the prelates
and clergy of Ulster were opposed to this obstinate adhesion
to an obsolete practice, which was already exposing their
country to serious misrepresentation. There can be no
doubt that Ireland was injuriously affected, even in Rome,
by those misrepresentations.

While this painful diversity of opinion prevailed in the
North, it was deemed advisable by Thomian, Archbishop of
Armagh, and other distinguished prelates and ecclesiastics
of Ulster, to consult the Holy See once more1 on the
subject. From the text of the reply, it seems clear that the
primate's letter had the signatures of four of his suffragans,
with the signatures of a large number of doctors and abbots.
This important letter reached Rome when the death of the
reigning Pontiff, Pope Severinus, was imminent. The Pope's
death, which occurred soon after, threw the responsibility of
a reply, to a certain extent, on the cardinals or clergy of
Rome, through whom the official business of the Holy See
was transacted, pending the election of a successor to the
late Pontiff. Towards the close of the year 640, and prior
to the consecration of Pope John IV., the reply from the
Roman clergy was forwarded to the primate and the others
who had addressed the Holy See.

As found in Bede,3 it is issued in the name of Hilarius,
the Archpriest, " Servans locum Sedis Apostolicae ;" of

A,D. 640, 2 19 c>} lib§ IJt

312 The Celtic Paschal Controversy.

John, a Deacon and Pope elect ; of John, the Primicerius,
" at servans locum Sedis Apostolicae :" of John, a Servant of
God and Counsellor of the same Apostolic See. Referring
to the death of Pope Severinus as the cause of the delay
to the reply to the Irish letter, they at once distinctly charge
gome persons of the Ulster province, whom they do not
name,1 with an effort to renew the old quarto deciman
heresy.

This charge is refuted by Lanigan. It is declared by
Montelambert to be "most unjust." "The imputation of
complicity," he writes, " in this heresy, made against the
Celtic Church by the chiefs of the Roman clergy in a Bull
addressed in 640, during the vacancy of the Holy See, to the
bishops and abbots of the North of Ireland, was most
unjust." The opinion of Cardinal Morari is practically the
game. He writes : " The Roman clergy indeed replied : but
as their sentence was directed against the Quarto-Decimans,
the defenders of the old Irish rite deemed themselves free
from all censure." Nor should it be forgotten that the letter
is from the Roman clergy — not from the Pope. No such
imputation was ever cast on Ireland by the Supreme Pontiff-
At no stage of the controversy did the Popes deem it neces-
sary to do more than advise their children of the Irish
Church on the subject.

But though the diversity of practice continued for some
time longer in Ireland, notwithstanding the decrees of the
Synod of Old Loughlin, the teaching of Lessarian, the learning
of St. Cummian, and the efforts of the " holy " Thomian and
his associates to heal such wounds on discipline and charity
as the controversy occasioned, it was only in some Columban
monasteries. But the question seemed to have been no longer
regarded there as a source of danger or of public interest.

As we have seen, it was not so in England. In that
country the hostility which had manifested itself between
the Celtic and Saxon Churches on the Paschal controversy,
in the words of Montelambert " was but the outward
aspect of the dissensions " of hostile races ; or, as the
same eminent writer still more clearly puts it:2 "It was

" Quosdam Provinciae vestrae." 2 Monies of the West, vol. IY.

1 he Recitation of the Divine Office. 313

above all a struggle of race and influence" — a struggle inten-
sified by the passionate ardour of such men as Colman, and
the " ambitious fervour " of such men as Wilfrid. The
antipathy usual between the conquerors and the subject-race,
which manifested itself at Bangor, despite the charitable
remonstrances of St. Augustine, were radically identical with
the chief causes which caused Cuthbert and his monks to
abandon Ripon, and Colman with his companions to leave
Lindisfarne for ever.

J. A. FAHEY.

THE RECITATION OF THE DIVINE OFFICE.— II.

OUTSIDE of hypotheses that are purely speculative, there
can be no difficulty about the Intention that suffices for
the discharge of this obligation. As Lehmkuhl puts it, " de
hac intentione nemo sanae mentis dubitare potest, si assumit
consueto modo Breviarium, et recitare incipit, modo ne expresse
ad aliumfinem lectionem assumat." A man is therefore bound
to conclude that the presence of sufficient intention is
involved in the act of his having taken up the Breviary
rather than some book of lighter reading, unless he have a
positive consciousness that he deliberately selected the
Breviary for some specific object to which he had actual
advertence then and there, and which of its nature excluded
the pursuit of prayer. Lehmkuhl has made judicious choice
of incipit and assumit; for, should a current of foreign
thought supervene — such as a critical examination of the
latinity, or a curiosity to become familiar with the secular
and social life of the saint whose biography he is reading —
such adventitious thought does not neutralise the original
intention, unless when the object of somehow " orandi Deum"
is formally and of deliberate purpose dismissed. Theologians
therefore affirm the sufficiency of virtual intention — that is, of
one that once had actual existence ; that has never been
wilfully recalled or superseded; and that survives even

314 I he Recitation of the Divine Office.

" in applicatione potentiamm externarum, uti volunt Scotus,
Suarez, Vasquez et multi alii." As to the form of the original
intention, " dici potest," says La Croix (n. 1326), " sufficere
intentionem implicitam, seu indirectam, uti si intenderem
[1] coiere Deum, [2] vacare Deo, [3], satisfacere officio, [4]

explere obligationem, [5] legere ne peccem, etc Hinc

satisfacit, qui recitat cum confusa apprehensione, et propo-
sito faciendi opus consuetum." Indeed, so self-asserting and
self-sufficing is this element of intention that for a man with
the Breviary in his hand, and some portion of his obligation
not yet discharged, it would be a positive difficulty to vitiate
the intention that manifests itself in his act. The impalpa-
bility and shadowy dimensions of the intention which abun-
dantly suffices are revealed in the following decision given
by La Croix in a somewhat cognate case : " Si quis vespere
recitat Matutinum et Laudes diei sequentis, quamvis tune de
die crastina nihil cogitet, satisfacit pro ea, quia orat intra
tempus quo pro die sequent! orari permittit Ecclesia, quae
non requisivit intentionem satisfaciendi, sed tantum ponendi
opus debitum [n. 1329].

Far otherwise, however, are theologians accustomed to
deal with the question of Attention, which, with hardly an
exception, they elaborate at great length in illustration of
its manifold phases and possible forms. It would be beside
the purpose of this paper to follow them through all the
distinctions they employ ; but the reader will pardon me for
recalling a few.

Premising that attention is synonymous with Advertence,
it is primarily divided into internal and external, the former
indicating a more or less energetic application of the mind
(1) to the words which we recite, or (2) to the sense of those
words, or (3) to God or some less exalted sacred object ;
while external attention consists solely and entirely in the
abstaining from every outward occupation that would be
incompatible with serious spiritual thoughtfulness. When
there is nothing beyond external attention pure and simple,
the mind, if occupied at all, is occupied in avoiding such
outward pursuits as necessarily fix and absorb one's thoughts.
It concerns itself with nothing higher, either as a motive or

The Recitation of the Divine Office. 315

as an object of reflection ; for, if it did, internal attention to
that higher idea would eo ipso co-exist with it.

Having expounded the distinguishing features of those
two distinct species of attention, theologians inquire whether
the articulate recitation of the words of the Divine Office is
possible while, all the time, there is an actual quiescence of
the mental faculties, or an undivided application of the mind
to objects in no way connected with that recitation. Many
of them reply that the " vocalis pronunciatio " of necessity
involves the action of the intellect and of the will, although
wo may not be able to perceive the agency of those faculties
in " imperating" that particular act. If, they say, the mind
be wholly slumbering or wholly absorbed in extraneous con-
cerns, the tongue cannot be faithful in uninterruptedly
vocalising all the syllables of a psalm (especially an unfami-
liar psalm), as, ex hypothcsi, it does. Faintly, perhaps, but
effectively, intelligence must guide the tongue, or the result
should be a confused jumble of sounds instead of a rational
ordering of words. There can hardly be a doubt that the
mind may devote its attention, in unequal measure, to more
than one object at the same time. This truth is manifest to
anyone who has seen people attending to and discoursing
with others, while quite simultaneoiisly they are pursuing
unerringly, through all its mazes, some intricate and elabo-
rate piece of operatic music. The will and intellect direct
the tongue in its intelligent utterances, while they lead the
fingers with marvellous inerrancy over the piano-board.
Hence those writers tell us that it is impossible to disso-
ciate internal attention — although it be so tiny and slender
that we cannot grasp it — from an articulate reading of the
Office. They, therefore, make no difficulty in inferring that,
posita et non revocata debita intentions, the pronunciation of
the words with mere external attention is a " cultus Dei,"
and a true prayer.

Whatever may be said of the illustration drawn from the
perfomrance of the pianist, the argument does not seem to
be conclusive. It may happen, and sometimes does, that a
man while sleeping will repeat with enviable articulation all
the psalms and prayers of an hour ; yet any one can see the

316 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

inconvenience of recognising in this automatic pronunciation
of the words the agency of a responsible will, for by such an
admission we should be obliged to invest with direct respon-
sibility the reveries of every symmetrical dream.

Theorising apart, the question may be put in less equivocal
form : " An recitans cum distraction e voluntaria satisfaciat
praecepto?" This is by no means another way of enquiring
"an et quantum peccet qui sic recitat," for of the truth
" quod peccat " there can be no doubt in view of the teaching
of St. Thomas (to mention none of many a prior e arguments),
that " a person cannot be excused from sin if he voluntarily
allows his mind to wander even during a prayer which is not
of obligation." In reply to the question " an satisfaciat
praecepto " we have Suarez, Vasquez, " et alii innumeri "
(De Lugo) declaring that "peccaret mortaliter qui voluntarie
internam mentis evagationem et distractionem per partem
Officii notabilem haberet." The " fundamentum potissimum "
over which Suarez and the " unnumbered " theologians who
agree with him construct their doctine, is that " attentio est
de substantia orationis " : Where, therefore, there is " per
notabilem partem Officii" deliberate inattention, there is eo
ipso a proportionately notable and grave hiatus in the
substantia operis, or, in other words, such an absence of valid
recitation as amounts to a materia gravis. This reasoning is
unimpeachable if it be true that " attentio interna est de
substantia operis," and on this point pivots the whole question
in controversy.

For it must be confessed that the opposite opinion—
which is satisfied with " attentio externa " — is also supported
by many eminent theologians — by so many indeed that,
tested by the standard of extrinsic authority, the two theories
seem to be invested with an almost equal measure of proba-
bility. De Lugo roundly and vigorously protests that the
" potissimum fundamentum," on the alleged truth of which
Suarez and the " innumeri alii " build up their teaching,
" non solurn gratis, sed falso assumi ;" and in sustainment of
his objection he manifests — to say the very least of it —
exquisite dialectic skill. He argues (1) that if internal
attention were really of the substance of prayer, the Sacra-

The Recitation of the Divine Office. 317

ment of Extreme Unction would be invalidly administered
" quoties sacerdos ministrans sponte aliquam mentis evaga-
tionem admitteret," inasmuch as the form of that Sacrament,
being deprecatory, is a prayer, and " deleta substantia, deletur
forma." Suarez and his " countless " associates in the
opposite view cannot, however, admit this " absque maximo
absurdo ; esset enim contra doctrinam generalem omnibus
Sacramentis, ad quorum valorem solum exigitur prolatio
formae supra debitam materiam a ministro habente potestatem
cum intention e faciendi quod facit Ecclesia ; quae ornnia
tune darentur " (De Euch. ; D. xxii., S. ii., n. 30). He argues
(2) *• Orare est loqui cum illo quern oramus, representando
ei nostra desideria/' This, he maintains, is an adequate
description of the " substantia orationis," and may be
accomplished even in the midst of engrossing voluntary
distractions, by reciting from memory or reading from a book
or paper those prayers and petitions for the obtaining of
which we have resolved to appeal to God. Something of
the kind happens when suppliants are admitted to an
audience of their king ; they read at the foot of the throne
the words of their memorial, while, all the time, their
thoughts keep wandering among the splendours of the
palace, or are perhaps paralysed in the unaccustomed
presence of royalty. Lehmkuhl seems to adopt this argu-
ment, and endeavours to support it by adding: "quod in
Officio Divino eo magis valet, quia Ecclesiae ministri non suo
solum nomine, sed maxime nomine Ecclesiae preces ad Deum
dirigunt : hinc fit ut irreverentia ministri deputantem non
reddat Deo ingratam." (3) De Lugo and the other Extern-
alists also argue that if internal attention were essential to
prayer, the man who "recites" with a distraction that is
altogether yet faultlessly involuntary, could not be said to
discharge his obligation ; for such recitation, not possessing
the esse orationis, namely, internal attention, cannot be truth-
fully called a prayer. " Destructa, licet inculpabiliter, rei
essentia, res ipsa destructa manet." Nor, they say, is there any
force in the reply that such a man prays with virtual
attention ; for virtual attention (at least in the case made)
is not distinguishable from the initiatory intention of praying,

318 The Recitation of the Divine Office.

the forming of which is in every instance presupposed, and
the continued existence of which is perfectly compatible
with a subsequent voluntary concentration of the mind on
alien objects.

Whichever doctrine is true — and both opinions are ad-
mittedly probable — the following principles are established
in the course of the controversy : —

(1.) "Voluntaria distractio est semper peccatum et
intrinsice m alum."

(2.) According to De Lugo, etc., the voluntary distrac-
tion always involves, but cannot exceed, the guilt of venial
sin; although, of course, it easily engenders a long and
lamentable chain of venial faults.

(3.) Suarez and the other advocates of the more rigid
view, detect in voluntary distraction " per notabilem Officii
partem " the guilt of mortal sin — worse (as implying positive
guiltiness) than the deliberate omission of that pars
notabilis.

(4.) Most of those writers, however, practically modify
their teaching by requiring that the " voluntarie distractus "
should not alone advert to the fact that his thoughts are
engaged about secular matters, but also, and in addition,
that he should advert to the concrete fact that this aberration
occurs at a time when his attention should be fixed on the
discharge of his sacred duty. " Talis distractio, licet sit
voluntaria, prout est inhaesio in aliis rebus, tarn en prout
distractio ab Horis non est voluntaria, nisi advertat. se per ill as
deficere a requisita attentione."

(5.) A further manifest modification is indicated by La
Croix in the distinction which he draws between various
parts of the Office : " Ubi in Horis continentur historiae,
increpationes, adhortationes, bona proposita, etc., sufficit ilia
dicere tantum materialiter et recitative. E contra, hymni,
psalmi, antiphonae et preces recitandae sunt significative, si
adsit intentio orandi, gratias agendi, laudandi Deum, et
atteudatur ad externam prolationem."

(6.) If we inquire which of those largely conflicting
doctrines receives in modern times the more general accept-
ance throughout the Church, we shall have it with sufficient

The Recitation of the Divine Office. 319

certainty by ascertaining the teaching propounded in works
so universally accepted as those of Gury and of Lehmkuhl.
The former, having duly weighed the intrinsic arguments for
each opinion, concludes : " Ergo satis est, si habeatur attentio
materialis; sufficit enim [ad substantiam praecepti adimp-
lendam] attentio ad verba cum intention e generali colendi
Deum [vel evitandi peccatum]. Imo neque requiritur attentio
ad singula verba, sed sufficit attentio moralis et generalis,
qua quis curet omnia dicere cum intentiorie orandi."
Lehmkuhl writes in practically the same strain : " Quare ad
substantiam Divini Officii dicamus satis probabiliter sufficere
cum intentione orandi observasse attentionem ' externam,'
seu sub gravi prohiberi quominus inter Divini Officii reci-
tationem eae actiones fiant quae necessario internam
attentionem graviter impediant."

Finally, before concluding this paper, it may be interesting
to redeem a promise made in its predecessor with reference
to the Office which a peregrinus (for example, a priest on
vacation) may read. The teaching of the " complures
theologi," recommended by La Croix, is sufficiently plain
and among the reasons which, they assure us, justify the
" mutatio Officii " is <: si alibi existas ubi sit Officiurn diver sum
a tuo, quamvis non diu, sed peregrinando ibi existas." In
strict interpretation the principle involved in this teaching
would perhaps justify the " mutatio Officii " even during a
day's sojourn in a place where the Calendar is different from
our own ; and there are theologians who extend the privi-
lege so far. Lehmkuhl gives a Decision of the Sacred
Congregation of Rites (12 Nov., 1831), to the following
effect : — " Beneficiati tenentur semper ad Officium propriae
Ecclesiae; simplices vero sacerdotes" — that is those, even
parish priests, who do not enjoy a benefice to which the
obligation of reciting and applying the hours is attached —
'* conformari possunt Officio loci ubi morantur; vagis consultius
est ut dioecefiis propriae calendario utantur, quia secus
magna confusio oriretur." There seems to be nothing,
therefore, to prevent an Irish priest — sojourning at Harro-
gate— from reading the Office prescribed for the diocese of
Leeds. But what if it be notabiliter brevius 1 He may avail

320 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

himself of the privilege of reciting the shorter Office, just as
he would without scruple enjoy that other privilege of taking
a meat dinner permitted in the place of his sojourn,, on a day
that is observed as one of fasting and abstinence at home.

0. J. M.

THE DIOCESE OF DUBLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

V.

THE OLD CHAPELS OF DUBLIN. — (CONTINUED).

ST. MICHAEL'S— Next in importance to the Cathedral is
St. Michael's. It began as a domestic chapel in the
palace of the bishop. " A primaeva fundatione cappella
extitit infra palatium St. Laurentii." Such is the record in
Repertorium Viride (1532). It was subsequently annexed, as
a dependant chapel, to the Cathedral, and finally in the time
of Archbishop (Richard) Talbot, A.D. 1417, it was advanced to
the dignity of a parochial church, but remained incorporated
to the Cathedral, and was administered by a Vicar appointed
by the Prior and Convent. The territory assigned to
it as a parish in all probability had previously formed
part of the Cathedral parish, as the right of sepulture was
reserved, in the Charter of Foundation, to the Cathedral as
the Ecclesia Matrix. In 1541, Henry VIII. by Charter,
assigned this church, together with those of St. Michan and
St. John, to the three principal Vicars-Choral of Christ
Church, and Archbishop Brown constituted them Prebends.
John Curragh, a member of the transformed community,
was the first Vicar-Choral, (Dean's Vicar), and was inducted
into the Rectory of St. Michael as his Prebend. His position
in the New Chapter is best ascertained from the words of
the Charter. "That John Curragh, Priest, first of the
Vicars-Choral, be Sub-Dean and have a place in the Chapter,
and a voice in the election of Archbishop and Dean, and

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 321

that the Church of St. Michael, Dublin, now erected into a
Prebend al Church, with its tithes, be assigned to him,
together with £4 from the above sum (Vicars-Choral Fund)
for a stipend." John Curragh or Corragh, as we learn from
the Obit Book (p. 20), died in 1546, and was succeeded as it
would appear by Christopher Moore, who, as Dean's Vicar
signed the order promulgated by Archbishop Curwen for
regulating the Masses and Divine Office. This order though
not dated, must have been subsequent to 1556, when John Moss,
the Treasurer, had already died, as his successor E. Kerdiff
appears in it. Moore was made Precentor in 1560, a dignity
which he appears to have retained but a few months, but with
his departure from St. Michael's, Catholic worship in this
Parish Church was brought to an end. The parish was small,
covering but five acres and two roods.1 In the Report of 1630
it is stated that " most part of the parishioners are Recusants."
In 1766 it numbered 897 Protestants to 1,902 Catholics. In
1798, according to Whitelaw's tables, the total population was
2,599 ; in 1871, the last census taken before the Disestablish-
ment, it counted 1,042 Catholics to 107 of all other denomina-
tions, and in 1881, these totals had dwindled to 971 Catholics
and 104 of all other creeds. Of the old Church of
St. Michael the Report of 1630 says it was in " good
repair and furnished with ornaments befitting." Towards
the close of the seventeenth century, the church had to
be extensively repaired and a new steeple or tower
was then built. But towards the end of the last century the
Church had again fallen into such a state of disrepair that the
marriages, baptisms, and other ceremonies, had to be performed
in the Lady Chapel of Christ Church. In 1815 it was rebuilt,
but on a different plan, the old seventeenth century tower
remaining unaltered ; and finally, at the restoration of Christ
Church, due to the munificence of Mr. Henry Roe, the
building of 1815 was demolished, to make way for the

1 The western boundary of St. Michael's Parish started from
Mercbant's-quay through Skipper and Schoolhouse Lanes to High-street.
The eastern boundary was Rosemary-lane. On reaching Cook-street it
deflected eastwards to Winetavern-street, and by its west side went up
also to High-street, of which it included both sides, between those two
p'oints.

VOL. X. X

322 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

existing Protestant Synod House, the old tower being
incorporated in the new building. Thus the old Church of
St. Michael dating from the llth century no longer exists.

ST. OLAVE'S.— This Parish Church stood at the lower end
of Fishamble-street, then known by the name of St. Olave's
or, corruptly, St. Tullock's-lane. It was dedicated to St. Olaf,
or Olave, (presumably by the Danes of Dublin) King and
National Saint of Norway, portion of whose relics were
preserved in the Cathedral close by. According to
Stanihurst in his Description of Ireland, '"the paroch (parish)
was meared from the Crane castell, to the fish-shambles,
called the Cock Hill, with Preston his Innes, and the
lane thereto adjoining," With the aid of Mr. Gilbert we
can define these points. The " Crane " was at the foot
of Winetavern-street, and was used for a considerable
period as the Dublin Custom House: the "Cock Hill"
ran across the top of Winetavern-street : " Preston his
Innes," was over against Isod's Tower [Essex-gate] and
extended nearly to the Liffey, the " lane thereto adjoining "
being the present Upper Exchange-street. This was
the extent of St. Olave's Parish. It belonged to the
Monastery of St. Augustin, in Bristol, and anciently paid ten
marks proxies, " sed liodie" Archbishop Allen adds 4< via;
valet ad sustentationem unius cappellani" In the taxation of
1294 it was returned as not being able to support the
charges.

With the suppression of St. Augustin's Monastery in
Bristol, the Church or Chapel of St. Olave was also
suppressed and sequestrated to the Crown, the parish
being united to that of St. John. In 1587 the church
was converted to profane uses, arid in 1612 granted
with " the site and churchyard " to Christopher Bysse, Esq.
Mr. Gilbert in his valuable History of Dublin, from which
I am quoting freely, tells us that the Parish of St. Olave
was " frequently referred to in legal documents of the
seventeenth century ; and so late as 1702 the Churchwardens
of St. John's leased to Alice Dermot, at eight pounds per
annum, "an ancient house, called the Priest's Chamber of
St. Olave's, alias St. Toolog's, situate in Fishamble-street,
the lessee undertaking to erect a new house on the site,"

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 323

ST. JOHN'S. — "Ecclesia St. Joannis de Bowe or Both-street
[ancient name for upper part of Fishamble-street] imprimis
dicebatur Baptistae, mine autem Evangelistae, et est haec
tertia Ecclesia incorporata Priori Smae Trinitatis a conquestu."
(Archbishop Allen's Repert. Vir.) From the conquest, there-
fore, this Church and Parish of St. John belonged to the
Prior and Convent of the Cathedral. In the year 1500 the
church was re-built from the foundation by Arnald Usher,
and in 1541 it was appropriated to one of the Vicars Choral
of Christ Church, as in the case of St. Michael's. The first
Prebendary under the new arrangement was Christopher
Rathe, a member of the ex-religious community. It was
decreed " that the Chancellor should have the Yicar-Choral
to correct the Latin of the Choir Books ; that Christopher
Rathe be appointed to such office as Minor Canon, and that
the Church of St. John the Evangelist be assigned to him,
together with a stipend of 4 marks Irish from the sum
aforesaid.." In Curwen's Order, Rathe appears as Precentor
(an office which he resigned in 15 BO), and was succeeded
in the Prebend of St. John's by Edward Elles (Ellis) with
whom ends the record of Catholicity in St. John's.
The parish, very small originally, became somewhat
more extensive than that of St. Michael's when St.
Olave's Parish was absorbed into it. With Rosemary-
lane as its western boundary, the river on the north,
and Essex-bridge street as its eastern boundary, it
included most of Winetavern-street, all Fishamble-
street, Copper-alley, Upper Exchange-street, and met its
eastern boundary, Essex-bridge street, at the exit of
Lower Exchange-street. In 1294 it is returned as unable
to support the charges. " The Church " we are told
in 1630, "is in good reparacion and decencie, most of
the parishioners are Protestants, and duly frequent their
parish Church, yet there are great store of Papists there."
In the return of 1766 we have 1965 Protestants given
to 2331 Papists, and in 1798 the total population strangely
enough remained the same. In 1871, the religious census
gives 2278 Catholics to 437 of other creeds, and in 1881,
2139 Catholics to 116 of all other creeds. In 1680 the Church

324 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

was " resolved by the parish to be in great decay." It was
re-built in 1682, and again falling to decay about the middle
of the last century, and the parishioners being unable to
defray the expense of re-building it, the Irish Parliament
granted a sum of one thousand pounds, and subsequently a
second thousand for the edifice that subsisted in Fishamble-
street up to a few years ago, when it was finally demolished,
after having been closed up as useless for many years previous.
ST. MARY DEL DAM. "A considerable portion of the
southern side of the acclivity at present known as * Cork Hill,'
was anciently occupied by a church dedicated to the Virgin
Mary, the precise date of the erection of which has not been
recorded; but it most probably was founded before the
twelfth century." Thus writes Mr. Gilbert, in the first chapter
of vol. ii. of his History of Dublin. In a deed executed by
St. Laurence O'Toole in 1179, the name of Godmund, Priest
of St. Mary's, is found subscribed as a witness. By the
Charter of Archbishop Henri de Loundres, this church, which
from the contiguous mill-dam acquired the name of " St.
Marie del Dam," (a name fairly well preserved to us in the
designation of the street leading from Cork Hill " Dam-street,"
or " Dame-street") was assigned to Ralph de Bristol, first
Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral as portion of the prebend
or corps of his dignity. This was the smallest parish in the
city, comprising only the occupants of the Castle, " cum
paucis aliis" as the Eepertorium Viride informs us. In
1294 it was unable to support the charges. It was
possessed, however, of one carucate of land called Tackery,
not far from Carrickmines, and a house occupied by a gold-
smith on the eastern side of the city pillory. Archbishop
Brown, in Henry YIII's reign, united the parish to St.
Werburgh's, and in 1589 the then Treasurer of St. Patrick's
demised to Sir George Carew on lease, the Church and
Churchyard of St. Mary's. Shortly after it came into the
possession of Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork, who erected
upon its site the mansion known, as " Cork House," whence
the adjacent locality was denominated " Cork Hill." In 1706
a large portion of this house was transformed into the cele-
brated "Lucas's Coffee House," and in 1768, old Cork House

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 325

with the contiguous buildings, which had long obstructed
the thoroughfare, were finally demolished under the Act for
making wide and convenient passages to the Castle.
The sum paid to purchase then existing interests amounted
to £8,329 3s. 4cZ., of which £3,251 10s. Qd. was allocated
to the Treasurer of St. Patrick's by reason of his claim to
the site of the Church and Churchyard of St. Mary as portion
of his prebend. Not too bad a return from such a small pre-
bend. The diadem, used at the coronation of the impostor
Lambert Simnel, was taken, we are told, from a statue of
Our Lady venerated in this church, and in the following
year (1488) Sir Eichard Edgecombe, the Commissioner of
Henry VIL, held a conference in it to receive into grace the
Prior of Kilmainham and the Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, both of whom had supported Simnel. The city gate
immediately adjoining was, from its vicinity to the church,
called " Dame's Gate," and up to the time of the Reforma-
tion a statue of Our Lady was located in a niche over the
gate entrance, the pedestal and steps of which were still
visible in the lifetime of Harris, before the removal of the
gate at the close of the seventeenth century. Now that
" Cork House" is gone, there seems no reason why the name
" Cork-hill " should remain ; and our City Fathers, whose
place of meeting (the City Hall) occupies the very site of St.
Mary's Church or Churchyard, might do worse than revive
and perpetuate the memory of the devotion of our ancestors
to our Blessed Lady by changing the name to " St.
Mary's-hill."

ST. WERBURGH'S. — This was a church erected shortly
after the Anglo-Norman settlement, and dedicated to St.
Werburgh, patroness of Chester, from which town many of
the new colonists had come to re-people the city decimated
by a plague. Archbishop Allen tells us that it belongs
to the Dignity of the Chancellor of St. Patrick's, although
he adds, " at its first foundation this church is not
mentioned, but the Church of St. Martin (de qua infra)
therefore, after the event, it is named and confounded with
the previous as if they were one." This leads me to speak of
St. Martin's Church. It is a well-known fact in Irish his-

326 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

tory that our forefathers cultivated a great devotion to St.
Martin of Tours, the uncle of St. Patrick, and in many places
are to be found churches to St. Martin and St. Patrick almost
side by side. In the north of England, where some of
St. Patrick's biographers would fix his birth-place, two
contiguous villages preserve this tradition in their names —
Patterdale and Matterdale, corrupted, as many think, from
Patrick's dale and Martin's dale. No wonder then, that our
Fathers in the Faith, when they raised a church to St. Patrick
on the island made by the divergent streams of the
Poddle river, also raised one to his uncle, St. Martin, in the
immediate vicinity. Archbishop Allen describes the Church
of St. Martin, in 1532, as being " juxta murum et molendinum
de Pole in parte amtrali"> — that is, near the city wall and the
Pole Mill on the southern side; in other words, outside the
city wall beside the mill at the Pole Gate, or, as it was after-
wards called, St. Werburgh's Gate, just where Werburgh-
street ends and Bride-street commences. <c Hodie," he adds
(1532), " hujus Ecclesiae vix remanent vestigia. Sed modo
consolidate* cam dicta altera [St. Werburgh's] vicina, tan-
quam una de quatuor capellis unitis Dignitati Cancellariae
S*1 Patritii." One of the great miracles proved in the Acts
of the canonisation of St. Laurence O'Toole was his raising
to life Galluiiedius, the priest of St. Martin's Church. In a
Christ Church deed of 1272, the parish of St. Martin is
spoken of and the lane leading to St. Martin's Church. But, as
-we see, in 1532 scarce a vestige of it remained, and it was
only accounted as a chapel of St. Werburgh's. Of this, as
above recited, the Chancellor of St. Patrick's was rector.
In 1311 St. Werburgh's was accidentally burned down,
together with a good portion of the city; and in 1479, as given
by Gilbert, we have a grant of a messuage, called Coryngham's
Inns, to furnish a priest to chant in the Chapel of St. Martin,
in St. Werburgh's Church, for all Christian souls. Previous
to the absorption of the Parish of St. Mary del Dam,
St. Werburgh's Parish must have been very small — in fact,
little more than W erburgh-street, a portion of Skinner 's-row,
(Christ Church-place), and all Castle-street, with the lanes
and alleys intersecting. As a tangible ground for this

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 327

conjecture, a valuation made in the thirty-eighth year
of Henry VIII. states that the tithes and oblations are
of no value beyond the alterages assigned to the curate
and repair of the chancel. But united to St. Mary's,
which included the Castle, afterwards made the resi-
dence of the Viceroy, it became an important parish. In
1630 the church is returned as " in good repair and decency"
with but twenty-eight Catholic householders in the parish.
In 1766 the return is 2.079 Protestants and 1,619 Catholics.
In the beginning of the last century the church was reported
" decayed, ruinous, and unsafe," and the parishioners being
mostly shopkeepers who paid great and heavy rents, the
king, in 1715, granted the plot of ground on which the
Council Chamber formerly stood, towards the rebuilding of
the church, which was accomplished three years later. But
the steeple, 160 feet high, being found in a dangerous con-
dition, was removed in 1810, and the church front left in the
truncated condition in which we see it at the present day.
In 1798 the total population was 3,629, and in 1871 it was iu
the proportion of 2,309 Catholics to 592 of all other denomi-
nations, including the residents of the Castle ; figures which
remained nearly unaltered in 1881.

ST. NICHOLAS WITHIN.— The Church of St. Nicholas was
one of the oldest in Dublin, being built by Donatus, first
Danish Bishop of Dublin in 1038, contemporaneously with
Christ Church, though it would appear then to have been
only a chapel on the north side of the Cathedral. By the
Charter of Archbishop Henry, as we have seen in the
preceding paper, it was appropriated to the Economy
Fund of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1479, by Patent
from King Edward IV., a chantry was founded of one or
two chaplains in honour of God and the Virgin Mary,
in the Church of St. Nicholas, near the High Cross of the
City, and was endowed with lands and tenements to the
yearly value of £13 6$. Sd. to celebrate divine service for
the benefit of the souls of the founders, and for those of all
the faithful departed. The Church of St. Nicholas was
rebuilt in 1707, but being neglected, and not wanted, was
unroofed in 1835. An unsightly remnant of it is still

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

permitted to exist on the left side of Nicholas-street The
church gone, the chantry remained, that is to say, the lands
and tenements to the value of £13 6s. S<i, which in process
of time increased in value to £325 at time of disestablishment.
The last possessor of this handsome sinecure was the notorious
Thresham Gregg. This would appear to have been the
only chantry in Ireland that escaped confiscation. An un-
successful attempt was made in 1840 to recover in law this
endowment and have it applied to its original purpose, for,
the appointment of the chaplain is elective, and by some
oversight in the Statute, the constituency is not exclusively
Protestant.1 In 1532 the revenues of St. Nicholas are
described as satis exiguae el exiles, and in 1630, " the most
of the Parishioners were Papists." In 1766 the religious
census makes them nearly equal, 526 Protestants and 527
Catholics, but in 1871 it numbered 1,499 Catholics, whilst
the Protestants had diminished to 172. In 1881, this
further diminished to 109, whilst the Catholic population fell
to 1,458.2

What destruction of churches and uprooting of land
marks dogged the footsteps of the Reformation in Dublin !
Of the seven churches that were raised up by the piety of
our ancestors and were in existence and maintained in 1540
within the area of the city we have just travelled over, only
two remain, Christ Church Cathedral,— thanks to the munifi-
cence of Mr. Roe, — and St. Werburgh's. All the rest are
gone. Even St. Werburgh's has ceased to be an independent
parish and forms a union with St. John's aud St. Bride's.

Passing out through Dame's gate, which lay across
Dame-street from about Crane-lane to the opposite side, we
at once entered the Parish of St. Andrew.

ST. ANDREW'S. — It was a suburban parish, with a few
houses close to the city wall and as far as George's-
street, but from that along the river side to Ringsend, a
void country district reserved for pasturage, save for the

1 It might be worth while if the legal efforts already made were
renewed and seconded, at least until it be clearly proved in law that the
Church Representative Body is the only lawful claimant to this annual £325.

2 See Irish Builder for January and February, 1889.

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 329

three religious communities within its boundaries of which
I shall come to speak presently. The church and church-
yard lay on the right side of the road as you quitted the
city, about midway between Palace-street and George's-
street, where Castle-market formerly stood, — a site now
occupied by Messrs. Callaghan's extensive premises.
It is supposed to have been founded in the time of
the Danes though no mention of it is made in any existing
record earlier than the time of John when Lord of Ireland.
In the Register of the Priory of All Hallows we find a grant
made to this Priory in 1241 described as being " in the Parish
of St. Andrew Thingmote."1 It would appear from the
number of churches that sprung up in the eastern suburbs
of Dublin that the citizens elected that district as a
favourite rural outlet so early as the thirteenth century.
Indeed, Richard Stanihurst says : " As an insearcher of anti-
quities may conjecture, the better part of the suburbs of
Dublin should seeme to have stretched that waie."2 So that
at that early period St. Andrew's may have been fairly popu-
lated ; " but," as Stanihurst continues, " the inhabitants
being dailie and hourelie molested and preided by their
prolling mounteine neighbours, were forced to suffer their
buildings fall in decaie, and embaied themselves within the
city walls," The parish church seems to have fared no
better than the parishioners, and in the reign of Edward VI.,
" John Ryan, a Dublin merchant, obtained a lease of the
Rectory and Chapel of St. Andrews, the cemetery of said
chapel, etc., for the yearly rent of £24 Os. 4d" This lease
is accounted for when we remember that this rectory
belonged first to the Precentor of St. Patrick's, and subse-
quently to the Precentor's vicar ; but the chapter being dis-
solved in 1547, and its property sequestrated to the Crown,
St. Andrew's dilapidated church was, in Edward the Sixth's
reign, in the market. The parish was united to that of
St. Werburgh. However, in 1631, the then Precentor of St.
Patrick's filed a bill in the Exchequer for the restoration of

1 Thingmote, a Scandinavian term signifying a mound or mount, used
by the Danes as a place of judicature.

2 Description of Ireland in Hollinshed, vol. vi., p. 25,

330 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

this church, and in the course of the inquiry it transpired
that the Parish Church of St. Andrew " is now, and for many
years last past hath beene used for a stable for horses for
the Lords Deputies and other Cheefe Governors of this king-
dom." The Lords Deputies were evicted as a result of this
process, and all that belonged to the church restored. In
1665 an Act of Parliament was obtained re-establishing the
Parish of St. Andrew, which had been united to St
Werburgh's by Archbishop Browne, and the church was
re-edified, not on the old site however, but where the pre-
sent Protestant Church of St. Andrew stands. It was built
in the form of an ellipse, and, needing to be rebuilt late in the
last century, the elliptical form was preserved, and might be
recognised, in our own days, as the " Round Church " which
only gave place to the modern structure a few years ago.

In Charles the Second's reign, the u prowling mountain
neighbours" having been finally disposed of, the citizens
plucked up courage to venture outside their walls, and so
rapidly did streets and houses grow up in this direction that
it was found necessary, in 1707, to divide St. Andrew's
(Protestant) Parish, and erect the more easterly portion of it
into the new Parish of St. Mark. In the Report of 1630 we
have no mention of the church or parish of St. Andrew, for the
reasons already given. In 1766 the Protestant population
largely predominated, numbering in both parishes (St. Andrew
and St. Mark) 1,247 Protestant/amz'^s to 936 Catholic families.
In 1871 the totals were 20,461 Catholics and 5,247 of all
other denominations, and in 1881, 19,294 and 3,913 res-
pectively. The old Parish of St. Andrew contained
within it three venerable religious communities, the first
place amongst which must be assigned to the Priory of
All Hallows, situated on the ground now occupied by
Trinity College.

ALL HA.LLOWS. — This priory was founded by the un-
fortunate Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster. Possibly
it was in penance for some of his many misdeeds. It was a
community of Canons Regular, under the same rule of Arroasia
as the Canons of the cathedral. It subsequently acquired very
large possessions and endowments, in addition to those

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 331

bestowed upon it by MacMurrough. For an account of
these, as well as for its general history, 1 must refer my
readers to the Register of the Priory of All Hallows, edited
for the Irish Archaeological Society by the Rev. Richard
Butler. On the 16th of November, 1538, Walter Hancock,
the last prior, together with Robert Dowling, John Grogan,
James Blake, and John Barrett, members of the community,
signed, in presence of many witnesses, the document of sur-
render of all their property to the invictissimo principi et
domino nostro Henrico octavo. This valuable property was
given by the king to the City of Dublin as a reward for its
loyalty during the rebellion of Silken Thomas, and the city,
later on in the century, re-transferred to Queen Elizabeth
the site and ambit of the church and priory, whereon she
founded the present University of Trinity College. The
death of Walter Hancock, the! last Prior is recorded in the
Obit Book of Christ Church as occurring in 1548.

THE AUGUSTINIANS. — " On that portion of the southern
bank of the River Lifiey, at present occupied by Cecilia-
street and the northern part of Crow-street, a monastery
was erected about the year 1259, by one of the family
of Talbot, for Friars of the Order of Augustinian
Hermits. Of this establishment no records are now known
to exist." (See Gilbert, vol. ii. p. 170.)1 In the thirty-
third year of Henry VIII. the site and precinct and all
hereditaments of said Monastery were granted to Walter
Tyrrell, merchant, for the sum of £114 13s. 4d In 1627
they are found in the possession of William Crow, who built
a mansion thereon, and gave his name to Crow- street. In
process of time part of the mansion became Crow-street
Theatre, and later on Crow-street Theatre gave way to the

iSome short time ago a paper was read in the Royal Irish Academy on
an ancient Seal, which was assumed to have been the Seal of this Com-
munity, but on examination it was found to be the Seal of the Provincial,
who resided in England, as England and Ireland at the time formed but
one Province. The Provincial at the time of the suppression was George
Brown, whom Henry made Archbishop of Dublin, and who designedly or
otherwise put the Seal in his pocket and brought it away with him
to Dublin. As tradition relates that Brown frequently officiated in
St. Nicholas' Church, he left the Seal after him, and it continued to be used
by the Churchwardens of St. Nicholas' as their Seal of office. It is now in
the Royal Irish Academy.

232 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

Cecilia-street School of. Medicine, which is now the Medical
School of the Catholic University of Ireland.

ST. MARY DEL HOGGES. — The third religions community
within the bounds of Saint Andrew's Parish was the
Nunnery of St. Mary del Hogges, also founded and
endowed by Dermot MacMurrough. Mr. Halliday, in his
Scandinavian Kingdom of Dublin, so well brought out by
Mr. J. P. Prendergast, maintains that the derivation of
Hogges is "Hogue," or " Hog," an Icelandic or Norwegian
term meaning a hillock or mount. That such a hillock was
in the immediate neighbourhood of Suffolk-street, even up
to the time of Charles I., he abundantly proves, and this
Convent being close to it was quoted as St. Mary del Hogges,
and the pasturage in front received the name of Hoggeii
Green (now College Green). By this means also it was dis-
tinguished from St. Mary del Dam, and from St. Mary del
Ostmanby (Mary's Abbey). I prefer this derivation to that
given by Dr. Lanigan. especially as a manuscript in the British
Museum states that it was reserved for " those who desired
to live single lives after the death or separation from their
husbands," adding as a memorable instance the case of Alice
O'Toole, "sister to the Archbishop of Dublin (St. Laurence),
who in one night's time left her husband and conveyed all
his wealth into this abbey, and it was not known for seven
years' time where she went, or how she conveyed away this
wealth," till Laurence O'Toole's death, when she appeared
at the funeral, and so was discovered. Alice O'Toole was
married to the profligate MacMurrough, who abandoned her
and married the daughter of O'Carroll. This convent owned
a considerable stretch of land from Hoggen Green on to and
beyond Merrion -square. It was of course suppressed, and the
property sequestrated by Henry VIII. Mary, or Margaret
Guidon, was the last Abbess. The roofing and building
materials were carried away by the King's Sub -Treasurer,
William Brabazon, (ancestor to the Earl of Meath), to be used
in repairing the Castle of Dublin, whilst in j 550 a petition was
forwarded by .Richard Fyant and others, to have the site and
precinct conveyed to them, wherein they might establish
some useful industry, a petition which was immediately
complied with.

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 333

ST. GEORGE'S — Somewhere about the middle of South
Great George's-street (originally called George's-lane) there
stood a parish church dedicated to St. George the Martyr.
It was incorporated with the Priory of All Hallows by Henri
de Loundres, Archbishop from 1213 to 1238. A guild of the
Corporation of Dublin was associated with this chapel, and
on the feast day the Mayor and city officials proceeded
thither with much solemnity to make their offerings. At the
suppression of All Hallows, it too was suppressed, and its
rectory granted by Henry VIII. to the City of Dublin.
" The chapel," wrote Stanihurst, "hath been of late razed,
and the stones thereof, by consent of the assemblie, turned
to a common oven ; converting the ancient monument of a
doutie, adventurous and holie knight, to the colerake sweep-
ing of a pufloafe baker."1 The Parish of St. George was
necessarily small, and about the time of the Restoration, was
added to St. Bride's, which by this accession has William-
street as its extreme eastern boundary.

ST. STEPHEN'S. — The Chapel and Parish of St. Stephen's
was contemporaneous with the founding of the Leper Hos-
pital, some time in the thirteenth century. Archbishop Henry
obtained a Bull from the Pope authorising the erection of an
hospital for lepers on the Steyne ;2 but unless this district
can be conceived as having extended to Stephen-street from
the river, the hospital on the Steyne seems never to have
been erected, and it may be presumed that this of St. Stephen
realised the original plan. It possessed a good deal of land in
its immediate vicinity (Mercer's Hospital is supposed to cover
the site), notably the " viridum Stl. Stephani" — St. Stephen's-
green — and in the County of Dublin about 60 acres in the
Townland of Ballinlower, which, from its belonging to
the Lepers' Hospital, was called Leperstown, now
Leopardstown.

This chapel and hospital were administered by a priest
who had the title of Gustos, or Warden of St. Stephen's.

1 Description of Ireland in Holinshed, vol. vi., p. 27.

2 The Steyne was the district in front and on the north side of Trinity
College to the river.

334 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

The patronage of the Wardenship was vested in the Dublin
Corporation. In depositions taken on the 3rd of June, 1508,
by the Archdeacon of Glendalough, the name of John
English, one of the parties to the suit, is given as Canon of
St. Patrick's and " Custos of the Lepers of St. Stephen,
near Dublin." He was succeeded by John Triguram,
Prebendary of Rathmichael, and Triguram by Thomas Talbot
in 1538 " Parson of St. Steven's bysides Dublin." The
curacy or wardenship of St. Stephen's continued in Protestant
hands up to Dr. Nathaniel . Foy in 1678, when by Act of
Privy Council he got the three parishes of St. Bride,
St. Michael le Pole and St. Stephen united, and the two
latter churches were ordered to be " for ever hereafter,
enclosed up and preserved from all common and profane
uses." Much of its property lapsed to the Corporation who
in return for certain rights and privileges, endowed with
portion of it, the King's or Blue Coat Hospital. But it might
be worth while enquiring what has become of the " rights
and privileges." They are detailed in Whitelaw's History of
Dublin. The Parish of St. Stephen extended from Wicklow-
street to Cuffe-street north and south, and eastward included
St. Stephen's-green and portions beyond it.

St. PETER'S. — What with impropriations and appropria-
tions of churches and tithes to the two Chapters, and to the
several religious houses, this was the only parish and church
in or around the city, in the immediate gift of the Archbishop.
Allen in the Repertorium Viride, says of it : " Ecclesia de
St. PetrOy Rectoria est collatione Archiepiscopi, licet autem est
tennis, vulgo dicta Sti. Petri de Hulla, in cujus parochia domus
Fratrum Carmelitanorum." It must necessarily have been
small, crushed in between St. Bride's, St. George's,
St. Stephen's and St. Kevin's, having what was afterwards
called Aungier-street and Redmond's-hill as its principal
thoroughfare. The church, according to Speed's Map,
must have stood, as you enter Aungier-street from
George's-street, on the right hand or western side, but no
trace of it remains. In 1640 a Protestant Rector is found
nominated to St. Peter de Monte, but with it he had also
St. Bride's, St. Michael's and St. Kevin's. This is the last

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 335

mention we find of it. In 1680, by Act of Council, this old
Parish of St. Peter, that of St. Stephen and that of St. Kevin,
were all united into one (Protestant) parish, under the title
of St. Peter, which now has its parish church at the top of
Aungier-street, with St. Kevin's, St. Stephen's (Up. Mount-
street), Trinity Church, Rathmines, and Sandford Church, as
chap els-of- ease. Moreover, in 1707, simultaneously with the
erection of St. Mark's, a large portion of this new Parish of
St. Peter was detached, and formed into the (Protestant)
Parish of St. Anne, with its Parish Church in Dawson-street.

THE CARMELITES. — In the year 1278, according to
Arch dale, the Carmelite Friars, represented to King Edward
the First, that by several grants they had procured a habita-
tion for themselves in Dublin and proposed thereon to erect
a Church. The King approved, but the citizens obstinately
and siiccessfully opposed the project. The Friars thus foiled,
applied with better results to Sir Robert Bagot, Chief
Justice of the King's Bench, who built a Monastery for them
in the parish of St. Peter, on a lot of ground which he
purchased from the Abbey of Baltinglass. In 1333, a
Parliament was held here, and the son of Nicholas O'Toole
was murdered as he was leaving the house. In the thirty-
first year of Henry VIII. this Friary was dissolved and
surrendered, John Kelly being the last Prior. It was first
granted to Nicholas Stanyhurst, but in Elizabeth's time to
Francis Aungier, who was created Baron of Longford, and
gave his name to Aungier-street and Longford-street. By
an almost singular course of events the same community of
Carmelite Friars finds itself once again established on its old
ground, and the street on which its Church fronts has been
known as White-Friars-street from the thirteenth century.

ST. PAUL'S. — There remains but the ruined Church of
St. Paul to speak of. It was amongst the early endowments
of Christ Church Cathedral, but whether from its exposed
position, being at the southern extremity of this suburb or
for other reasons it was allowed to fall into ruin. In a Deed
of 1275, we have a bequest made to the " Recluse of
St. Paul;" in Archbishop Rokeby's enumeration (1504) of
the Cathedral property, it gives among others, " the place

336 The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries.

where St. Paul's Church was founded," and Allen in 1532,
describes it as vasta. All traces of it are now of course
gone, but all the old documents place it in the immediate
vicinity of St. Peter's. .

I have now gone through all the denominations of
parishes and communities that formerly occupied the ground
now covered by the two parishes of SS. Michael and John
and St. Andrew. The suburban Churches, as we have seen,
all disappeared at the Reformation, and until the re-erection
of St. Andrew's in 1660, this whole district, as far as the
State Church was concerned, was left practically derelict.
It 1615 there were in Dublin nine State-Church Clergy
serving fifteen churches including Donnybrook. In that year
Thomas Smith, F.T.C.D. was curate of St. Bride's, St. Michael
le Pole, St. Stephen's, St. Catherine's, St. James's, St. Kevin's
and St. Peter de Monte. In the Royal Visitation he is called
a " sufficient man " ! I ! No doubt this suburb was sparsely
inhabited, for when the mountaineers could encamp with
safety on Stephen's-green, as they did after the outbreak of
1641, it was not likely to tempt the citizens out from the
shelter of their walls. Hence in the re-construction of Catholic
parishes under Archbishop Mathews, in 1615, the entire area,
from Schoolhouse Lane on the West to Baggotrath on the
East, formed but the one Parish of St. Michael or SS. Michael
and John.

igi N. DONNELLY.

THE BISHOP OF SALFORD AND CHURCH LIBRARIES.

AS Secretary of the Church Library Association of the
Diocese of Salford, and as Inspector of the Branch
Libraries attached to the same, I have had opportunities of
making myself intimately acquainted with its work and its
methods of working. These, in obedience to the wishes of
the Bishop of Salford, I now venture to place before your
readers.

If any should ask the reason for connecting the name of

The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries. 337

the bishop with this article, the answer in brief would be
this, that the association is one of his own creation, and the
general lines on which it works have been directly suggested
by him. Moreover, the very ideas contained in the following
paper, the arguments by which the existence of such libraries
is justified, are drawn from his written or spoken produc-
tions. My task has simply been to cull the fairest blossoms
of that richly fruitful mind, and to arrange them for the
comfort and edification of others.

The association is in the fifth year of its existence, and is
therefore, we may presume, rapidly approaching the years
of stability and discretion. During those few years of life,
many years have been lived ; for the gentle, sweet, although
powerful influence of spiritual reading has been brought
to bear upon many souls in many parishes of the diocese.
The advantages offered by the association were a mini-
mum of expense for a supply of standard works, carefully
selected, sufficiently numerous, and thoroughly catalogued ;
an approved and well-tried system of management, for which
all the necessary stationery and apparatus were provided;
lastly, a spiritual encouragement in the shape of indulgences
granted by the Holy Father, who heartily blessed the under-
taking.

These advantages, superadded to an eagerness which was
ready to grasp at any proposal that promised to benefit the
souls entrusted to them, won the hearty concurrence of
all the rectors of missions in Salford, Manchester and Black-
burn. They enrolled themselves and their assistants as
members of the association, undertaking, at the same time,
to establish a branch library in their church. Of the many
missions not yet represented, some are gathering together
the means wherewith to purchase ; others are already well-
supplied from other sources ; the rest are mainly the smaller
missions, where the numbers to be benefited are less
numerous, and therefore the expense proportionately beyond
their reach.

The association, when first started, proposed to itself
merely a diocesan field of labour ; but now that the wants of
the diocese are for the most part supplied, and the
VOL. IX. Y

338 The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries.

"machinery" — raised not without much thought, anxiety
and labour — is still in working order, the council have deter-
mined to widen the field, to cast aside all barriers, and to
offer its advantages to the English-speaking world. The
RECORD seemed to be the most suitable channel for
bringing the association under the notice of the clergy;
and therefore I was instructed to petition the Rev.
Editor to allow a place in its columns for the following
account of —

THE CHURCH LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

The association owes its conception to a full realisation
of the truth contained in those words of our Lord : " Man
.liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God." If
this be so, then must the word of God be brought within the
reach of the great masses of our Catholic people, and even
to their very homes ; so that, whilst sustaining their external
life with earthly bread, they may nourish their inner life with
the bread of truth eternal. They must have at hand both
the bread of the body and the bread of the soul. The
Church is indeed concerned that her children should not suffer
from bodily starvation ; but far more concerned is she that
their souls should be, in the words of the Psalmist, " filled
with marrow and fatness." This generous nourishment of
the word of God would they find in spiritual reading ; and,
therefore, to bring spiritual books within easy reach of every
Catholic, is the great end of the association.

In the commission given to Ezechiel to go forth and
preach, the Spirit said to him : " Open thy mouth and eat
what I give thee." And the prophet tells us how he " looked,
•and behold a hand was sent to me wherein was a book rolled
up. And I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that
book. And He said to me : * Son of man, thy belly shall eat
and thy bowels shall be filled with this book which I give
thee.' " (Eizech. ii. and iii.) Surely the same promise is made
in due proportion to all who feed upon the bread of life con-
tained in spiritual books. Nor will the experience be without
its delights ; with the same prophet will they be able to

The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries. 339

cry out : " And I did eat it, and it was as sweet as honey to
my mouth."

'* To find meat and drink, clothing and the like " (says the bishop
in a pastoral letter to his flock), " you are unJer an imperious neces-
sity for yourselves and for your children. This compels you to enter
into active business relations with the world. Suddenly you find
yourself in a whirl of activity, a vortex of business. The affairs of
the world are telegraphed in upon the soul all day long. Local
interests, the prospects of trade, the hopes of a change, the chances
of a strike, the tittle-tattle of the day, such a one's biting tongue,
such another's power to baulk or injure you, the getting together a
little more capital, the taking another house, the making trial of
another change, the anxiety arising from the visible approach of
loss, perhaps of ruin — all these things seem to overlay the soul, and
to blot out all joy in the life of faith. Then new discoveries in trade
and science, lectures, articles, paragraphs assailing faith ; the dominant
irreligious opinion among fellow- workmen — all these things not
to speak of domestic and personal cares, are borne in upon the
mind, day by day, year by year, as though life were to last for ever —
as though there were nought to live for but to hear and to know,
to get and to hold, and to become wedded to a world that perisheth.

<; Why are so many without the bloom and freshness of health
upon their soul ? It is because they never read a spiritual book.

"Why are you often sad within yourselves — feeling a void and a
craving which nothing satisfies ? It is because you have not learnt
that your happiness in God is to be found through books.

" Why are you weary of nothing so much as of religion ? Because
you have never seriously cultivated a taste for the word of God and
spiritual reading."

The idea of the association thus conceived, was rapidly
developed by many other considerations peculiar to the age
in which we live.

" Look " (says the bishop) <; at the peculiar dangers of the rising
generation. Every child in the land is now sent to school for six or
seven years. The law declares that every child shall read ; that the
first 4,000 available hours of his life shall be occupied in acquiring
secular knowledge, and forming secular tastes. Before the State
had trenched upon the right of the parent, the child grew up learning
to read and cultivating its taste upon works of literature which were
full of religious instruction, and instinct with the truths of faith.
Now this is forbidden, and religious instruction and spiritual tastes
must be acquired by other means and at other times, at the beginning
or end of the day, as something apart and extra. . . .

" When the child leaves school, it is to be launched, so far as
reading is concerned, upon a sea of secular literature ; the Press

340 The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries.

pouring out its contents like a flood, and public free libraries arc
established out of the rates in every great centre. Where are God's
honours, God's revealed truths championed ? Popular literature dis-
courses of the world — its successes, its works, its hopes, its histories,
its heroes, its follies, its passions, its temptations, its seductions :
these are its themes. The great God who made us, our Blessed
Redeemer, His maxims, His faith, His salvation, and His souls, are
deliberately ignored, as out of place, if they are not derided or
denied."

How many thousands of Catholics are there in our large
parishes who never hear a sermon; by choice or through
necessity they frequent the early Masses, which at most will
not admit of more than a few minutes of instruction. How
many leave the confessional with the best intentions, and the
strongest of resolutions for a new life, but quickly fall away,
because they have no spiritual book at hand wherewith to
feed their souls day by day and strengthen their good
resolutions ?

By such reflections as these the association already con-
ceived, was now brought to the birth, and in the year 1884
made its first appearance in the shape of a unanimous meeting
of the rectors of Manchester and Salford, who threw them-
selves into a scheme for supplying the Catholic people under
their care with religious books. The christening of this new
living formation presented no difficulties, and it was duly
registered as the " Salford Diocesan Church Library Associa-
tion."

The usual period of inactive infancy was in this case to
be considerably shortened, and life was to be a reality indeed.
Its first great work was to be the establishment of Church
Libraries in as many parishes as possible in the diocese.

Some may ask what is meant by a Church Library. A
Church Library is so called in the first place from the nature of
the books admitted; they must be books suitable for reading
in church, or treating of such subjects as form fitting themes
for a pulpit sermon or instruction. Under this category will
of course come not only ascetic works and Hagiography, but
also treatises upon Church history and upon the religious
controversies of the day. It is called a Church Library in the
second place because it is well nigh imperative that it should

J he Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries. 341

be placed inside the church and as near to the door as possible.
This point is insisted upon with great emphasis ; it is felt to
be almost essential for its success that it should be placed in
a conspicuous place, within eight and easy reach of the
people. Many libraries have been known to fail, because
they were not placed on the thoroughfare of the people.
Place them in the sacristy, the presbytery, or the school, and
as a rule they will be doomed to failure.

'•' See how it is in trade ; it is a well ascertained fact that even a
couple of steps into a shop insensibly deter a multitude of purchasers
from entering — they pass on. Men of business will give immense
sums of money for a site on a thoroughfare, and nothing for a site
that is but ten yards off it, or out of sight, We must count with
human nature as it is, and if we wish to create a taste for spiritual
reading we must put the books on the way of the people, make it
easy to get them, and difficult to avoid a constant invitation to use
them. When the Manchester Reference Library was in Campfield,
63,957 books were referred to in the course of the year; the year
after its translation to a rather more central site the number rose to
186,448, and last year (1883) it reached 252, 648 /'—(Extract from
a Pastoral of the Bishop of Salford.)

The success of a business varies with the nature of the
supply and the extent of the demand ; while the demand is
more extensive according as the supply offers greater
advantages of choice or of terms. Keeping these principles
well in view, the committee, selected this first year by
the bishop himself, to be afterwards elected annually by
the members — both clergy and librarians, as well as bene-
factors— from the rectors, spared no pains to gather together
a library of standard religious works at a strictly economical
figure.

A small fund would of course be required to float this new
enterprise ; ready money was to be one of the baits by which
it was hoped the publishers would be drawn to reduce to a
minimum of profit the price of their publications. The fund
was forthcoming ; a small sum was raised by subscriptions,
to this was added the amount of lenten alms for the year,
while a further loan of some £200 brought up the available
means of the society to about £450. With this sum in hand
the committee hesitated no longer,

342 The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries.

The Catholic publishers were at once called upon to
forward their catalogues and to quote their terms. The
latter being satisfactorily arranged, two members of the
committee were asked to make a selection of 250 volumes,
while other two consented to draw up rules for regulating
the libraries which were to run mainly on the lines followed
by the free libraries of Manchester and Salford. When all
these points had been maturely considered it was found that
the Committee were able to offer a library of 250 volumes,
with all the necessary apparatus (without book-case), such
as catalogues, printed and blank, a copy of the rules, and
of "Instructions for Librarians," cards of membership, labels,
prayers, registers, India-rubber stamp, &c., for the sum of £10,
ihus allowing a discount of more than fifty per cent, upon
the retail price.1

Any casual visitor to Bishop's House, Salford, privileged
to be admitted beyond the entrance hall, would certainly at
that time have paused and hesitated, and possibly have
meditated a hasty retreat, so strongly did it bear resemblance
to the store and show-rooms of a large publishing firm.
Had he mistaken the door of a warehouse for the door of
the episcopal residence and seminary 1 The building, it is
true, is ecclesiastical, the inmates are in the garb of priests,
or at any rate of clerics, but why these unwieldy packages,
why these piles of volumes bound and unbound, why this
incessant hurry and bustle ? The answer to our readers is
now well known, but to .our casual visitor it was necessary
to explain that an enterprise of no mean proportions was
being attempted — of supplying the larger missions of the
diocese with books for spiritual reading.

1 This enormous discount was possible owing to the fund previously
mentioned. Thirty-nine libraries were purchased and their sale price
so fixed as to recover the amount (£200) of the loan only. Of
these thirty-nine, six only remain which may be secured upon the terms
mentioned above, Such low terms, however, could not be guaranteed after
the sale of these has been eifected, without the creation of another fund,
which in this diocese, now that its own wants are satisfied, can hardly be
expected. But in addition to the advantages offered by a library already
carefully selected and catalogued, with all the apparatus required for
working it, we can promise that the cost of books and stationery complete
will not exceed seventy-five per cent, upon the retail price of the 250
books.

The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries. 343

On every side were cases — a few still packed, more
already unpacked — from the different Catholic publishers
Burns and Gates, Gill, Duffy, Richardson, Washbourne, &c.,
these were the names staring boldly at you from many a
label. A little further on and you could hear the hum of
many voices ; willing hands and intelligent heads are busy
sorting the unpacked works. After that they will arrange
them according to the catalogue — already drawn up and
numbered — into separate libraries of 250 volumes a-piece,
ready for conveyance to one or other mission.

In one corner lies a strong box, capable of containing a
full library ; in this the books are packed and despatched to
their various destinations, the box, of course, to be after-
wards returned. Along with the books will be sent also two
packets of labels ; one contains 250 green labels, to be pasted
on the corner of each book, giving the name of the special
branch library, as also the conditions upon which the books are
lent ; the other packet contains 250 star labels, to be fastened
to the backs, and to bear the number of the books. A
borrower's register, to receive the names and addresses of
those who have qualified themselves to make use of the
library, each borrower requiring a guarantee from the clergy
or seatholder, a teacher or an apparitor or collector ; a lend-
ing register, to record the books actually borrowed, as well
as the borrower ; a set of 250 cards of membership, to be
signed by the guarantor and to bear the name and address
of the member thus qualified ; a book of " Rules," a book of
%< Instructions to Librarians," a blank catalogue for any addi-
tional works not entered in the printed catalogue, an
India-rubber stamp, etc., make up the complement of the
library.

The supply was thus secured, but now for the demand.
The rectors of the different missions were then invited to
adopt the system, 'and sixteen answered promptly to the call,
and purchasing libraries at once opened them for the benefit
of their people. This number was raised to twenty-two in
the succeeding year (1886), while 1887 added three more to
the list. At the end of 1888 the number stood at twenty-
eight, not including five which, with the permission of the
council, had been sent outside the diocese.

344 The Bishop of Salford and Church Libraries.

To gauge the benefits accruing to souls from these
libraries belongs only to God ; man cannot do it. But
knowing well that " Avhen we pray we speak to the spouse,
and when we read the spouse speaks to us," as St. Jerome
says, we may say in general that every book read uworketh
unto profit." Hence it is not without interest to learn the
number of books borrowed each year, as well as the number
of borrowers. They are as follows : —

1885 1886 1887 1888

No. of new members 1,722 1,604 1,890 2,228
No, of books lent .„ 8,592 19,351 19,388 21,215

We are frequently called upon to give a reason for not
admitting harmless books of a miscellaneous character upon
the shelves of the Church Libraries. That reason is not to
be found in any objection we have to such books ; on the
contrary, we believe them to be not only instructive, but?
even from a spiritual point of view, to be at least negatively
profitable, seeing that they satisfy without danger a craving
which might otherwise seek gratification in idle and
dangerous publications. The reason lies in the very end pro-
posed by the association, which is to cultivate a taste for
spiritual reading. What a little patronage, save that of the
dust, would fall to the share of the religious books if they
were found side by side with works of fiction, it is not diffi-
cult to conjecture. Even amongst religious publications the
tendency in the borrowers is to select those that contain more
interesting and exciting narratives.

To sustain the interest of the various branch libraries is,
as must be evident to all, the point of paramount importance.
It rests mainly with the librarians, aided and encouraged by
the clergy of the mission, who by an occasional notice
from the pulpit, reminding their flocks of the existence
of the library, with a few words from time to time
upon the value of spiritual reading, swell considerably the
number of applications. In addition to this, the Church
Library Inspector visits each library once a year, and reports
the results to the bishop. Though this inspection is intended
merely to encourage, it acts as a spur to greater efforts, and

Buenos Ayres. 345

the librarians are proud to show the good work done during
the previous year.

Each year, moreover, a report is printed and published in
the name of the council, and an annual meeting is also held,
to which are invited all the clergy of missions to which
Church Libraries are attached, as also the librarians. Over
this meeting the bishop presides, who, when the business has
been transacted, invites and takes part in a free discussion,
after which, addressing a few words of thanks, exhortation,
and encouragement, he dismisses the members with his
blessing.

It was at the last general meeting that the suggestion of
extending the work of the association was laid before the
members. This is referred to as follows in the following
extract from the last report, with which we bring this article
to a close : —

" The council entertain the idea of extending the work of the
association beyond the limits of the diocese, and even, if found
desirable, to all English-speaking countries. Other dioceses and
other countries could establish libraries with equal success, though it
would demand much time, labour, and thought to select books, to
make the terms with the publishers, to systematise the working, &c.,
but as in this diocese that task, not without considerable difficulty,
has been accomplished, others might wish to enjoy the advantages,
which, except in a few instances, have been limited to the Salford
Missions. This proposal was laid before the members assembled in
their general meeting on the 7th of December last, and was
received with an unanimous approbation. Applications, therefore,
for libraries may be made to the Secretary of the Church Library
Association, Bishop's Plouse, Salford."

THOMAS CORBISHLEY.

BUENOS AYRES.

ON account of the late exodus of our people, the first of
its kind, and so unexpected in the largeness of its
numbers, — on account also of the newness of its direction,
and the varying reports regarding the kind of its destina-
tion,— some facts and statistics regarding Buenos Ayres, its

346 Buenos Ayres.

extent, climate, inhabitants, and resources, may not be
unwelcome to the readers of the RECORD.

The name Buenos Ayres belongs equally to a city and a
province ; just as Dublin is the name of a city and of a
county.

THE CITY.

The city of Buenos Ayres is beautifully situated, so far
as the picturesqueness of its position and the facility of
approach to it are concerned. It stands on the southern
shore of the Rio de la Plata, or river of silver ; for such the
first explorers (the Spaniards) considered the river to be,
as they looked upon it from the broad ocean, lying like
a placid belt of silver, glistening in the rich sunlight of
this almost tropical region of Southern America. There
are one-hundred miles from the city to the mouth of
the river, and yet the waters stretch across a space of
no less than thirty-six miles wide in front of the flat-
roofed colonnaded terraces that form the only back-
ground to this spreading sheet of silver. The city bore
originally in Spanish the name of Cuidad de la Santissima
Trinidad (the City of the Holy Trinity), and it was the
mariners that gave to the port the title of Santa Maria de
Buenos Ayres, or St. Mary of the Favouring Gales.

It is situated in somewhat the same latitude south
(34° 36'). as Gibraltar is north ; but the fact of its being in
the southern hemisphere makes the temperature much cooler
than that of the same latitude in the north.

It was founded in 1535 by a Spaniard, Don Joze de
Mendoza, from whom another city in the republic derives its
name. Its history during the two following centuries may
be said to be that of one of the distant dependencies of
Spain. If any use were at any time made of it, it was (as is
the case with colonies generally) to make what money could
be made in it, and hasten out of it. In the beginning of the
present century however, it obtains a connexion with lands
nearer home, and thereby acquires a warmer interest. It
was the time of the Peninsular war. Spain was the ally of
Napoleon, and English men-of-war were sent out to harass

Buenos Ayres. 347

the Spanish colonies. Admiral Beresford (in 1806) reduced
Buenos Ayres, planted the Union Jack on its level strand,
and required the good citizens to swear allegiance to King
George, which they did with wonderful alacrity. The
English commander was highly elated, and sent home
despatches of tne tenor of his feelings, but before the
despatches reached their destination he was sent flying from
the place by an uprising of the Creoles and the native races.
This was not French Canada of an earlier century ; Buenos
Ayres was no Grande Pre with its forest primeval, its
murmuring pines and its hemlocks ; and the inhabitants of
the place were in consequence left to take care of themselves.

Having experienced their own power, the native party
thus formed felt inclined to dispute all foreign yoke, be it
England's or be it Spain's. It now became England's cue
to encourage instead of attack, and so we read that on the
9th July, 1816, the United Provinces of the Plata proclaimed
their independence, and that Admiral Brown assisted thereat.

Fresh troubles, however, broke out among the provinces
themselves, and in 1825 a new republic was organized. All
this is the history of Buenos Ayres, just as it is of the
provinces ; and while it is disturbed and inconstant in the
last degree, it must not be forgotten that here at home in
staid old Europe even then times were very much troubled
arid disturbed.

In 1829 appeared General Rosas, a name of terror, even
in that land of daring and unscrupulous men. He was at
first accorded extraordinary powers by the United Provinces,
and exercised them most moderately, even to resigning the
presidency and withdrawing into private life; but in 1835,
on his second election, he took the title of Dictator, and from
that till 1847 reigned, says Mr. Parish, one of the country's
historians, " like a madman." On the 3rd February, 1852,
by the aid of the Emperor of Brazil, the tyrant was defeated,
and fled to England !

Urquiza was then elected president. Buenos Ayres
objected to the election ; two battles were fought, in which
Buenos Ayres was victorious, and in consequence the
National Government of the Confederation was transferred

348 Buenos Ayres.

to Buenos Ayres, with General Mitre as president. The
Legislature continued to assemble at Buenos Ayres until
1884, when La Plata became the place of meeting, although
Buenos Ayres continues the capital.

The following were the succeeding presidents in their
order : — Mitre was succeeded by Sarmiento ; Sarmiento by
Avellaneda, during whose election some violent rioting took
place, and in 1880 Roca became president. From that time
to the present there has not been any serious disturbance —
the raids and incursions of the native Indians being the only
approach to an attempt at war.

When we come to consider Buenos Ayres as a province
will be the time to speak of the constitution, legislature and
internal policy of the republic ; now we have to speak of
the city, as it presently stands, its buildings, markets,
harbours, exports, imports, factories, industries, and people.

The population of the city of Buenos Ayres is equal to
that of Dublin and its suburbs ; in the area of ground covered
by the buildings it is much larger. One very significant fact
with regard to the population is that in a dozen years or so
it has all but doubled itself.

In 1869 it stood at 177,787

In 1882 it reached close on 352,000.7

And this is the case with several of the Argentine towns.
Buenos Ayres is by far the largest city in the republic ;
indeed, it might be said, to be equal to all the others taken
together, in wealth, population, and importance. One of its
admirers writes of it : " In the refinement of its society,
progressive spirit of the people, and activity of trade and
industry it yields to no other city on the continent, and has
earned the title of ' the Athens of the South.' "

About a third of the inhabitants are of European descent ;
and, strange to say, though discovered by the Spaniards,
and first colonized by them, the Italians count the highest of
all European nationalities, Spaniards next, French then,
Germans, Basques, some Irish, English, and a few Scotch.
The population of the province of Buenos Ayres, as also of the

1 (Dublin by itself is about 250,000),

Buenos Ayres. 349

whole republic (Buenos Ayres being but one of the provinces
of the republic), will, perhaps, come in opportunely here.

In 1869 the province of Buenos Ayres stood at 495,107.
From that time it has been receiving an addition annually 6l
from 20,000 to 30,000, and now stands about double of its
population in 1869. The province, be it understood, is just
twice as large as Ireland — Ireland, in area, being 32,000
square miles; whereas Buenos Ayres is 63,000 square
miles.

The population of the whole republic in 1882 arranged
according to nationalities stood thus : —

Native-born Argentines ... ... 1,907,000

Italians , 339,000

Spaniards ... 161,000

French 153,000

English, Irish, Scotch 51,000

Swiss and Germans ... ... 54,000

All other nationalities ... ... 165,000

Total 2,830,000

The estimate of 1885 gives the population of the republic
at 3,000,000, i.e. exclusive of Indians. It is said that, roughly
speaking, the yearly immigration into the republic is now not
far off 100,000. In the thirteen years between 1872 and
1885 the numbers are most striking; they began at the low
figure of 9,153, and in the last year reached the astounding
total of 103,189 ; that is in that small space of time the
immigration into the republic multiplied itself eleven-fold.

Mr. Mulhall in his work on The English in South
America, says that in 1878 there were 30,000 men of British-
Empire descent in the province of Buenos Ayres alone.
The different nationalities may be said to be scattered
through the republic thus : — In all the provinces bordering
on the river the inhabitants may be looked upon as of
European origin ; the first colonists sailed in their ships up
the river, and settled down on the banks or in the immediate
neighbourhood. In the interior is the old Indian stock, or
the mixed descendants of the tribal race and the conquista-
dores or first conquerors. The negroes, imported as slaves,

350 Buenos Ay res.

have given their quota to the population in their own un-
adulterated colour, or mixed with the more pleasing hue of
the white man. The South of Europe has contributed (as
we have seen), in a very large proportion, its share of the
population. All these races, with the exception of the native
Indian, are found represented in the city of Buenos Ayres,
and taking into consideration the untaught licence of the
African, with the hot passions of the children of the Mediter-
ranean, and the already degraded habits of the refugees that
fly to it as a sanctuary of safety, one would be over-sanguine
indeed that could augur favourably of the morals of the
capital of La Plata.

A story, perhaps somewhat characteristic, like all stones,
and perhaps somewhat exaggerated, is told in private circles.
A large cattle-breeder came on business to the city. Like
all the others staying at the hotel he slept on the flat roof.
Asking a friend to call him early, as he wanted to be away
to his business, he received the advice to be as nearly the last
to rise as he could possibly manage, " For," said his mentor,
" there is not one of them there that has not a revolver under
his pillow, and if he sees you passing anywhere near his bed,
he will think, or pretend to think, that you mean to rob him,
and !"

It must be remembered also that although at the first
glance the increase in the population speaks in favour of the
place, yet that very rapid increase (like the sudden and
abnormal rising or falling of the pulse or temperature in a
sick person) is in itself suspicious ; and particularly when
that increase is due to the fact that the emigrants who go
there have to be helped out or taken out gratis, and are
unable of their own resources (as in the case of our poor
people) to go elsewhere.

THE BUILDINGS.

In the vicinity of Buenos Ayres there was not a stone to
raise the walls nor a tree to make the roofs or doors of the
houses. Both had to be brought from a long distance — the
stones, either as ballast from Europe, or as freight from an
island (Martin Garcia) forty miles away, arid the trees from

Buenos Ay res. 351

the interior. When we come to speak of the nature of the
soil of the province it will be seen why this is so. The city is,
however, very handsomely arranged — built in regular blocks of
about one hundred and fifty yards square, with open spaces or
lawns adorned with water jets and decorated with what shrubs
they can induce to grow. Tramways are laid in nearly all
the streets, and as the ground was quite level there was
little or no expense in laying down the rails, and compara-
tively little in working them. Of late years the value of
property is greatly increased. The principal buildings are
the Roman Catholic cathedral and the other Roman Catholic
churches through the city, the Protestant and Presbyterian
places of worship, a foundling hospital, an orphan asylum,
the university, a military college, several public schools,
banks, printing establishments, and the Government
offices.

The manufactures and industries, as also the exports, of
a country must be largely comprised of things indigenous to
the soil. Up to this the principal product of the country has
been its live stock — its cattle, sheep, and horses ; and hence
we find its exports consist of hides, beef, wool, skins, tallow,
and horsehair — all in an unmanufactured state. To these are
to be added precious metals, which come from the interior ;
and in very recent years refrigerated meats to European
countries. Its principal imports are cottons, linens, woollens,
jewellery, perfumery, and timber. At times the necessities
of a city's population will evoke industries which naturally
do not appertain to it ; and thus we find among the created
manufactures and industries of Buenos Ayres, such wares as
cigars, carpets, furniture, boots and shoes. But there is no
doubt that tanning leather, and the industries arising from
bone-manufacture will greatly increase in the immediate
future, where the material for both is so ready and so
abundant.

The custom-house duties in 1860 were but £800,000.
The custom-house duties in 1870 were £3,500,000.

In 1873 the value of imports were £11,886,861 ; whereas
exports were but £6,886,506.

The harbour of Buenos Ayres is but very indifferent ; the

352 Ihienos Ay res.

conformation of the land is so very level that the strand runs
away out miles and miles to sea ; so that vessels have to be
unladen by carts going out into the waters, and taking the
cargo ashore. It has other disadvantages also ; being so very
broad and shallow it is very much at the mercy of the
winds: if the tide sets in with a strong easterly wind, the
estuary overflows its banks, and great damage to property
ensues ; if westerly winds prevail, and a going tide, it is left,
far away as the eye can reach, ki a bleak shore alone ''
indeed.

Its rival (Monte Video), on the opposite side of the river,
is much better situated, and is fast coming neck and neck
with it in the export trade; but there is (practically) an
illimitable extent of country at the back of Buenos Ayres,
and all the land commerce of that vast district will have to
pass through it, so that it can afford to smile at the preten-
sions of its neighbour over the way.

Water-supply and sewerage are two very important items
in the well-being of a city's population. Up to recent years
Buenos Ayres was supplied in a very primitive way : a rude
and singular kind of cart brought the water from the river
La Plata, and hawked it round the streets; now, however,
a very fine system of water-supply is in operation, and so far
as such things can be made satisfactory in warm climates, it
leaves nothing to be desired. As to its sewerage, from
from what has been said regarding the extraordinary local
formation of the land, any thoughtful person can draw his
own conclusions.

It is unnecessary for the scope of this article to enter on
an examination of its monetary system.

Before taking leave of the city of Buenos Ayres, we have to
imagine our poor people, after a long and wearisome journey,
coming to its threshold, and we have to consider what fate
awaits them there. Suppose an emigrant vessel coming to the
port of Cork or Dublin from some distant country intending to
land its human car go on the wharf. Perhaps there are men stand-
ing idle in the streets, or loitering lazily in the shade of some
of those beautiful blocks or squares. It is true, Government is
bound to give them work for two years in order to recoup

Buenos Ay res. 353

itself for the expenses of their passage. There is a certain
anchorage in that. But what work will it set them to ? If
slaves were still imported, they might be expected to do all
the drudgery, and leave for the noble white man something
more exalted. What will our young men be put to ? What
will our middle-aged and elderly (for they take them out in
whole families, the grandfather and the grandchild), what will
they do ? Into which of these houses — all these houses con-
taining not far off from half a million of people — will our girls
be sent ? Who will look after them ; who will counsel them ?
If they fall sick, who will nurse them ? Is there a single face
in all that multitude of human beings that will smile on our
people at their landing? Is there a single hand stretched
out to welcome them ? Is there a single tongue to speak of
the old green hills, the chapel, and the hearthstone they have
left behind?

But it is idle pursuing reveries like these. Our people will
not be left in Buenos Ayres. That were too rich a blessing I
The Argentine Government in all likelihood has other ends
in view as we shall see later on.

PROVINCE OF BUENOS AYRES.

The Argentine Republic consists of fourteen provinces, the
largest and most important of which is Buenos Ayres. To
anyone accustomed to our velvet sward and rolling country,
the appearance of the landscape of this singular province
would seem strange amd extraordinary in the last degree.
From one horizon to another it is but one level plain. Sea
and sky is all that one sees in the middle of the ocean ; land
and sky is all that one sees here. These vast plains, analogous
to " the prairies " of America, and to " the bush " of Australia,
are called Pampas : terra deserta, et invia, et inaquosa. " The
general appearance of the country," says Mr. Mulhall, "is
that of a vast plain covered with grass or ' thistles,' and almost
destitute of trees."

In a moment we shall see what the grass is like; but
we want to know the nature of the soil or plain itself
first, before speaking of its covering. It is the opinion of
VOL. x. Z

354 Buenos Ayres.

Darwin1 that all this land had lain formerly submerged
beneath the waters, and that by some effort or upheaval of
nature it was raised several hundred feet from its original
bed — one hundred feet in the region of Buenos Ayres (he
says) and four hundred feet in the direction of Patagonia.
It is believed that at one time the Pacific and Atlantic
oceans were connected by a strait where now the river
Santa Cruz flows.

Mr. Parish, the historian of the Republic writes :—

" These vast plains appear to have been upheaved at least 1,400
feet before the period of the gradual upheaval above mentioned, as
indicated by the present gigantic boulders, which have been trans-
ferred on icebergs sixty or seventy miles from the parent rock. The
enormous layers of gravel and sand on the plains, and even on the
hills of Patagonia, give evidence of its having at one time formed the
bed of an ocean, which rolled against the Andes or intervening ranges
of hills."

And the shifting soil, which is found deposited to the depth
of thirty or forty feet on this extent of country, is declared by
Mr. Darwin to be the silt of the river La Plata, and tbat the
river from time to time had been shifted from its position by
the gradual elevation of the land. It is hardly necessary to
speak at further length on the soil ; all that is required to be
still remarked is, that these vast plains or pampas extend
over a region of country four hundred miles broad, by seven
hundred miles long, and containing at least 1,500,000 square
miles ; that is, almost equal to half the area of the continent
of Europe.

The next thing to be considered is the herbage or cover-
ing of the country; then, its natural produce, as well as its
powers of producing ; and, after that, the animals that are
found there, tame or wild, native or imported, and these will
include beasts of prey, as also reptiles ; lastly, its inhabitants,
temperature, climate, and general adaptability for human
habitation.

The word " pampas " is derived from the Quichua lan-
guage, and signifies a valley or plain. The country districts

It may be remarked that it was here while making a voyage of
exploration that Darwin first obtained fame. See his biography, recently
published; also, his Geological Observations in South America.

Buenos Ayres. 355

are known also by the name of " the camp ;" and the word
" camp," to our ears, brings up ideas of fortifications, and
tents, and soldiers, and accoutrements of war, whereas it is
but an abbreviation of the very harmless word " campos,"
meaning in Spanish a plain.

There are two kinds of pampas — the fertile and the barren ;
neither of which is capable of bearing trees. We are
acquainted in this country with the pampas grass ; it is from
the pampas it derives its name. This is the only herbage or
covering of these vast plains. Professor Lorentz thus des-
cribes it in the fertile districts : —

" Coarse and scattered tufts of hard and dry grasses cover the
yellow clay like thousands of little islands. At the place where their
formation is most pronounced, the earth is cracked between the tufts,
and is often washed away by the rains ; so that the grasses are left
as little eminences, the interstices sometimes being filled up with
smaller species."

Winter (or our mid-summer) is the time the greatest rain-
fall takes place. The grasses are then washed into the
earth, and the whole place assumes a dark, sodden look. In
spring (that is, our autumn) the grasses shoot out, and seem
like the sprouts of young turnips ; the whole country then
wears a bluish or dark green hue. This is the most enjoy-
able season of the Buenos Ayres' year. As summer comes
on, the heat grows unbearable, and the " turnips " start up into
a field of thistles ten or eleven feet high, covered with sharp
thorns, and forming such a jungle that man or beast cannot
pass through. The colour of the landscape is now dark
brown : this is our Christmas. Then the thistles ripen, and,
like a nobler order of creatures, wear on their brows crowns
of silver. After this they droop and die, and the tropical
rains coming on, wash them back again into the earth.

Having seen what the fertile districts are like, it is hardly
necessary to describe the barren; for if these things take
place in the greenwood, what in the dry ? " The sterile
pampa has a peculiar kind of vegetation consisting, for the
most part, of hard plants with long thorns" {Countries of the
World, Cassell & Co.)

The next thing to be seen is the supply of water for

356 Buenos Ay res.

cattle as well as for human use. There are places hundreds
of miles away from any running water. Small lakes or
ponds are to be found here and there ; but as these depend
on the rain-fall for their supply, they are full after rain, when
water is least wanting ; and in time of drought, when water
is most wanting, they are but dried-up, repulsive-looking
eyesores. Taking, for instance, the province of Buenos
Ayres, the northern part of it is high, and in a dry year
millions of horned cattle will die for want of water ; the
southern portion, on the other hand, is low and marshy, and
in the wet season it is scarcely habitable. So great is the
heat, that it cracks up the soil, and the country is, in conse-
quence, unable to bear trees, the want of which in turn
makes the whole place more exposed to the heat of the sun.

The soil, furthermore, is so porous and so thirsty, that the
rain at once gets to a depth at which it is of no use to grass
or vegetation, whose roots do not penetrate so deeply ; and
what little remains on the surface is exposed to such heat,
that it is rapidly evaporated. M. Revy, one of the explorers
of this country, mentions a singular fact with regard to this
extraordinary evaporation. He says that in the province of
Corrientes, although the river Paranna drains a basin of
country 500,000 square miles in area, yet it does not increase
one pintful in volume, since (to use his own words) "it loses
by evaporation as much as it gains by the great tributaries
that fall into it."

In some of the interior provinces, such as Entre Rios
(between the rivers*) and Corrientes, the country is more like an
European landscape than in Buenos Ayres. There is an alter-
nation of hill and dale. The grass grows rich and soft and green.
Trees are found, especially by the waters' edge, in abun-
dance ; and the flat, one-storied houses, seen nestling in the
luxuriant meadows, with a tropical sun pouring down its
effulgence upon them, and the peach-tree, or the fig or the
pear, or the beautiful tree of Paradise, or the cool, refreshing
ombu with its dark shade, and singular form, thirty feet
high, with drooping leaves, seven or eight feet long and four
or five inches thick, protecting or adorning the place, form
a picture of Arcadian beauty and peace that nowhere else
might be seen.

Buenos Ay res. 357

The pampas, however, are capable of rearing stock. In
fact, large herds are raised there every year. When the
pampas grass is a certain age, they manage to cut and pre-
serve it ; and, when constantly grazed on, it loses (it is said)
to a great degree its natural wildness, and becomes shorter,
more compact, and more nutritious. In parts, also, the
country is broken up and tilled. Generally speaking, what-
ever agriculture there is, is on the east coast : all the interior
being used for grazing purposes.

The province of Buenos Ayres alone supports about
45,000,000 sheep ; and the quantity of wool is said to be about
160,000,000 Ibs. It is easy for any one to find the money
value of that ; but it must be remembered, in making the
computation, that wool in warm regions is not so good as
that of a colder climate.

The number of sheep in the whole republic is supposed
to be about 75,000,000, and their value about £22,000,000.

By the latest census, the number of goats in the province
is said to be about1 2,863,227. Goatskins are very much
used for saddle covers.

Pigs make only the small total of 257,368. Few need to
be told the use of "the pigskin." Horses exist in the
greatest. abundance — "in enormous quantities," says a native
writer. The number of horses in the republic is said to be
5,000,000, and their value is estimated at the extraordinary
sum of £4,500,000, or about 15s. a horse. The breed, how-
ever, has become very much deteriorated. The horse is
more generally found in Buenos Ayres.

In the provinces the ass and the mule are also found, and
generally used as beasts of burden. The former is said to
number 266,927, the latter 132,125.

The horned cattle come next in number to the sheep : —

Cattle in Province of Buenos Ayres ... 6,000,000

„ Republic ... ... ... 18,000,000

Their value can be computed by estimating a cow at

The numbers cannot be given accurately, as they have no such means
of obtaining them as we have. Even when making sale of a large herd of
cattle, they separate off a number, and give them al corte- — i.e., be the same
more or less ; and the buyer takes them al corte.

358 Buenos Ay res.

from 16s. to 25s. a head. The stock on a country farm (or
estancia) will often be as numerous as 10,000 ; and these are
divided off again into herds of 2,000 or 3,000, each sent off
to its separate pasturage. Statistics like these remind one
of the days of the old patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob ; " and he was rich in sheep and cattle and horses."

Of the purchase of a farm and its stock in the Province
of Buenos Ayres, a computation is given in The Countries of
the World, the figures being taken from the official Slue-book
of the Central Argentine Commission at the Philadelphia
Exhibition thus : —

11 A square league — that is, 6,500 English acres — of pasture land
costs, according to its distance from Buenos Ayres, from 20,000 to
50,000 dollars in gold. This sum also includes the necessary build-
ings, which are usually of a very primitive description. 'Faking the
purchase money at 40,000 dollars, and the capital to be devoted to
the purchase of stock at 20,000 dollars, the following is the way the
money would require to be laid out : —

10,000 sheep (al corle — be the same more

or less) ... ... 12,000 dollars.

1,000 horned cattle ... ... 6,000 „

800 mares ... ... ... 1,200 „

50 saddle horses for the use of the

establishment ... ... 800 „

The first year of the place would produce the following
returns, according to the same authority : —

2,500 sheep, sold to the " grease

foundries" ... ... 5,000 dollars.

1,000 sheep al corte to traffickers ... 1,200 „

150 horned cattle for the butcher ... 2,100 „

100 „ al corte to traffickers 600 „

25 mares .,. ... ... 100 „

9,000 dols.

4,000 Ibs. of wool ... ... 4,800 dollars.

300 „ hair ... ... 60 „

4,860 dols.

Expenses — A manager ... ... 240 dollars.

Two servants ... ... 280 „

Six shepherds ... ... 1,020 „

Sundry expenses ... ... 320 „

Buenos Ayres. 359

The profits at this computation would give from 20 to 25
per cent, on the outlay. It is said that estancias yield an
income of even 35 per cent. All the time, however, it must
be borne in mind that, while the estimate may be correct, it
does not come from an unprejudiced source.

What is done with all these animals ? The carcases are
comparatively worthless ; it is the hides or covering that is
of value. Taking the flesh of the animal or the carcase,
numbers die of want of water, and the flesh, after an hour
or so, is valueless. Some of the flesh is used as food for the
owner and the employes ; but the greater portion is sold to
the grease factories. Here the carcase is boiled down
whole — horned cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and even horses.
Mares are never used as beasts of burden or for riding ; they
merely breed or are sold to the grease factory, where the
carcase is boiled down, the hide separated from the hair and
preserved, and the hair, teased and prepared, is exported as a
commodity of itself, from which we have our curled hair and
hair covering.

As a specimen of how scarce fuel is in or about Buenos
Ayres, and of what little value they account the flesh of an
animal, they will often in the factory take one of the dead
carcases and fling it into the lagging furnace to rouse up its
latent heat. Coals must be brought from other countries,
and wood from the interior. This increases very largely the
expenses of fire-work in the factories. In the country
places, where there is no timber, the droppings of cattle,
baked as they are in the hot sun of that climate, supply the
material for cooking. How provident nature is I If this
were a cold climate, the scarcity of firewood alone would
render it almost uninhabitable.

The native animals which the settler finds of use are the
lama, the alpaca, and the vicugna. The alpaca is about the
size of our sheep, but has a longer neck and a more graceful
head, with large, lustrous eyes. It is of various colours — •
yellowish brown, sometimes grey, almost white, sometimes
black. Its wool is of the most beautiful texture, silken to
the touch, and seems to the eye as if intermingled with gold.
The wool grows seven or eight inches every year, and if the

360 Buenos Ayres.

animal be left for some time unshorn, it is found twenty or
twenty-five inches long, and sometimes even thirty. About
3,000,000 Ibs. of alpaca wool is exported annually.

The lama is like the alpaca, and some naturalists consider
them of the same species. Unlike the alpaca however, the
male lama is used as a beast of burden. It stands about
three feet high at the shoulder, and can carry about eight
stone weight, at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles a day.
It is found to be very useful in the mining districts, and in
mountainous regions. Its wool is not so good as that of the
alpaca. The vicugna is like the lama and alpaca, but more
graceful in appearance than either. Its wool is short, crisp,
and very fine. The estancieros choose the time of the year
when the wool on the animal is most abundant : they then
go out in parties and shoot it down. The finest shawls are
made of its wool.

This country produces one of the most singular freaks of
nature in the detestable little animal designated (and with
propriety) the skunk. It is about the size of our cat, of a
brownish or dark colour, and covered with a kind of beaver
or fur with long hair. The settlers hunt it with dogs for
the sake of its skin. It will let the dog approach almost
within bound, when it will discharge a fluid of a most
offensive smell. The effect of it on the unwary dog is that
he ceases from pursuit, and rubs his nose on the ground,
until the blood comes from his nostrils. Nothing yet invented
or discovered can move the malodorous smell from clothing
or furniture.

Of those animals which form the pest of the Argentine
Republic, the biscacha is the most general and the least
useful. It is the prairie dog of South America. It burrows
holes in the ground, and the horseman finds it dangerous
and troublesome work to get along through this network of
pitfalls. There is also the armadillo, but the inhabitants
console themselves for his burrowing propensities by the
savoury dish he makes when cooked. The armies of ants
that infest the country are a great destruction to every
green leaf and tree. There are besides peculiar kinds of
ants and mice that swarm around the dwelling-place ; away

Buenos Ay res. 361

out in the lonely places and in the darkness are the jaguars
and tigar cats ; and in the marshy places, river-hogs, pumas,
and serpents are to be found in abundance. For a magni-
ficent description of these animals see Baron Humboldt's
*' Travels and Researches" chap. xvi.

Among the birds and feathered game of the pampas may
be mentioned the partridge, duck, and a horned kind of
plover called the terostero. The partridge and an ostrich-
like bird called the rhea are the two principal birds of game
on the pampas. In the interior, near the region of the
mountains, the condor is a great pest. It swoops down on
the young cattle, drags out their tongue to prevent their cry,
and soars away with them to its eyrie on the mountain. On
the pampas there are two birds, lesser in size than the condor,
but of habits very similar — the pampas hawk, which picks
out the eyes of the young lambs, and then carries them away
to a place of security; and the carrancho which greedily seizes
on every bit of rotten meat or other carrion or stale garbage
flung out from the estancia.

But, of all pests, worst and deadliest is the human beast
of prey that dwells in the savage wilds and fastnesses of the
interior. The Indians are intractable, and there is no peace,
no protection, no security from them. " The climate, though
on the whole healthy and agreeable, is yet by no means
steady or uniform. In general every wind has to a reasonable
degree its own weather — sultriness coming from the north,
freshness from the south, moisture from the east, and storms
from the west." (Chamber's Encyclopaedia.)

Its magnificent rivers, and its singular Falls at Guayra
above Corrientes are among its great natural wonders. At
.thirty miles away the noise of the Falls is heard like thunder ;
at three miles off one can hardly be heard speaking. M. Revy
says that a million tons of water falls every minute a distance
of sixty feet, [n approaching the Falls, the river contains
more water than all the European rivers collectively, and the
current hurries along at the speed of a train going forty
miles an hour.

The Argentine Republic consists of fourteen provinces —
near to the Atlantic Ocean, and bordering the River La Plata

362 Buenos Ay res.

are the four littoral provinces — Buenos Ayres, Santa Fe,
Entre Rios, and Corrientes (of the seven currents). Lying
under the. Andes are four more — Rioja, Catamarca, San Juan
and Mendoza. In the centre are four others — Cordova, San
Luis, Santiago del Estero, and Tucuman. The two northern
provinces, Salta and Jujuy, complete the number.

The provinces select two hundred and twenty-eight
delegates, and these elect the President, who holds office for
six years. Congress consists of two chambers — the Senate
numbering twenty-eight, and the House of deputies eighty-
six. Each member is paid £700 a year. The second
second article of the constitution stipulates that " the Federal
Government shall maintain the Apostolic Roman Catholic
Faith." The Republic has a small standing army, and a navy
of about thirty-nine ships of war. Each province has its own
internal government as in the United States.

It appears that there is going to be no diminution in the
emigration from Ireland towards Buenos Ayres. Every day
persons are to be seen at the agency office here in Limerick.
I have asked the agent, whether it is the State Legislature of
Buenos Ayres or the government of the Argentine Republic
that has paid the fare of the emigrants, and he has informed
me that it is the Republic. Now this makes matters much
more serious, as it means that the poor immigrant who is at
the disposal of the government for two years may be sent
anywhere over a tract of country from the Atlantic to the
Andes, half as large as Europe. I have abstained up to this
from giving any opinions ; for, it is not opinions but facts that
are wanted. This, however, I think, may be hazarded that the
government will employ the immigrants on those works which
serve to promote the internal interests of the Republic. In our
day railways hold the first place in promoting these interests.
It used be said of the great Pacific Railway from New York to
San Francisco that every yard of it marked an Irishman's
grave. God grant the same be not said of the great internal
railways of South America.

There are then the great mines — the silver mines, and the
salt mines; both of which remain unworked for want of
hands. Salt is one of the great necessaries of the country,

I heological Questions. 363

yet salt has to be imported in immense quantities from Spain,
although their own country could supply all they want, and
export a surplus. Their wool is exported, and brought back
in the shape of cloth. They have no mills, and the cost of
erecting them or working them would be too great — labour
being so dear. They have hides and tanning material in
abundance and super-abundance, and yet they have to export
their hides and import their leather.

No country with a home government at the head of it
could allow such a state of things to continue. There is
scarcely a doubt, but it is to some of these works our poor
people will have to go. If they had capital, education, or
trade, they might not be so much pitied ; but having very
little or none of these, they are tremendously handicapped)
and the bulk of them will remain nothing else but hewers of
wood and drawers of water.

Under foreign taskmasters, unacquainted with their
language or their character, their material condition cannot
be but bad ; and as a result of their mixing with a society
tainted in religion and habits, their moral condition seems
much more gravely to be deplored.

R. O'KENNEDY.

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS.
1.

PARTIES ERRONEOUSLY REPUTED TO BE MARRIED.

" Will you kindly solve these difficulties. Ex Confessione Sac. —
I come to know parties, reputed to be married, but not " de facto."
They now have remorse and wish to be married. They never went
through any form of marriage. One of them is unable to leave his
room. How am I to act, so as to keep the matter private ? I presume
I must get Dispensation in Banns, and permission to have the
ceremony in the room of the Sponsus.

" What about the witnesses — I presume there must be two. How
and where is the marriage to be registered ?

364 Theological Questions.

2nd. Suppose I had this knowledge extra Confessionem Sac., what
would be the difference ?

3rd. " Is there any case with us in which the Testes can be
dispensed with ?"

I.

Independently of the sacramental sigillum, natural
justice would oblige the confessor to safeguard as far as
possible the character of this wretched couple, and to marry
them with all possible privacy.

1. The confessor must get permission from his penitents
to use his sacramental knowledge for the purposes of the
marriage. He must not use this knowledge beyond the
limits of his permission.

2. He must get a dispensation in the Banns.

3. Abstracting from diocesan legislation, I think he
requires no permission to perform the ceremony in the room
of the Sponsus. " Matrimonium" writes De Herdt, "juxta
rituale, in ecclesia maxime celebrari decet. Haec verba»ro€-
ceptum prae se non ferunt." Again the Maynooth Statutes
(n. 109) prescribe, " Matrimonia fidelium, extra casum
necessitatis, vel gravem aliam causam per Episcopum deter-
minandam fiant semper in ecclesia." The Rubric therefore
does not impose a precept; and the Synod does not require
the marriage to be celebrated in a Church (1) in a case of
necessity ; (2) for some grave reason to be determined by
the Bishop. The case contemplated is manifestly a case of
necessity.

4. It is necessary to have at least two witnesses.

5 ; We may apply to the celebration and registration of this
marriage, what Cardinal Caprara wrote regarding the
invalidation of certain invalid marriages, " si nullitas
matrimoniioccultasitseu communiterignoretur, matrimonium
coram proprio parochu, adhibitis saltern duobus testibus
confidentibus .... contraheridum est, adnotata deinde
revalidationein secretorummatrimoniorum libro " (apud Carriere,
n. 1455, et Gury^ 892). The marriage, therefore, should be
registered in some private register, to prevent the possibility
of future infamia to the contracting parties.

Theological Questions. 365

IT.

" Suppose I had this knowledge extra Confessionem T
The obligation of the sigillum would not of course exist,
but if their previous sinful state were not publicly known
the natural law would oblige the priest to marry the persons
with as little injury to their character as possible, and to
abstain from revealing their past sinful state even after their
marriage. The witnesses too would be bound by this
natural obligation, but of course not by the sigillum. Other-
wise there is no substantial difference between the cases.

III.

" Is there any case with us^ &c. ?

It is not necessary, 1 am sure, to note all the cases where
the law of clandestinity does not bind. But practically in
this country there is no case, in which the witnesses can be
dispensed with, when two Catholics are getting married, who
have not gone through the form of marriage, even invalidly,
before their parish priest or his delegate and two or more
witnesses.

II.

OFFERINGS GIVEN ON THE OCCASION OF MARRIAGE.

" Please answer the following in next issue of RECORD : — Does an
offering made to the officiating priest on the occasion of marriage or
baptism become part of divisible dues ? Perhaps one or two cases in
point will best illustrate my question. 1st. Parties living in a
country district wish to be married in Dublin. The usual marriage
fee is arranged and paid before they leave home. Immediately after
the ceremony they give to their parish priest, who accompanied them,
a sum of money which is considerably more than sufficient to defray
the expenses of his journey. Does this sum or any part of it become
divisible dues ? 2nd. When the bride and bridegroom, after a
marriage in their own parish, have left the church and are about
to drive away, they offer a money present to the priest who
assisted at the ceremony. This is not accepted by him though he
knows that it is offered out of personal friendship. He is then asked
to take it and distribute it in charity. Would the priest have been
justified in accepting this present for himself, or should he, had he

366 Theological Questions.

accepted it, make it divisible dues ? Was he justified in accepting it
as charity ? Or was he bound to take it when first offered, and share
it with his curates ?

B. B,

I must confess to be rather imperfectly acquainted with
the local laws and customs which regulate the distribution of
offerings given on the occasion of administering the sacra-
ments. The offerings, however, given on the occasion of
marriage and baptism are generally regarded in this country
as divisible dues.

Before replying to the specific questions raised by my
correspondent, I purpose to make a few general observations
on the subject matter of this query.

It is forbidden under pain of suspension to refuse to
administer the sacrament of baptism on the pretext of the
insufficiency of the honorarium. It is also forbidden on the
same penalty to refuse to assist at a marriage, unless on
receipt or promise of a certain sum of money or its equivalent.
But in those parts of the country, where the offerings given
on the occasion of marriage, constitute an important part of
the priest's income, it is generally arranged before the
ceremony how much the contracting parties are to give the
officiating priest.

Complications however sometimes arise. For example, if
the arrangements made before marriage, include the applica-
tion of Mass for the contracting parties, a difficulty will arise
about the stipendium of the celebrant. How much, it will be
asked, shall the celebrant get from the marriage offering
for celebrating Mass for the newly-married couple ? Of course
the stipendium should be determined by diocesan law or the
custom of the diocese about nuptial masses.

Again, practices unworthy of the priesthood are con-
ceivable; the celebrant may suggest a small marriage
offering — the divisible offering — on the rather certain ex-
pectation of receiving a rich gift for his own private use. In
some dioceses the danger of such a practice is obviated by a
diocesan law providing that all offerings given on the
occasion of marriage are divisible dues. And the words
" occasione matrimonii " are very widely interpreted so as to

Theological Questions. 367

include all offerings whether given as a matrimonial stipen-
dium, or as a gift to the celebrant at the marriage.

To return to the questions : (a) " Parties . . . wish to be
married in Dublin. The usual marriage fee is paid before
they leave home. Immediately after the ceremony they
give to their parish priest a sum of money considerably more
than sufficient to defray the expenses of his journey. Does
any part of this sum become divisible dues ?

1. In the absence of diocesan law no part of this money
necessarily becomes divisible dues. The usual marriage fee
had been paid. Why then should the parish priest be ob-
liged to divide and give to his curates a part of the money
he got for travelling to Dublin 1

2. Suppose a diocesan law requires all the money given
on the occasion of marriage to be divided, would the parish
priest be bound to divide this money ? I think ordinarily he
would not be bound,

In the present case the usual marriage fee had been paid.
Had the parties been married at home the curates would
,not have fared better. Again the law is made to prevent the
danger of abuse ; but there is very little danger of abuse in
connection with those who come to Dublin to be married
the cases are rather rare. Lastly and chiefly we are not to
consider the expenses of the journey alone. Such a diocesan
law would allow a honorarium from the marriage offering if
the marriage agreement required the celebration of Mass.
Similarly it would allow a liberal gratuity for a journey to
Dublin. A priest gets half a-crown to say a low Mass, what
would he expect to say a High Mass ? What would he expect
to drive a few miles and say Mass in a private house in the
morning ? Estimate, therefore, the priest's personal labour in
coming to Dublin by the standard of the labor extrinsecus, of
driving to a private house in the morning, to say Mass, and it
will be admitted that generally speaking a parish priest is not
bound to divide such an offering with his curates.

If the sum were extraordinary the matter should — in the
hypothesis of a diocesan law — be submitted to the bishop.

(V) " When the bride and bridegroom after marriage in
their own parish, have left the church . . . they offer a money

68 Liturgical Questions.

present to the priest who assisted at the ceremony. This is
not accepted though known to be offered out of personal
friendship. He is then asked to take it and distribute it in
charity. Would he be justified in accepting it for himself,
or should he — had he accepted it — make it divisible dues?
Was he justified in accepting it as charity? or was he bovnd
to take it and share it with his curates ?"

I assume that the usual marriage fee was paid. In the
absence of diocesan law the priest could accept the money
for himself ; or he could accept it as charity and so distribute
it ; or he could refuse to accept it. The curates had no right
to the present that was offered to the parish priest solely on
the ground of personal friendship.

Suppose the priests of the diocese were bound to divide
all the money received occasions matrimonii ?

1. If the parish priest accepted the money even as a personal
gift he would be bound to regard it as belonging to the divisible
dues. 2. He would not be bound to accept it as a personal
gift. This diocesan law would not oblige him to receive as
divisible money what was offered as a strictly personal gift.
3. He might accept it as charitable money and so distribute
it. This law would compel him to divide only the money
given for his own or his curate's use on the occasion of
marriage.

D. COGHLAN.

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

THE CEREMONIES OF SOME ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS.

CHAPTER III. — THE PREPARATION FOR MASS, AND THE
PROCESSION TO THE ALTAR.

SECTION I. — THE PREPARATION.

On the vestment-bench the deacon's vestments are laid to
the right, the sub-deacon's to the left of the celebrant's.

Liturgical Questions. 369

When the celebrant comes to the bench the sacred ministers,
already vested in amice, alb, and girdle, salute him,1 and
assist him to vest.2 The vesting of the celebrant having
been completed, he assumes his biretta, and stands with his
hands joined in front of his breast, or resting on the bench
until the master of ceremonies gives the signal for moving.
Meanwhile the deacon and sub-deacon, assisted by the
acolytes, array themselves — the former in maniple, stole, and
dalmatic, the latter in maniple and tunic. If the celebrant
is covered, as it is right he should be, the sacred minister
may also cover,3 unless they are to proceed immediately to
the altar.

The acolytes carrying their candles, and the thurifer
having his hands joined in front, place themselves either
beside the sacred ministers or behind them, according to the
circumstances of the sacristy. If they are in a line with the
celebrant and sacred ministers, the first acolyte is at the
deacon's right, the second at the sub-deacon's left, and the
thurifer is beside the acolyte whose place is nearest the door
leading to the sanctuary. If they are behind, the first acolyte
stands behind the deacon, the second behind the sub-deacon,
and the thurifer stands between the two acolytes. The master
of ceremonies, whose duty it is to give the signal for proceeding
to the altar as soon as the clergy have taken their places in
choir, stands where he can most conveniently discharge this
duty.

At the signal from the master of ceremonies the celebrant
and his ministers uncover, and make, accompanied by the
master of ceremonies and the inferior ministers, a profound
inclination of the head4 to the crucifix. The ministers salute

3 De Conny, Lav. II., ch. ii., art. 2.

2 See page 275.

3 De Conny, loc. cit.

4Falise, Part I, chap, i., sect, ii., n. 6. Quarti, Part II, Tit. ii., n. 1.
De Herdt., Tom. i., n. 199. Many authors, however, direct a profound
inclination of the body to be made. Such, they say, is the inclination
which should always be made to the cross or crucifix. The Rubric (Tit. ii.,
n. 1) simply says facia reverentia. This phrase, as Falise (loc. cit.) with
great show of reason contends, would seem to imply only an inclination of
the head.

VOL. X. 2 A

370 Liturgical Questions.

the celebrant with a medium inclination of the head, which
the celebrant, still uncovered,1 acknowledges by a slight
nclination.

SECTION II. — THE PROCESSION TO THE ALTAR.

In going to the altar the thurifer walks first, keeping his
hands joined in front. He takes holy water at the door 01
the sacristy, where a small font is fixed in a convenient place.
After him are the two acolytes with their candles. They
walk side by side, and do not take holy water. The master
of ceremonies follows. At the door of the sacristy he pre-
sents holy water to the sub-deacon who comes next him.
The sub-deacon does the same to the deacon, and the
latter again to the celebrant. All uncover when receiving
the holy water.

Having arrived at a convenient place for saluting the
choir, the master of ceremonies and the first acolyte step a
little to the right, the second acolyte and the thurifer a little
to the left, and between them the celebrant, with the deacon
on his right and the sub-deacon on his left, takes his place.
Standing thus in a straight or slightly curved line the
celebrant and sacred ministers uncover, and all together
salute both sides of the choir with a moderate inclination of
the body,3 beginning with the side which they approach first
in coming from the sacristy. The choir t responds by a
similar inclination, and the celebrant and his ministers,
resuming their former places, go to the foot of the altar.
Here they take up the same relative positions which they
had when saluting the cross of the sacristy; that is, either
all in a line, the celebrant tin the centre, on his right the
deacon, thurifer, and first acolyte, and on his left the sub-
deacon, master of ceremonies, and second acolyte ; or, the
two acolytes with the thurifer between them behind the
sacred ministers, and the master of ceremonies at the left of
the sub-deacon, or wherever he finds most convenient. The

1 De Herdt, Tom. i., n. 306.

2 Bourbon, n. 344, who adds, " Telle parait etre la pratique commune."
8 Authors generally.

Liturgical Questions. 371

accompanying plan will make these directions more easily
understood : —

(1) FIRST STEP OF ALTAR

2 A. M. C. S. D. C. D. TH. 1 A.
(2)

FIRST STEP OF ALTAR

M. C. S.D. C. D.

2 A. TH. 1 A.

Having arranged themselves in one of these ways all
genuflect, if the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle ; if
the Blessed Sacrament is not in the tabernacle the celebrant
salutes the cross of the altar with a profound inclination of
the body; but all the others, including the deacon and sub-
deacon, genuflect

CHAPTER V.— FROM THE BEGINNING OF MASS TO THE
INCENSATION OF THE ALTAR.

The Celebrant having saluted the altar makes the sign
of the cross on himself in the usual way while saying
the words In nomine Patris, etc., and says alternately
with the deacon and sub- deacon the antiphon Introibo,
and the psalm Judica. At the Gloria Patri he makes a
profound inclination of the head, then repeats the antiphon,
makes the sign of the cross at the Deus in adjutorium, and
inclining profoundly says the Confiteor.

The Deacon and Sub-deacon make the sign of the cross
along with the celebrant, and repeat the responses in a
medium tone of voice. They incline the head profoundly at
the Gloria Patri and again make the sign of the cross at the
Deus in adjutorium.

2he Master of Ceremonies, having placed the birettas on
the bench, kneels in piano on the Epistle side, and in a
subdued tone says the responses along with the sacred
ministers.

Ihe Acolytes, after genuflecting, carry their candles to the
credence, place them on the posterior angles, and kneel near
the credence with their faces towards the altar, and each

372 Liturgical Questions.

beside his own candle. They make the sign of the cross and
join in saying the responses.

The Thurifer, when he has genuflected to the altar, pro-
ceeds immediately to the sacristy to get the censer and
incense in readiness.

The Choir kneels when the celebrant and his ministers
salute the altar. The clergy sign themselves at the beginning
and at the Deus in adjutorium, but do not incline at the
Gloria Patril

The Celebrant remaining profoundly inclined says the
Confiteor, and at the words vobis fratres, vos fratres, turns
slowly, first towards the deacon, then towards the sub-deacon.
When the ministers have, finished the miser eatur tui he stands
erect.

The Deacon and Sub-deacon inclining moderately2 towards
the celebrant, who is still profoundly inclined, say the miser eatur
tui) then inclining profoundly towards the altar, they say the
Confiteor, turning towards the celebrant at the tibi, pater, and
te, pater.

The Master of Ceremonies, and the Acolytes accompany the
sacred ministers in words and actions.

The Choir says the Confiteor along with the ministers,
and though kneeling inclines profoundly.3

The Celebrant while saying the misereatur vestri turns
towards the deacon and sub-deacon as at the Confiteorf
at the Indulgentiam he makes the sign of the cross on himself.

The Deacon and Sub-deacon remain inclined until the
celebrant has said the misereatur vestri. At the Indulgentiam
they stand erect and make the sign of the cross.

The other Ministers and the Choir accompany the sacred
Ministers throughout.

The Celebrant and all the Ministers make a moderate
inclination of the body at the Deus in adjutorium meum.
(To be continued).

1 Bourbon, n. 361, note. S. 0. R. Aug. 12, 1854. Ludonem ad 65,
apud Bourbon, n. 354, note.

2 De Conny, loc. cit.

8 Bourbon, n. 361. Bauldry, Part I., chap, xvii., n. 20.

* Falise, Ceerem, Epis. De Carpo. Fart II., chap, ii., art. 2, n. 134.

Liturgical Questions. 373

AN ORATORY WITHOUT A PUBLIC ENTRANCE ONLY A PRIVATE

ORATORY.

Would you kindly offer an answer to the following query ?

" Does a public entrance to a Chapel afford any advantages or
privileges not possessed by a Chapel or Oratory without such an
entrance ?" " C."

Any building dedicated to divine worship and having no
public entrance is nothing more than a private Oratory ;
having a public entrance such a building would be at least a
public Oratory. A public entrance, therefore, confers those
privileges which public Oratories enjoy, but of which private
Oratories are deprived. To celebrate Mass in a public
Oratory the permission of the Bishop of the place is suffi-
cient ; while for celebrating in a private Oratory permission
must be granted by the Pope himself. In public Oratories
legitimately erected Mass may be celebrated on all feasts of
the year ; in private Oratories, on the other hand, Mass
cannot be celebrated, without special licence ad hoc, on
several of the principal feasts ; as Christmas, Epiphany,
Easter, &c.

WHAT is MEANT BY A "PRIVATE" MASS?

" A constant reader of the RECORD asks for information as to the
exact meaning of the terms used in the Ordo, in Missa privata,
as he is at times in doubt as to the necessity of saying the prayers
ordered to be said only in Missa privata, e.g., the commemoration
of Saints on the Visitation, July 2nd."

The phrase " Private Mass " has two meanings which
must be carefully distinguished. A Mass is private as contra-
distinguished either from a public Mass, or from a solemn Mass.
A public Mass is that which is celebrated in a Church or
public Oratory, and at which the general body of the
faithful are invited to attend, while a private Mass is one
that is either celebrated in a Private Oratory, or, if celebrated
in a public Oratory or Church, is one at which the faithful
are neither invited nor expected to assist. " From the
beginning of the thirteenth century," writes Le Brun, « and

374 Liturgical Questions.

even from an earlier period, a Mass celebrated in any Church
in presence of all the people, both men and women, has
been called a public Mass, to distinguish it from Masses
sometimes called private, because celebrated either in
private chapels, or for deceased persons in presence of their
relatives and friends alone, or in Monastic Churches."1
Public Masses, as Cardinal Bona remarks,2 are so called not
precisely from the place in which they are celebrated, since
formerly public Masses were celebrated in the Catacombs
and in secret and most remote places, but from the assembly
of the people offering the Mass along with the priest.

As distinguished from a solemn Mass a private Mass is
usually defined to be that in which the celebrant is not
assisted by a deacon or sub- deacon, in which there are no
chanters, and only one mass-server.3 By ' chanters' in this
definition, are to be understood chanters singing alternately
with the celebrant; for music and singing in which the
celebrant takes no part, do not of themselves constitute the
solemnity of the Mass. Neither will the presence of more
than one acolyte or mass-server suffice to render the Mass
solemn. One mass-server is sufficient in a private Mass, and
only one is permitted, unless in community or parochial
Masses, or at a Bishop's Mass, when there may be two. It is
in this latter signification that the phrase Private Mass is used
in the Directory or Ordo. Our esteemed correspondent will,
therefore, please understand, that when the Ordo directs
certain prayers to be said in Missa privata, they are to be
said in every Mass that is neither a Solemn or High Mass,
nor a Missa cantata, whether that Mass be said in the priest's
private oratory, in a convent chapel, or a parish church ; or
whether it is said on a week-day with no one present but
the mass-server, or on a Sunday in presence of a large
congregation.

D. O'LOAN.

1 Explicatio Missae, p. 3.

2 Rerum Liturgicarum, L 1, c. 13, 3.

3 ". . . privatam [missam] vero quae sine diacono et subdiacono,
et cantoribus, uno tantum ministrante celebratur, sive aliqui fideles ei
intersint, sive nullus adsit, sive solus celebrans communicet, sive sint
aliqui communicantes," (Card. Bona, loc. cit. 5).

CORRESPONDENCE.

LETTER FROM THE RIGHT REV. DR. HOWLEY, PREP. APOST.

NEWFOUNDLAND ON THE INDULT OF 1862.
[With great pleasure we publish the following interesting
letter from the Right Rev. Dr. Howley, Prefect-Apostolic,
Newfoundland. Our Right Rev. and esteemed correspondent
settles once for all the question raised about the interpre-
tation of the Indult of 1862, and mentions several items of
special interest to the priests of Newfoundland.]

" SANDY POINT, BAY ST. GEORGE,

" WEST NEWFOUNDLAND, Feb. 10th, 1889.

u REV. DEAR SIR,— I take the liberty of addressing you on a
subject discussed in the I. E. RECORD for January, 1889, viz., that
of the Indult of 1862, regarding Requiem Mass, presente cadavere. I
was myself particularly interested in the discussion, as I had just
received from Propaganda a corresponding Indult for the priests of
this Mission.

" Throughout the whole of Newfoundland the Irish Ordo is
used, but I was in doubt as to whether we, with the concession
of said Ordo, received also all the Indults and other favours —
Indulgences, &c.— and also whether we were bound by the restrictions,
&c., such as fasts ; and if not, I asked for the privilege conferred on,
Ireland in the Indult of 1862.

" I was answered by the S. Congregation of Propaganda, to
the first part negative, and in reply to the second I received
the Indult.

" The question raised by your correspondent was this. As in
the petition of the bishops it is asked if in places where on
account of the scarcity of priests — Ob sacerdotwn inopiam — High
Mass (Missa solemnis) could not be celebrated, Low Masses might
be read (legi possinl Missae privatae). The S. Congregation
granted the privilege juxta preces. Ergo, argues your correspondent,
several (or at least more than one) Low Masses can be read, as
the preces are for Missae.

" You show that this interpretation is incorrect," and give
reasons. Even if the words as quoted in the Directory are
correct, the words Missae privatae in the plural refer evidently
to the words in Us loci?, viz., Requiem Masses may be read
in these places, i,e. one in each. The very nature of the request
would show it, because the favour is granted only ob inopiam

376 Correspondence.

sacerdotum. Hence, if there were several priests to say several private
Masses, then they would be obliged to sing the solemn Mass, and
the favour even of saying one private Mass would not be available.

" In the Decree which I have received from Propaganda. The
petition or preces was formulated, not by me, but by the authorities
there, and it runs thus, legi valeat Missa privata de requiem, in the
singular. But I see Canon Keogh in the Or do for 1889 declares in
a note that the Decree is to be understood de unica Missa privata. It
seems strange that any other idea could have arisen in any one's
mind,

" I remain, Very Rev. Dear Sir, in haste,
" Yours sincerely,

" M. F. HOWLET, D.D., P.A,"

CIVILIZATION OF PRE-CHRISTIAN IRELAND.

" VERY REV. DEAR SIR, — As a student of Irish history, I feel bound
to utter a word of protest against Father Curry's easy assumption,
in his article in the last number of the RECORD, of the complete
barbarism of A nti- Christian Ireland. No one thoroughly conversant
with our early history, and surely no one acquainted with our early litera-
ture, would dream of comparing the Irishman, say of the first century
with ' the unreclaimed New-Zealander.' To pass over other proofs
of our early civilization, why the very music and legislation, whose
origin the article would date from the coming of Christianity, go to
prove that Ireland was far indeed removed from barbarism in Pagan
times. ~~ Irish music was not the growth of a few years. Long before
the Christian Era we know that the Irish aos ciuil had the three
famous compositions, the Suantraighe, the Gentraighe, and the
Goltraighe, — compositions whose various nature and acknowledged
power argue a respectable acquaintance with the rules of musical
harmony and composition.

" And ' the laws of consummate wisdom \ which were in force in
St. Patrick's time were (according to ^an almost cotemporary
tradition) but slightly changed from the Pagan code, to meet the
requirements of Christian ethics, and of justice stricter than that
taught by Cormac or Ollamh Fodhla.

" It is hard to see the Irishman, even as he was before the light of
Christianity reached him, placed in the same category with the savage
New-Zealander, whose chief music is the whizz of his boomerang and
whose will is his only law.

" I remain, Very Rev. Sir, yours respectfully,

" G. M. N."

[ 377 ]

DOCUMENTS.

S. CONGREGATION OF RITES.

SUMMARY.

I. Vestments to be worn by a bishop when making the visitation
in his cathedral or other notable church.

II. Anniversary Mass for election and consecration of the bishop
of the diocese on a major double feast, or within a privileged octave.

III. Can Mass de requiem be celebrated, praesente cadaver e, on
Feasts of St. Joseph and of St. John Baptist ?

IY. Feast of Commemoration of St. Paul in concurrence with the
Office of the Most Precious Blood.

V. Patronage of St. Joseph in concurrence with St. George,
patron of the province.

URGELLKN.

Hodiernus Magister Caeremoniarum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Urgel-
lensis de mandate sui Rmi. Episcopi insequentia Dubia Sacrorum
Rituum Congregation! pro opportuna resolutione humillime subjecit,
nimirum : —

DUBIUM I. An Episcopus in actu Visitationis Cathedralis
Ecclesiae vel aliarum Insignium Ecclesiarum suae Dioeceseos, indui
possit, ad majorem solemnitatem, amictu, alba, etc., cum pluvial! et
mitra, ad portam ipsius Ecclesiae, antequam aspersorium accipiat ac
thurificetur, prout alicubi factum est ?

DUBIUM II. 1° Utrum recurrente officio duplici majore non de
praecepto, cani possit in Cathedral! pro Anniversario elect ionis et
consecrationis Episcopi Dioecesani ?

2° Potestne cantari in die infra Octavam privilegiatam, quando
praedictum Anniversarium incidit in ipsam ?

DDBICM III. Quum non idem sentiant Rubricistae circa Missam
de Requie, corpore praesente, in Festis S. Joseph Patroni Ecclesiae
Catholicae et Nativitatis Sancti Joannis Baptistae, ideo ad uniformi-
tatem in praxi stabiliendam quaeritur :

1° Utrum Decreta Sacrae Rituum Congregationis IN VERONEN.
diei 7 Februarii 1874, ad L, nee non IN LUCIONEN. diei 28 Decembris
1884, ad VII., ita absolute intelligenda sint, ut nulla ratione nulloque
in casu permittatur solemnis Missji de Requie, praesente cadavere, in
Festo S. Patriarchae Joseph, necne ?

2° Utrum Missa de Eequie cani possit in Nativitate S. Joannis,

378 Documents.

ubi solemnitas hujus Festi translata invenitur ad sequentem Domini-
cam ? Et quatenus negative :

3° An eadem Missa etiara in praefata Dominica censenda sit
prohibita ? Et quatenus affirmative :

4° An praedicta Missa cani possit die Dominica iis in locis, ubi
quamvis generaliter translata sit solemnitas festi Nativitatis
S. Joannis ad sequentem Dominicam, prout fit in Hispaniaex Decreto
S. R.C. diei 2 Maii 1867, tamen populus, nihil curans nee memoriam
habens de ea translatione, fere eodem modo ac antea Nativitatem
S. Joannis recolit ?

DUBIUM IV. An in Vesperis Commemorationis S. Pauli Ap. in
concurrentia cum Omcio pretiosissimi Sanguinis D. N. J. C. fieri
debeat commemoratio SS. Petri et Pauli per antiphonam communem
Petrus Apostolus, etc. ?

DUBIUM V. Ubi Patrocinium S. Joseph colitur sub ritu Duplicis
I cl., quomodo ordinandae Vesperae in concursu cum Officio S. Georgii
Mart., Patroni Principatus Cathalauniae, quod quidem celebratur sub
ritu eodem cum octava, absque tamen apparatu et feriatione : num
integrae de Patrocinio cum commemoratione S. Georgii ? an vero e
contra ?

Et S. R. C. ad relationem infrascripti Secretarii, exquisitoque
voto altering Apostolicarum Caeremoniarum Magistris, omnibus
mature perpensis ita propositis Dubiis rescribendum censuit, videlicet :

Ad I. Serventur dispositiones Pontificalis Romani, in Ordine ad
visitandas parochias.

Ad II. Affirmative, juxta Decretum IN MECHLINIEN, diei 12
Septembris 1840 quoad primam partem ; Negative, et fiat commemo-
ratio sub unica conclusione quoad secundam partem.

Ad III. Affirmative, ad primam quaestionem ; Negative ad
secundam; Affirmative ad tertiam, juxta Decretum IN NA.MURCEX,
diei 23 Maii 1835 ; et Affirmative ad quartam.

Ad IV. Detur Decretum IN MELITEN. diei 24 Martii 1860.

Ad V. In usu Vesperae celebrentur integrae de S. Georgio, cum
commemoratione Patrocinii S. Joseph.

Atque ita rescripsit et servari mandavit, die 20 Aprilis 1888.

A. Card. BTANCHI, S. R. C. Praefectus.

[ 379 ]

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. By His Grace
the Most Rev. Dr. MacEvilly, Archbishop of Tuam.
Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son.' New York: Benziger
Brothers, 1889.

His GRACE, THE ARCHBISHOP OF TUAM, enjoys the proud dis-
tinction of being the first Catholic who has written a Commentary in
the English language on the Gospels and Epistles. With the present
volume on St. John, the illustrious author completes the exposition
of the Gospels, having in 1862 published a volume on St. Matthew
and St. Mark, and three years later a second volume on St. Luke.
The exposition of the Epistles, Pauline and Catholic, was published
in 1856, in two volumes, while His Grace was President of St.
Jarlath's College, and was received with such favour, that in a com-
paratively short time, it reached a third edition. The rapid sale of
his first work both convinced the author of its merits and usefulness,
and rendered it almost a sacred duty with him to supply the public
want thus manifested with a similar exposition of the remaining books
of the New Testament.

This duty His Grace has not shirked. Though burdened with
the cares, and occupied with the labours inseparable from his exalted
office, he has already succeeded in bringing his truly noble work
almost to q close. We say " almost," for we still await the exposition
of the Acts of the Apostles, which His Grace has promised to give
to the public.

Public opinion, as we have seen, had borne eloquent testimony to
the intrinsic merits of His Grace's work on the Epistles long before
he proceeded with his labours on the Gospels. The same tribunal
has pronounced a similar judgment on these labours. The first
edition of the work on St. Matthew and St. Mark was sold within
the year after its publication, and the volume on St. Luke has
already reached a second edition. We confidently predict a like
reception for the present volume.

His Grace's object in writing his commentaries] was uto furnish
the intelligent laity and reading portion of the Catholic community
with a thoroughly Catholic exposition, in their own language, of one
of the most important portions of the SS. Scriptures, and to supply the
ecclesiastical student with a compendious treatise from which to draw
materials, at a future day, for instructing others."

380 Notices of Books.

This two-fold object made it necessary to combine the popular
with the scientific method of exposition; to make the exposition read-
able for persons untrained in accurate criticism, while rendering it
at the same time useful to biblical students. The favour with which
the commentaries have been received affords the best proof how
successfully this object has been attained.

The form of the present work does not differ substantially from that
of its predecessors, though in one direction a decided improvement
has been introduced. In this, as in the volumes on the Synoptic
Gospels, is given an analysis of each chapter at the head of the com-
mentary on that chapter ; but whereas, in the earlier volumes only
the English version of the Sacred Text is printed ; in the present we
have, in addition to the English, the text of the Vulgate. Moreover,
in the other volumes the text of each chapter was divided into
sections, each of which was printed only at the beginning of the ex-
position of that section ; but in the present, the full text of each
chapter, first from the Rhemish version, then from the Clementine
Vulgate, is printed before the analysis and exposition of the text.
Finally, — and this we consider the most useful improvement — along
the margin of each page in the present volume are printed — again,
both in English and Latin — the portions of the text commented upon
in that page. We are firmly convinced that many who read com-
mentaries on the Scriptures fail to grasp the meaning of the Inspired
Word, because they fail to study the text itself along with the com-
mentary, and to examine the text minutely by the light which the
commentary affords. But when the text, as in this volume,[is*prmted
on the margin, and is, therefore, under his very eyes, the reader of
the commentary can have no possible excuse for not referring to it,
and convincing himself by attentive reflection on it, of the soundness
of the commentator's reasoning. To the ecclesiastical student the
presence of the Vulgate text is specially useful if not absolutely
necessary, both because that is the text which he must explain, and
because many obscure aud un-idiomatic phrases in the English
version are rendered easily intelligible by reference to the Latin.

In style and method the present work resembles those which have
already come from the pen of the learned Archbishop. The style is
clear, rather than elegant, simple, rather than ornate ; and, therefore,
calculated rather to convey intelligibly the writer's meaning than to
please the fastidious hunter after fine phrases. The method is a skil-
ful combination of the paraphrase with the critical exposition. The
following extract, taken at random, is a fair specimen of both the

Notices of Books. 381

style and method. On the \\ords of our Lord (xiii., 26), He it is to
whom I shall reach bread dipped, His Grace writes: — " The pre-
valent custom in the East was to use the hand as the instrument for
conveying food to the mouth. It was also customary to have a dish
filled with some sauce, into which all were wont, in common, to dip
pieces of bread before eating it. Hence, when our Lord says, ' he
that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish,' etc. (Matthew xxvi., 23),
he only refers to the traitor in a general way, as forming a part of
the company and as one of His intimate friends. Now He gives a
secret, special intimation by saying, ' he to whom I shall reach bread
dipped^ and suiting the action to the word, handed it to Judas Iscariot.
From this John clearly saw Judas was the person referred to. Very
likely, Judas, purse-bearer and almoner to our Lord and to the Apos-
tolic College, occupied a place near our Lord, St. John being on the
other side of Him, as it would be difficult to reach a morsel except
to one immediately near Him. This distinction, both as to the place
he held, and the handing a morsel dipped, which was also regarded
as a privilege and mark of special favour, only helped to aggravate
the heinous ingratitude of J udas."

We are glad to find that His Grace lends the weight of his
authority to that interpretation of chapter vi , 27-47, according to
which this portion of the chapter, as well as the concluding verses, is
to be understood of the Blessed Eucharist. In this he disagrees, it
is true, with writers so renowned for biblical scholarship as Wiseman
and Patrizzi, but he has on his side other writers not less renowned,
among whom may be mentioned A Lapide, Toletus, Beelen and
Corluy. In the opinion of the authors from whom His Grace differs,
our Lord does not in the words contained in this part of the Gospel
speak of the Blessed Eucharist, but only of faith in Himself. One
o± the arguments against this interpretation is thus given on the
page before us (119).

" From His saying, that faith is the chief work or means necessary
for securing this food, it would seem to follow that the food itself is
not faith, that faith is distinguished from the food as means from the
end, this food being no other than His own adorable body and blood
which is given as the reward of faith, and, therefore, distinct from it."

We can merely call attention to the admirable proof of the Real
Presence, drawn from the words of the sixth chapter, and printed as
a special dissertation at the end of the commentary on that chapter.
The proof is illustrated by a telling comparison, and the one objection
from the words spiritus e*t qui vivificat, etc., to which Protestants

382 Notices of Books.

have so doggedly clung, is simply annihilated by our learned author's
close reasoning and copious illustration.

We are sorry we cannot always accept the interpretation His
Grace seems to favour. For example, he adopts the interpretation
first given by St. Augustine, and followed by Toletus and Patrizzi,
of the well-known words quid mihi et tibi mulier ? This interpre-
tation makes these words mean, " What is there common to you and
to Me," that is, in the matter of performing a miracle, which is a
work solely of My Divine Nature, und not of My Human Nature, in
which alone there is anything common to you and to Me. This in-
terpretation may, and no doubt does, " vindicate our Lord's filial
devotion to His Blessed Mother," to use His Grace's words, but we
candidly confess that, in our opinion, it does so by giving to our
Lord's words a meaning they were never intended to convey. For as
Coiiuy says, " usv-s loquendi hnnc sensum non omnino admittere videtur.

There is one omission in this work which we hope to see supplied
in the next edition — the omission namely of all or most of the critical
arguments for the authenticity of those parts of the fourth Gospel
which are rejected by some modern pseudo-critics. Kegarding the
Deutero-canonical verses (vii., 53 — viii., 11), the author does little
more than remark that " no Catholic can question their authenticity
after the solemn declaration of the Council of Trent." This, no
doubt, is quite true, though it is little over twenty years since the
learned, and thoroughly orthodox Vercellone published a special
dissertation to show that the declaration of the Council of Trent did
not make it obligatory on Catholics to accept these verses as inspired
Scripture. Vercellone's opinion we believe to be false ; but that not-
withstanding we hold, that in these days of "progress," whether
real or supposed, when every belief, however, ancient or sacred it
may be, is submitted to the most searching and rigorous examination
by bitter but able opponents, it is expedient to place within the reach
of our educated Catholics every facility for enabling them " to give
a reason for the hope that is in them."

We need not recommend this volume to our readers. The high
reputation for biblical criticism, which its illustrious author enjoys,
stamps it with a far higher recommendation than any words of ours
could convey. May he yet have many years to complete and perfect
the great work of his life, which though a labour of love " was no
easy task, yea, rather a business full of watching and sweat."
(ii. Mach. 2, 27.) ; D. O'L.

Notices of Books. 383

A THOUGHT FROM ST. VINCENT DE PAUL FOB EACH DAY OF

THE YEAR. Translated from the French by Frances M.

Kemp. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago : Benziger

Brothers.

THE views and sentiments of great men deserve, no doubt, a
considerable share of public attention. It is interesting, as well as
instructive, to learn what such as these have thought and felt in
circumstances differing perhaps but little from our own. If this be
true of great men in general, it applies with additional force in the
case of the saints. Of all great men, they unquestionably must be
considered the greatest.

The little book here noticed cannot, therefore, fail to furnish us
with ready and abundant interest. As the title indicates, it contains
for each day of the entire year a thought from the great " Apostle
of Charity," St. Vincent de Paul, Amid the cares and sorrows of
worldly life thoughts like these will help to cheer and encourage us,
as well as to remind us of the one sole ^end of our existence here on
earth. The little book will therefore be read with pleasure and
profit by all, and we heartily wish it every possible success.

GLITTERING STARS ON OUR LADY'S MANTLE; OR, SELECT
ILLUSTRATIONS OF MARY'S GREATNESS AND GOODNESS.
By Eev. Thaddeus, O.S.F. Mechlin : H Dessain.
THIS little volume can be read by all with pleasure and profit.
It is partly devotional and partly historical, containing as it does a
short method of making a Noveua in preparation for some of the
Principal Feasts of Our Lady, together with a concise account of the
origin and progress of some of the devotions and prayers in her
honour. The whole work is replete with much useful historical in-
formation on the principal Feasts of the Blessed Virgin.

LIFE OF ST. JOSEPH. By Edward Healy Thompson.

London : Burns & Oates, Limited.

Some months ago a work appeared which has supplied a want
deeply felt in this country by those who love St. Joseph. It is no
easy task to write a full narrative of a life which, after that of Mary,
was the most closely wedded to the Incarnate Word. Such a life is
indeed "hidden with Christ in God." From the scant Gospel
reference, the biographer finds little contemporary material to build
the entire fabric of a life. But the chief groundwork of a life of
St. Joseph is found in the " voluminous theology which saints and
doctors have grouped around him."

384 Notices of Books.

The book before us may be divided into three parts. The first
part expounds the singular predestination of St. Joseph. From his
close connection with the Word made man, St. Joseph derires his trans-
cendent power and dignity. The second part tells the story of the
saint's life, as sketched in the writings of doctors, theologians and
contemplatives. The third part narrates how devotion to St. Joseph was
ever a prominent feature of the Church. The star had set, yet an
effulgence which was not to grow dim, but brighten after the lapse of
ages, rested in its wake. " Patron of the Universal Church " is the title
which our own age has conferred on this wonderful saint.

The Life of St. Joseph comes to us from the pen of Edward Healy
Thompson. The author tells us the sources whence he drew the
proximate matter of what he modestly calls a composite work. The
name of Mr, Thompson is a sufficient guarantee that the materials
have been judiciously selected, and the work skilfully performed.

We thank the author for this valuable book which he has
presented to \ English readers, and with him we earnestly pray
St. Joseph, to bless a work devoted to his honour. Those who love
to fully learn the dignity and holiness of the great patriarch will find
in this book useful and interesting reading.

His VICTORY, By Christian Reid. Notre Dame, Indiana:
" Ave Maria" Press.

CHEAP, healthy literature^ is one of the greatest needs of the
present day. This is especially true of the department of fiction,
where modern novels exert such pernicious influence. Hence any
effort to supply this present want by turnishing cheap and at the
same time profitable reading cannot too well deserve our warmest
approbation.

Of such a kind is the little book before us. Simple and unpre-
tentious, it proposes to give, under a slight tinge of romance, a brief
and faithful record of the struggles of an unbeliever towards the
light of faith. All this is, however, told with rare attractiveness
and here and there in language full of delightful imagery.

There is just one drawback : the book contains no chapters, but
forms one continuous narrative from beginning to end. This fact
robs it of a quality so essential to pleasure — that of variety.

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

MAY, 1889.

ST. PATRICK'S NATIVE TOWN AND STREET.

I.

IN the year 1756 a curious print, called the " puzzle," was
first given to the world. It was a transcript of an
epitaph, and, by the aid of a skilful engraver, was made to
wear an archaic appearance. The " puzzle " was addressed
to " the penetrating geniuses of Oxford, Cambridge,
Eton, and to the learned Society of Antiquaries." It ran
thus : —

UBENE

A. T. H. TH. ISST.

ONERE. POS. ET

H. CLAUD, cos TEE. TRIP
E. SELLERO

F. IMP

IN. GT. ONAS. Do
TH. Hi.

S. C.

ON. SOR

T. J A. N. E."

The " puzzle " was effected by a strange use of capitals
and stops, and by the strange division of words ; and it
remained a riddle till a key was supplied by its witty, mis-
chievous author. He tells us that the simple epitaph, read
without regard to the stops, capitals, or division of words,
ran as follows : — " Beneath this stone reposeth Claud Coster,
tripe-seller of Impington, as doth his consort Jane."

VOL. X. 2 B

38G St. Patrick's Native Town and Street.

II.

I never call to mind the " puzzle " without thinking, as
truth is said to be stranger than fiction, that what design did
do for the " puzzle," time, with its changes, may have done
for the beginning of St. Patrick's " Confession." This opens
with the statement that our saint was the .son of Calpurnius?
who lived in Bonaventaberniae, and had a farm close by
where he himself was made captive. But, as there are some
differences in the five extant copies or originals, if such I may
call them, of the " Confession/' I give the puzzling passage
from each, designated by a letter in alphabetical order :—
The Book of Armagh MS. (A), The Bodleian (B), Tlie
Brussels (C), The C ottoman (D), and The St. Vedast MS. (E).
1 shall subsequently quote them by reference to their res-
pective letters : —

Copy A states that the saint's father was from " vico
Bannavem Taberniae villulam enim prope habuit ubi ego
capturam dedi."

Copy B gives "vico Benaven Taberniae" etc.

Copy C has " vico Ban navem thabur indecha,"1 etc.

Copy D has " vico Banavem Taberniae," etc.

Copy E gives " vico Bonaven Taberniae," etc.

III.

Whoever carefully reads the text of the " Confession "
sees that its original copyist was not, in the division of words,
guided by any fixed standard. Nor is it unlikely that the
saint himself wrote without our usual division of sentences.
His ideas and words are saturated with Scripture, which
appears to have been an ante-Hieronymian version, or the
Itala. Now, the most famous copies of this version were the
Vercellian and Veronese Codices, written respectively at the
end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century. These
Eusebian recensions were used by St. Hilary of Poitiers and
St. Martin of Tours ; and these, like the Book of Armagh, are in
two columns in each page : while giving entire sections with-

i " Ut procul," it continues, " a mari nostro quern vicum constanter
indubitanter comperimus esse ventre.'' — Documenta de S. Pat., p. 21,
learnedly edited by Rev. E. Hogan, S. J.

St. Patrick's Native Town and Street. . 387

out a stop or division, the recensions exhibit the peculiarity
that each column, though beginning with the last syllable
of a word, gives this syllable with a capital letter. On this
principle ven-ta would be written ven-Ta. But whether or
not St. Patrick modelled — and it is very likely he did — his
style of writing on these recensions of Scripture, it is certain
that the Book of Armagh makes a strange use of capital
letters, and exhibits a division of words which is at variance
with grammatical sense.1 We find the name of Christ written
with a common c (fol. 21, ba)9 and an unimportant adjective
begun immediately with a capital letter. From all this we
may infer that a strange use of stops and capitals, with a
strange division of words, has helped to make the beginning
of the " Confession " a riddle.

IV.

In addition to the elements of obscurity operating on the
"puzzle," we may, in considering the " Confession, " include
two others — the unnatural multiplication of consonants and
the indistinct character of the letters. Firstly, we may
observe that mediaeval writers doubled the letter n, as in the
word Channa for Cana ; they needlessly inserted the letter p
in such words as columpna (pillar), dampno (loss), and sompno
(sleep), and they unaccountably duplicated the letters s and
t. Thus we meet with the forms aeclessia and semitta. The
result is that the first e in aeclessia, constantly in use in the
Book of Armagh, derivatively short is made long, and the
second e derivatively long is thus made short.

Secondly, in the Book of Armagh attention is frequently
directed to the uncertain character of the words. Thus is
Ebmoria doubtfully given, the place of St. Patrick's consecra-
tion. In the proper word Eburo-briga the characters ur were
mistaken for the letter m.

A like mistake happened to a learned Oxford professor
when editing the Stowe Missal. Owing to the efiacement of
the letters he gave as part of a prayer in the Canon of Mass
" mina directis ;" but a correspondent pointed out to him

1 Fol. 13aa makes " in terrain ore campi " read as "in terra more
campi ;" and fol. 22aa gives "euro tot millia hominum,'5

388 St. Patrick's Native Town and Street.

that the proper reading was in via, a usual phrase, which he
adopted : the m in mina was mistaken for in, and ina for via,
as v and u9 which is like n, had only one and the same form.1
Let us now apply these observations to the passages on
St. Patrick's birthplace, and we shall find the description
attributed to the saint in his " Confession " to resolve itself
into

" Bona venta Burrii, ac,"
and the alleged nentur of Fiacc to result in " Venta"

V.

1. By a comparison of copy A with G (see Sec. II.) we can
observe there was no fixed standard for the division of words
in the " Confession." For while the former gives the saint's
birthplace in two, the later gives it in four words. 2. We may
observe that copy C uses a common t in tJiabur, whereas copy
A uses a capital T in Taberniae. But the Fourth Life (Tr.
Tliaum., p. 35), uses a common t. 3. While copies A, B, D,
E, differ from C in the division of words, they differ from
each other in the various forms Bannavem, Bonavem, Benaven,
and Bonaven. We are warranted then, for the causes in
operation on the " Confession " in general and on the parti-
cular passage under consideration, in giving Bonaventa as a
part of the phrase.

Before establishing the correct reading of the rest of the
passage 1 may, though it is not necessary for my purpose,
account for the variants in Bonaven. I have already pointed
out (Sec. IV.) the tendency to multiply consonants, which
explains the duplication of n in Bonna. Besides, words in
course of time came to be viewed phonetically, that is, as
pronounced rather than as originally written, and thus the
short sound of o in Bona would easily lead to the duplica-
tion of n.

The tendency^of venta to assume an aspirated termination,
as in ventha, appears from the form thabur (see Sec. II.), and
was quite common in the middle ages. Thus in the preface
to copy C we find the Irish mentioned in the same page and

1 Corpus Missal, p. 4, edited by F. E. Warren, 1879.

St. Patrick's Native lown and Street. 389

by the same writer as Scotos, Scottos, and Scothos.* In like
manner the Book of Armagh variously gives the nsuneMateus,
Matteus, and Matheus. While then, as instanced in these
words and in semitta, (see Sec. IV.) a writer may now use two
$'s or an aspirate in the forms ventta or ventha, so by and bye
he may use only one t as in Bonaventa; and the other t being
mistaken for the last stroke in the letter m (see Sec. IV.)
would give not Bonaven but Bonavem.

VI.

Having fixed the correct reading of the first part, I take
up the last part of the puzzling phrase. The termination ac
had been mistaken for ae in Taberniae, and this has been trans-
lated by the old and modern biographers as " plain of tents;''
but there is no such Latin word, and even though there
were such a word the meaning given to it is a vague and
useless characteristic of a description in Great Britain.

And if now, for a moment, we turn from the text to the
context we are driven to reject taberniae : otherwise the next
sentence is meaningless. The saint tells us his father was of
Bonaventa, and had a farm hard by where himself was made
captive, \fuit , ac villulam enim prope habuit ubi

ego capturam dedi]. The conjunction ac couples the verbs
fuit and habuit, and the word enim, as in several passages of
Scripture familiar to St. Patrick (John ix., 30) was used in
an affirmative sense. But all who have been blind to ac and
made villulam begin a sentence had either to ignore enim or
translate it wrongly. Ware suggests enon, a name for the
farm, instead of enim, while Lanigan says it is redundant.
All other writers give to enim a causative meaning and
translate : "for he had a farm hard by." This is unnatural,
for the having a farm is no reason for being a native of it.
The converse would be more natural. The conjunction ac
was unnaturally attached to the preceding word — berni.
Of this- we have proof in the text and context of copy C
(sec. II.). This instead of Taberniae gives thabur indecha,
and states " it was not far from (ut procul) our sea." The

* Document^ #-c., p. 12.

390 St. Patrick's Native Town and Street.

phrase should be haut procul ; but the ha separated from ut
was annexed to the preceding word indec, and the phrase
then became thabur indec-ha. Copy 0 which terminated the
phrase originally in ec (thabur iudec) gave the c correctly but
mistook a for e ; whereas the other copies with the termination
ae (Taberniae) gave the a correctly but mistook c for e.
There need not be a shadow of doubt then that ac was the
original reading. In fact the Third Life gives ( Tr. Thaum.,
p. 21) not "Taberniae" but "Tabuerni" = Taburni.

VII.

Now that we have eviscerated Bona venta . . . , ac
out of Bonaventa berniae the intervening part of the
word naturally becomes Burrii. Once the copyists fancied
the words to mean " tents," it was almost inevitable that they
would give berni rather than burni or burrii : yet the force of
evidence drove the author of Third Life to give to the word
a termination — berni — at variance with his understanding of
it. With all their prejudices in favor of the wrong reading
the Lives, second, third, fifth, and sixth (Ibid., pp. 13, 21,
51, 65) give burni. The letter n in the supposed burni was
mistaken for r and i, as the whole phrase should be
" Bonaventa Burrii ac,'

Bonaventa had the same raison d' etre as Beneventum in
Naples, or Benvenuti in Etruria, A colony settling in Usk,
some half-dozen miles from Caerleon, may not have inaptly
called the new settlement Bonaventa, While three of the
five divisions into which Great Britain had been divided
were named from the Cassars or Emperors, two of them were
called the Britanniae — Britannia Prima and Britannia
Secunda : the latter nearly corresponded with the present
Wales, of which Caerleon was the capital. St. Patrick more
than once states that he was of the Britanige ; and the
Book of Armagh, or, more correctly, Patrician Documents
(p. 24) state that the saint having left home in Britain for
the Apostolic See immediately and "accordingly crossed the
southern British sea, and proceeded to cross the furthest
Alps," This statement could never have been made in
reference to North Britain.

St. Patrick's Native Town and Street. 391

VIII,

Nentur, an alleged birth-place of St. Patrick, is only a
corruption of Venta. The word is variously written Nemthur,
Nernthor, .Nenthor, Nenthur, Nentur. The Fifth Life, by
Probus, (Tr. Thaum., p. 51) who substantially gives the Book
of Armagh, states that St. Patrick's father " was of the
street (vicum) Bannave of the Tiburnian region, not far
from the western sea, which street (vicum) we have certainly
ascertained to be of the Nentrian province."1 This is only a
corrupt transcript of copy C (see sec. II.). For this copy
states that Calpurnius was of the street Ban navem thabur
indec, not far from the Irish sea, and that this street was
unquestionably Ventha. Now if it were true that Banna
(vemtha) bur indec were the street, it was wrong in the next
line to state it to be ventha. In like manner Probus having
stated that Calpurnius was of the street Bannave of the
Tiburnian region (sic) mentions in the next line that this
street was of Nentrian (sic) province, Probus mistook
ventha for Nentra, The letter u, of the same form as v, was
easily mistaken for n (see sec. IV.). Hence the Four Ancient
Books of Wales which copy the error of the Irish scholiast
give nevtur for nentur : just so was nentur mistaken for ventur,
having previously attached to it a supposed r of the next
word.

Furthermore, Irish MSS. have given hurnia (D. Review,
April, 1880) as St. Patrick's birth-place. This is additional
proof in favour of our division of the sentence. The
effaced Irish b in Burrii, mistaken for h, gave hurni (a) ; and
when Burrii began with a capital letter, the B mistaken for
R and annexed to venta or nenta gave us nentur.

The various forms Venta, Ventha, Vemta, deformed fragments
of the varieties of -Bonaven, appear in Nenthur , Nentur •, and
Nemthur. The Nentur of Fiacc is a reflection of the Venta
in the " Confession ;" and the several changes in one as closely
affect the other as the body affects the shadow. Unnatural
unions were the fruitful source of confusion. Bona was
united to a part of ventha ; a part of this was united to Burrii ;

.; " De vico Bannave Tiburniae regionis haud procul a mari occidental!
quern vicum indubitanter comperirnus esse Nentriee, &c."

392 St. Patrick's Native Town and Street.

Burrii, or its supposed representative, absorbed the next
word ac, and, ac being mistaken for ae, time with its changes
completed the bewildering transformation — Bonaven Taber-
niae.

IX.

The old Lives gave wrong readings and perpetuated
them by their glosses. They explained Nempthor by a " holy
tower," and thus sent biographers to Tours in search of " St.
Patrick's flowers :" they gave to the word an Irish derivation,
though treating it by the insertion of p as a Latin word
(see sec. IV.) And even if we were to admit their reading
Taberniae and its explanation by "plain of tents," it could
lead only to contradiction. For some of the most eminent
of modern historians, followers of the Alclyde theory, place
Taberniae south, while others of them place it north, of the
Clyde ; and even some of these place Taberniae on the right,
while others place it on the left of the river Leven.

X.

Again, the texts or translations given by the old and
modern biographers force them into wrong meanings of a
plain word ; for they at one time explain vicus by a " village,"
and at another time by a ' i city ;" they knew that the saint's
father/ of senatorial rank, dwelt in an important town, and they
felt that a passing reference to a " village " in a vast nation
was ill-suited for purposes of identification. But the usual
and etymological meaning of vicus is a street or range; and
this meaning is warranted by Scriptures, which were St.
Patrick's classics. Thus Hesebias was lord of half of the
street (vicus) of Ceila in Jerusalem ;* and thus did our Divine
Lord direct Ananias to meet Saul in the street (vicus) called
" straight." The translation then of the puzzling passage
runs thus : " My father, Calpurnius . . . was (fuit) of the
range Bonaventa of Usk-town, and (ac) had indeed a farm hard
by where I was made captive."

This plain statement sets to rest the Scottish theory of

the ancient Irish scholiast. The worthlessness of his testimony

has already been shewn up in the RECORD, (June, 1888),

which gave a list of his errors, not yet exhausted. For

1 II. Esdras, iii., 17 ; Canticles, iii., 2 ; Act*, ix., 2 and xii., 10.

St. Patrick's Native Town and Street. 393

without mentioning all his mistakes, the scholiast in his
statement that British princes were St. Patrick's captors, and
that his father was slain on the occasion of his capture, is
contradicted by the Book of Armagh and the saint's " Con-
fession." Finally, we have seen by this paper that Nentur
on which the Alclyde theory was founded, is a corrupt
reading.

XI.

Having established from the text and context of the
opening of the " Confession " that Usk-towri (Burrium) was
St. Patrick's birth-place, I need not draw out the historical
argument in its favour. I shall not dwell either on the fact
that the saint was from a country which had a well-estab-
lished Church for generations previously, while there is no
mention of a single missionary being then in Alclyde ; that
St. Patrick had to learn the Irish language though it was the
same as that spoken along the Clyde ; that spiritual labourers
had to come from Wales to help St. Patrick in gathering in
the rich harvest in Ireland; that, on the death of the saint,
the Irish Church looked to Wales as the cradle of its
Christianity for supplying the second Order of Irish saints
that the saint's father, as of senatorial rank, had to live in or
near a municipal town, which Alclyde never was ; or, finally,
that Coroticus, a Welsh prince, who carried off captive
St. Patrick's neophytes, was acknowledged by the saint to
have been his fellow-countryman.

XII.

In looking to our saint's description of his birth-
place, at once so simple and clear, it is matter for wonder
that its meaning could have been missed. It is matter for
regret that the old Lives represented Bonaven as a name
unassociated with any known language — Latin, Irish, or
British, and Taberniae as a non-descript compound of these
languages. A little reflection ought to have convinced them
and us that an important town in a Roman colony, whose
ordinary language was Latin, had had a classical name,
that the saint who wrote his " Confession," as he states, not
only for the Irish, but also for his Gaulish brethren and
British relatives, had employed Latin as the fittest form for

394 The Temporal Power.

enshrining its most interesting portion, and that, while the
rest of the " Confession " inclusive of the names of places and
persons was woven on a uniform Latin pattern, the description
of his birth-place was not of a mystic, piebald character.
However, let us not be severe towards ourselves. With
lights that only deepened the surrounding gloom, it was not
easy to scatter the mist of ages. And as we have restored
the correct reading and found its meaning, we may console
ourselves by the conviction that a chapter of controversy
opened a thousand years ago is closed at last and, let us
hope, for ever.

SYLVESTER MALONE.

THE TEMPORAL POWER.

TjlIGHTE EN years have gone by since Victor Emanuel, in
J_J defiance of an oft-repeated promise, and of a solemn
treaty concluded in 1864 with the Emperor Napoleon, marched
against Rome. On the 20th September, 1870, he attacked
the city, entered through a breach in the wall near Porta
Pia, and made the Papal palace, at the Quirinal, his residence.
The Pope, who for over eleven centuries had been king of
Rome, was obliged to retire within die Vatican, where he
has remained a prisoner ever since.

At first the usurpers showed some outward display of
respect for the Supreme Pontiff. They passed laws to pro-
tect him, and offered him an annual sum of money to
compensate him for the kingdom they had usurped. This,
of course, was indignantly rejected. It was well known that
200,000,000 of Catholics, all the world over, had felt keenly
the insult offered to their chief. This display of generosity
was prompted by selfishness. They knew that many
crowned heads, and powerful popular leaders, sympathised
deeply with the venerable representative of what Macaulay
styles the noblest and most ancient of all dynasties. Very little
further provocation would cause the Pope to be reinstated ;
and then it would be impossible to dislodge him again. Hence
that respect shown by men who hated him in their hearts.

The Temporal Power. 395

But it did not last long. When people began to grow
accustomed to the existing state of things, the laws passed
to protect him were disregarded and grew into disuse. Every
means was used to make his position more difficult. He was
insulted in the public papers, and represented as the arch-
enemy of his country. False and malignant interpretations
were put on his every word and action. No means were taken
to prevent dignitaries of the Church from being insulted and
calumniated in Rome. New laws were made to persecute the
clergy, or anyone daring to defend the right of the Church.
This state of things has been going on increasing till at last
the Pope himself has declared his position to have become
simply intolerable, and seems to think the time at hand
when he must quit the Eternal City to reside elsewhere until
something is done to improve his position.

Things have taken a serious turn ; and when affairs of
universal interest take a serious turn, men's curiosity becomes
stirred up about them. What will the Pope do ? Will he
abandon his claim to the temporal power, or could he do so
since the latter belongs to the Church ? How did the Popes
do without the temporal power in the first centuries, and
could they not get on as well now ? Is the temporal power
necessary for the Church, and how is it related to the
spiritual ? Had the Pope originally a legitimate right
to be king ? Is there any practical remedy for the present
state of things ? All these questions crowd into the
mind ; and, unlike other topics, it is not easy to get
satisfactory answers. In trying to give some information
on these matters, we shall consider the temporal power
from four points of view, which will embrace all the above
queries : —

1. Was the Pope's original claim to the temporal power
legitimate ?

2. Is the temporal power necessary for the Church ?

3. Is there any inconsistency in having the temporal and
spiritual power centred in one person ?

4. What is the present position of the Pope, and what
practical remedy can be proposed ?

396 The Temporal Power.

I.

One of the wonderful works of Providence is certainly
the origin and growth of ^the temporal power. It came when
needed, and grew with the increasing necessities of the
Church. Christ employs twelve ignorant men to teach a
difficult and severe doctrine to a voluptuous world. The new
doctrine condemns what the Gentiles have been taught to
adore. It forbids the customs they have become passionately
attached to. It denounces the vices in which they are sunk.
.All the power of kings and the ingenuity of men is brought
to play against this hated creed, but it prevails. Its teachers
are tortured and murdered, but it prevails the more. It
becomes a crime, punishable by death, to embrace it ; but it
goes on prevailing amongst those very people who so hate
it. It spreads over the earth like the sunshine bursting out
from beneath a black cloud, that no obstacle can stop as it
runs over the land. The Emperor of Rome holds sway over
the whole world, and all his immense power is directed
against the new religion. Blood flows in torrents. Soft
children, delicate maidens, and decrepit old men, are tortured
in the most brutal manner, and put to a lingering death ; but
they stand intrepid before the fierce executioners. All the
efforts of furious autocrats — all the power of man — was im-
potent to prevent the spread of that doctrine that a higher
power was planting. This was the period in which God
showed His own power, and the divinity of His religion. It
had no human help to promote its propagation. On the
contrary, all earthly power combined to attempt its
destruction.

Then came the period in which the temp oral power began
to appear. The blood of the martyrs had taken root, the
Church was planted and rapidly increasing, purified by ten
of the most inhuman persecutions that disgrace the history
of mankind. Rome was the centre of the ancient world, and
all peoples converged to that centre. The supreme authority
was there. Edicts and orders went forth from it throughout
the empire. An unseen hand had led Peter to Rome to collect
the infant Church around him within its precints. For a time
the Church and State existed within the same city in a con-

The Temporal Power. 397

dition of bitterest hostility towards one another; the one
persecuted in the catacombs ; the other lording it over the
whole world above ground. But, in the wonderful decrees
of Providence, that order was destined to be reversed. Like
the Infant Jesus flying into Egypt by night from Herod, so
the Church had to hide from the tyrants of the first centuries ;
but the voice of the angel came telling them to come back,
" for they were dead that sought the life of the Child."

The scene changes. The persecuted Church emerges
from the catacombs. The emperor is no longer a tyrant and
persecutor, but a friend. The magnates of the world no
longer vie with each other in insulting the Christians, but in
honouring them and enriching their chief. Hundreds of
wealthy nobles give all or a great portion of their possessions}
to the successor of St. Peter. Those possessions increase
rapidly, and bring with them great power and influence.
This great change came about as quietly as the passage from
night to morning, and all through the influence of that same
divine religion.

During the first three centuries, while the Church was
being planted, temporal power would have been more
injurious than beneficial to it. It would have left it open to
discussion whether its propagation was due to the influence
of that civil power, as is the spread of Mahometanism and
Protestantism, or to the Divine aid. During that period,
therefore, all human power was turned against it. God
had designed to show the divinity of His religion by
causing it to propagate without the aid of human authority,
and in spite of the greatest obstacles. That was the
period during which it was to "sow in tears that it might
reap in joy."

But now the Church was spread far and wide. Its mira-
culous propagation had established its divinity. Heresy and
schism were yet unknown ; but it was on the eve of serious
dissensions. It was time that he, for whom Christ prayed
" that his faith fail not," and who was commanded " to con-
firm his brethren," should be free and have power to act.

Constantine was converted about the year 308. From
that period the temporal power of the Popes began to date-

398 The Temporal Power.

They were not yet kings; but their power increased rapidly
till it became all but kingly. Their influence in civil matters
became imperceptibly stronger and stronger. Not that they
usurped the civil authority. They were too weak to do so,
even if they tried. It was the Emperor Constantine who
himself placed that power in their hands, and increased it
till they became virtually kings. He ordered all churches
destroyed during the persecutions to be rebuilt ; allowed
churches to accept donations and legacies ; contributed large
sums of money and corn to the clergy and Christians ;x
and exempted the Church from taxes and contributions which
were specially burthensome on pagan temples.2 The Jews
were forbidden to exercise violence against the Christians, or
to retain them as slaves, or even to offend them indirectly.

The Christians were most generous in contributing to the
Church. Many of them gave all they had, and great num-
bers left large legacies. St. Luke relates in the Acts how,
even in the Apostles' time, when the Church was still hidden
in the catacombs, " as many of the Christians as were owners
of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the price of the
things they sold, and laid it down before the feet of the
Apostles/'3

The Christians were then few, and were outlaws, and
could not legally possess. But now their number was legion,
and the laws were reversed. How they made use of their
privileges is attested even by the pagan writer Ammianus
Marcellinus.4 Constantine, moreover, ordered that all pro-
perty, of whatever description it might be, whether houses,
fields, gardens, &c., taken from the Christians during the
persecutions, should be restored.5 He presented Pope
St. Sylvester with a generous annuity of 500,000 francs, or
about £20,000. The Christians were exempted from the dis-
charge of burthensome public offices in the year 313.6 Three

1 Euseb. Vita Const. M. ii., iv. 2 Cod. Theod. xi.} 1, 1.

3 Acts c. iv., 34. 4 Lib, xxvii.

5 Omnia ergo quae ad ecclesias recte visa fuerint pertinere, sive domus,
ac possessio sit, sive agri sive horti, seu quaecumque alia nullo jure, quod ad
dominium pertinet, imminuto, sedsalvis omnibus atque integris manentibus,
restitui jubemus. — Euseb. Vita. Constantini.

6 Cod, Theod. Lib, xvi., tit, 2, lex 1, 2 ; Euseb, H, c. x., 7 ,• Sozom, i., 9.

The Temporal Power. 399

years later (316), he ordered that the Church might lawfully
set slaves at liberty, and he gave the bishops a right of
pronouncing a definite sentence when the litigants, dissatisfied
with the decision of the secular judges, appealed to them.
The civil magistrates, whose sentence had been reversed,
were obliged to execute the sentence of the ecclesiastical
court.1 The Donatists were commanded by him to submit to
the bishop's tribunal ; and when they appealed from it to
the emperor, Constantine indignantly reprehended them,
saying: "They approached him like pagans to insolently
protest, in their blind rage, against the judgment of their
bishop, which they, as he, should regard as the decision of
Christ Himself."2

In a word, the Emperor Constantine increased the riches
and civil power of the Church to such a point that, if the
Pope was not actually a temporal sovereign, he was all but
such. In describing the increasing power and influence of
the Church and its causes, we are not blind to the fact that
an immense difference exists between temporal power derived
from possessions and a subordinated authority, and the kingly
office. It has been our intention to describe the gradual
stages, perfectly legitimate, by which Divine Providence
guided the Vicar of Christ, almost without his knowing it, to
the throne.

When Constantine had made the Pope all but king in
Rome, the scene again changes. The emperor builds himself
a new capital called after himself. He quits Rome, and
makes Constantinople the imperial residence. While the
Pope was acquiring power he protected and assisted him ;
now that he was established in power, he left him to exercise
it. There is an ancient tradition that Constantine was bap-
tized A.D. 324, and gave Rome to the Pope as the patrimoniiim
Petri, before leaving to reside elsewhere. It seems more
probable, according to the account of Eusebius, that he was

1 Episcoporum sententiam ratam esse, et aliorum judicum sententias
plus habere auctoritatis, tanquam ab ipso Imperatore prolatam ; utque
magistrates res judicatas reipsa exequerentur, militesque eorum voluntati
inservirent. — Sozom. lib. i., c. 5 ; Vide also Euseb. Vita Const. M iv., 27.

2 Vide Tillemont Hist, of Donat. T. vi , 4 ; also acct. of Optatus
Melev. and St. August,

400 The Temporal Power.

baptized on his death-bed in a palace in the suburbs of
Nicomedia, though his life otherwise was that of a good
Christian. However that may be, it is certain that he left
Rome, and it is probable that in doing so he handed the city
over to the Pope. The very fact of his abandoning the
ancient capital of the empire, is a proof that he gave it to the
Pope who, after himself, had the highest authority there. He
foresaw, no doubt, as De Maistre remarks in his Du Pape, that
the same city could no longer be the residence of the emperor
and Pontiff. A hidden hand drove him from the Eternal City,
to give it to the chief of the Eternal Church. The Popes cer-
tainly began to exercise the powers of sovereign from that
period, if they did not assume the title. How did they
become possessed of that power? It is not usual for men to
usurp the supreme authority pacifically, without any opposi-
tion. Nobody opposed the Popes; neither the emperor, nor
the civil magistrates. It is lawful, therefore, to infer that
Constantine himself had determined that the Pope should
have regal jurisdiction over Rome. This is all the more
probable when we consider the great tendency of that
emperor to increase the power of the Popes.

During the three centuries that Italy was overrun by
barbarian hordes, Rome alone stood its ground. Odoacre put
an end to the western empire in 475. Shortly after he and his
Heruli gave place to the Goths, and the Goths to the Lombards,
and the latter to King Pepin ; but all the time Peter reigned in
Rome. No prince could take that city from the Pope; for it was
a donation that, through Constantine, had come to him from a
power too high/to be foiled by men. If the Pope had not
received Rome from the emperor, on what pretext did he
exercise the supreme authority during all that time without
consulting him? Why was no protest made against his
usurpation, either at Rome or at Constantinople, unless
because everybody knew that he had a legitimate right,
founded on the donation of Constantine ? If so, as it is
lawful to surmise, the temporal power dates from the period
when the Church emerged from the catacombs. Nor does it
prove anything to the contrary if the Popes still remained, to
a certain extent, subject to the emperors ; for the frequent

The temporal Power. 401

inroads of the savage barbarians made it often necessary for
the Popes to seek the imperial protection, even if they were
independent.

However this may be, after the emperor's departure
from Rome, he left the civil government almost entirely in the
hands of the Pope, and as time went on he ceased to take
part, active or passive, in the government. Thus the authority
of the Pope was gradually on the increase, while that of the
emperors decreased. He used to exile, to prohibit heretics
to meet in public, to send soldiers against those who
tried to molest the Roman province or to invade the city,
to fortify cities, to supply public wants, and conduct negocia-
tions of peace and war. Innocent I. at the beginning of the
fifth century sent a number of heretics into exile. Socrates,
who cannot be suspected of partiality for the Papacy, com-
plains of Pope Celestine I., because of the decree by which he
caused the Novatians to be deprived of their churches, and
prohibited them to hold public meetings. He also asserts
that before the reign of that Pontiff (422), the Pope had
already become a secular prince.1 St. Gelasius in 492 sent a
number of the Manichaeans into exile ; and St. Symmachus
caused their writings to be burned. St. Gregory the Great
was practically king over a great part of Italy. In one of
his letters to a commander in the army named Velox, he
announces that he has sent him a re-enforcement of soldiers
and orders him to march against King Ariulf if he attempts
to molest the Roman province or that of Ravenna.2 In
another to Mauritius and Vitalianus he instructs them to
pursue the King of the Longobards if he attempted to invade
Rome.3 In a letter to Gennarus, bishop of Cagliari, he gives
instructions regarding negociations of peace, and orders him
to fortify his city against the assaults of the enemy, if he
could not obtain peace on reasonable conditions. Thus the
more we study the history of the Popes in the early ages, the
more we find them in the undisputed possession of the

1 Episcopus Romanus non aliter atque Alexandrinus ad saecularem
principatum erat jam ante crectus. Socrat. I, 7, 8, 9, 13.

2 Lib. I., epis. 3, Greg.

3 Lib. VIII, epis. 84.

VOL. X. 2 G

402 The Temporal Power.

highest civil authority. It was not a usurped power, nor an
authority assumed by ambitious men. Necessity alone had
obliged the Popes to accept and exercise it. The Romans
were unprotected. Their ancient rulers had abandoned them
to their own resources. Barbarian hordes threatened to
destroy them, and they looked for aid and council to the
Pope. He was their friend and father, and to him they
appealed for protection.

When Atilla the scourge of God and the terror of man-
kind overran Italy, reducing its beautiful towns to heaps of
stones and ashes, and finally marched against Rome, the
emperors sent no help to the Romans. The city was unable
to resist, and destruction seemed inevitable, when the vener-
able Pontiff Leo, unguarded and unarmed, left the city and
put himself into the power of the savage, to treat with him
for his children in Rome. The saint's eloquence prevailed
over the ferocious nature of Atilla. He promised peace and
retreated. Some years previously Innocent I. had saved the
lives and part of the property of the Romans in a similar way,
from the Goths under Alaric.

Thus the emperor had forsaken Rome, and abandoned any
claim to authority that might have belonged to him. The
Romans unprotected on the one side, and threatened by
barbarians on the other, had an indisputable right to select
a sovereign. That sovereign was the Pope. What law
could oppose his becoming actually king, who was already
virtually such, and was confirmed by the will of an unpro-
tected people ?

Nevertheless we find that the Popes, always reluctant
to assume the kingly honours, still refrained from assuming
the title of king, and remained faithful in recognising that
remnant of imperial authority that the eastern Emperors
claimed over Rome. We shall now see how they became
absolutely independent.

We have said that Odoacre put an end to the western
empire. He invaded Italy with his barbarian horde of Heruli,
was elected king, and peaceably acknowledged without any
opposition. The imperial ensigns were sent to Constantinople,
and willingly received by the Emperor Zerio. Thus the

The Temporal Power. 403

Gothic kingdom of Italy was formed on the ruins of the
empire. The latter had been decreasing rapidly for many
reasons from the death of Constantine. There was no law
to regulate the succession, and the imprudence of upstart
military despots accelerated the downfall of an empire
already too extended, and too corrupt to last. The barbarians
attacked it on all sides, the Almanni in the south of
Germany, the Franchi on the Rhine, +he Saxons at the
mouth of the Rhine, the Goths and Huns on the Danube,
the Visigoths in Spain and the west, and the Persians in the
east. Under such circumstances it would have taxed the
ablest rulers to keep the empire together. The depraved
creatures who held the reigns of government were anything
but fitted for the task.

We have seen that the Pope was all but king even during
the existence of the western empire. Now that it had fallen,
and Italy was in the hands of barbarians, what was to prevent
him from exercising independently that sovereign power,
that he had possessed at least practically, from the time of
Constantine. The people who had always looked up to him
as their king and protector chose him. Odoacre who had
not a shadow of a legitimate right was acknowledged even
by the emperor as king. Had not the Pope a much stronger
and more sacred right? The fall of the western empire,
therefore, was another important step towards the final
independence of the Pope, but it was not the crowning one.
The Popes still acknowledged the authority of the eastern
emperors.

Odoacre, the first of the Gothic kings resided at Ravenna.
He was murdered by the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric,
who succeeded him. The latter was followed by his grand-
son Athalaric, and he by Theodalus. During his reign the
Emperor Justinian, desirous to regain the authority he had
lost in Italy, sent first Belisarius the conqueror of Africa,
and then General Narses, to subdue the Goths. Narses
defeated and slew Totilla, the last of the Gothic kings, and
Italy became subject to the Emperor of Constantinople.

It was governed for fifteen years by an Exarch, or deputy-
lieutenant who resided at Ravenna.

404 The Temporal Power.

In 569, two years after the death of Justinian, Italy was
again overrun by a barbarian horde — the Lombards. They
became masters of the whole country except the cities of
Rome and Ravenna, the former held by the Pope, the latter
by the Imperial exarch. Their king, Albion, found a
commander (dux) over each city, according to the arrange-
ment of Narses. He deposed all these, and put Lombard
commanders in their place. Albion set up his kingdom in
the north of Italy, which took the name of Lombardy.

This was another move towards the final destruction of the
imperial authority in Italy. The emperor did nothing to
defend it from these barbarians. His impotent representative
shut himself up in his fortified city at Ravenna, and left the
rest of the country to defend itself as best it could. All
was taken except what the Pope defended.

Thenceforth three chiefs commanded in Italy. The king
of the Lombards in the north, the imperial exarch at
Ravenna, and the Pope in Rome. This state of things
continued for a century and a half. In the meantime Pope
St. Gregory the Great acted as mediator between the
king of the Lombards and the exarch of Ravenna, and
converted the former to Christianity. This shows that the
Pope was then quite independent of the imperial deputy-
lieutenant.

About the year 718, the Emperor Leo III. published an
order at Constantinople for the destruction of all Christian
images. Leo was sprung from a plebian family in Isauria,
and had enlisted as a common soldier in the army of Justinian.
He had no title to the throne, except whatever his active
talents, and military fame gave him. He was proud,
illiterate, and ignorant. Nevertheless he thought himself
qualified to reform religion. All Christendom was offended
at the insult offered their religion by the upstart emperor.
St. German, the venerable patriarch of Constantinople,
having tried gentle persuasion unsuccessfully, acquainted
the Pope of what had occurred. Gregory condemned the
action of the emperor and excommunicated him. The latter
was^obstinate, and with all the fury of a fanatic, began to
war against the Church.. All the images and pictures of the

The Temporal Power. 405

churches were burnt in the market place. A crowd of women
that tried to impede this sacrilegious act, were massacred
by special order of the emperor. The splendid public
library of Constantinople, containing over thirty-thousand
volumes, was burned, together with the librarians who had
refused to join the emperor's party. This was not sufficient.
He gave orders to his exarch in Italy to enter Rome, where,
as we have seen, his authority was more nominal than real,
and to cause all the images and paintings there to be removed
from the churches and publicly burned. The Romans
resisted. The king of the Lombards defended the Pope
against the tyranny of the imperial exarch. This effort in
defence of their religion, was the first direct blow that the
Romans made at the imperial authority.

Shortly after the duke of Spoleto fled to Rome from Luit-
prand, the king of the Lombards. The latter demanded that
he should be delivered up, and a refusal caused a rupture
between the Pope and the Lombards. Luitprand declared
war, but repenting of the step he had taken, resigned and
retired to a monastery. Astolf, his successor, made the same
dispute an excuse for trying to extend his authority over the
whole of Italy. He made himself master of Ravenna, and
all the territory held by the imperial exarch, and then
marched against Rome. The city was not prepared to stand
against him. Pope Stephen II. appealed to the Emperor
Constantine Copronymus for assistance, and besought him
to maintain his authority over the city, but in vain. The
city must either submit to be sacked, and perhaps burnt,
by the barbarians, or seek help elsewhere.

The Pope in appealing to Constantinople for assistance
showed his fidelity to the successor of Constantine the Great,
whose authority he still recognized, and in whose name the
government of Rome was still carried on. That fidelity was
unshaken either by the perfidy of those tyrants, or their
persecutions, or the orders given by Leo the Isaurian, to
procure the seizure and assassination of the Pope. The
emperor in refusing to assist the Romans in their extreme
necessity, wished to show his resentment against the Popes
for opposing the imperial heresy, and against the Romans

406 The Temporal Power.

for not submitting to his sacrilegious tyranny. But Provi-
dence inverted his design and turned it against himself.
The Romans were defenceless, and deserted as they were by
the emperor, they were now free to elect a king, and to
defend themselves against the barbarian horde that threatened
to destroy their city. All looked to the Pope and on him
their unanimous choice fell. He was thus elected by them
pacifically, spontaneously, and without sedition.

Stephen appealed to Pepin, king of France, for that
assistance which the emperor had refused. Pepin tried every
pacific means to restore harmony. He sent ambassadors
three times, but they were always insolently rejected by the
proud barbarian. War was declared, and at last Astolf
promised to retreat. The Pope, always adverse to bloodshed,
persuaded Pepin to accept the promise and return to France.
No sooner had he done so, than Astolf broke his treaty and
returned to invade the Papal dominion. Pepin returned
and completely conquered him. He then handed over to
St. Peter, to the Church, and for them to the Pope, all the
territories that had been usurped by the Lombards. Thus
the Pope by right of lawful conquest, became confirmed in
that sovereignty, which an all-wise Providence had already
given him. In fact the " idea of the Pontifical sovereignty,"
says De Maistre,1 " anterior to this donation was so universal
and so indisputable, that Pepin, before he attacked Astolf,
sent him several ambassadors to persuade him to re-establish
peace, and to restore the possessions of the holy Church
of God, and of the Roman republic." The Pope on
his side, conjured the Lombard king to restore in good-
will and without effusion of blood the property of the
Church of God, and of the republic of the Romans.2
Carlo Magno, son and successor of Pepin, defended the
Pontifical dominion from the attacks of Disiderius, who
succeeded to Astolf, and added to it the Duchy of
Spoleto. Later on Lodovico Pio, Lotario, Otto, and the

1 Du Pape, Liv. II., c. vi.

2 Ut pacifice, sine ulla sanguinis effusione, propria S. Dei Ecclesiae et
reipublicae rom. reddant jura. Orsi, c. vii., p. 94. In another place he has
"'estituenda jura.

The Temporal Power. 407

Countess Matilda, confirmed the Pope in his rightful
possession, and added to it by generous donations. Pepin
in delivering up the keys of the various cities, and in
consigning the document by which he restored them to the
Pope, describes his action as a restitution, not a donation as it
has been improperly called.

Thus was the temporal power of the Popes established,
not as is usual with temporal sovereignties in a day, but like
all the works of God whether in the order of nature or of
grace, quietly and almost imperceptibly — but surely. The
very efforts that men made to destroy it, were the means
that God used to establish it. Yes, the temporal sovereignty,
was given to the Popes, not as kings are usually installed,
with the blast of trumpets, and the clash of arms, but
gradually, and almost without their knowing it.

It is remarkable, also, how the power held by the Popes has
been at all times suited to the exigencies of the Church. First,
when it was still very limited and united, its power consisted in
large possessions and the great influence that such possessions
brought in the Roman empire. As it extended it required
more power, and then we find a pagan emperor,rwho ruled
over the whole world, suddenly embrace Christianity and
take the infant Church under his protection. It required no
temporal sovereignty yet, for there was but one nation in the
civilized world— the Roman empire. The laws and law-
givers were the same for all. The subjects of the Church
were the subjects of the same temporal prince, and the latter
was a friend and subject of the Church. All the Church
required was full liberty and independence of action, and
that the civil power should not interfere with the spiritual.
It had all this under Constantine,

But the great Roman empire broke up and gave birth to
our modern monarchies. This made it necessary that the
Pope should be king. He who had spiritual subjects
throughout the whole world in each of those monarchies,
could not be subject to the prince who ruled over any one
of them. No prince should have power to impede the Vicar
of Christ in his duties towards those whom God had com-
mitted to his care. In time of war if the Pope were not an

408 The Temporal Power.

independent sovereign, he could not exercise his sacred
ministry towards the enemies of the prince in whose kingdom
he lived. Hence it became necessary on the downfall of
the Roman empire, that the Pope should be an absolutely
independent sovereign. How wonderfully that was brought
about we have seen.

A house that is built in a day comes down in a day, but
one that is built in a century will hold for ages. So it is
with kingdoms, and especially with that kingdom that was
made by God. Macaulay compares the Papacy for its
durability to the Great Pyramid, which the Arabs believe to
have been built by antediluvian kings, and which alone of
all the works of men, bore the weight of the flood. " Such as
this was the fate of the Papacy. It had been buried under
tbe. great inundation [of political revolution and counter
revolution] ; but its deep foundations had remained unshaken ;
and when the waters abated, it was found alone amidst the
ruins of a world that had passed away."8 The same great
Protestant historian remarks that " the proudest royal houses
are but of yesterday when compared to the line of Supreme
Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series,
from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth
century to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth,
and far beyond the time of Pepin that august dynasty
extends . . . The republic of Venice came next in
antiquity. But the republic of Venice was modern when
compared with the Papacy ; and the republic of Venice is
gone, and the Papacy remains . . ."

What royal house in the world can claim so legitimate a
right to its sovereignty ? We have seen that in acquiring
the temporal power, the Popes all through played a passive,
and I might add, to use the expression of the Abbe
Dupanloup " a reluctant part." They alone, in ages when
"might was right," never attempted to make themselves
kings, though great occasions were not wanting. They
remained faithful to the authority of the emperors, even
when the latter were trying to destroy religion, and to

? Historical Essays. Ranked History of tl^e Popes.

The Temporal Power. 409

assassinate the Pope. The last emperors of the east did all
they could, to make themselves hateful to the Supreme
Pontiff and the Roman people. Nevertheless he continued
to acknowledge their civil authority, till they abandoned it
themselves, and then urged by extreme necessity he appealed
for help elsewhere. Nothing could have been easier for the
Popes than to have themselves proclaimed king at any time
from the departure of Constantine, to th@ arrival of Pepin.
Beloved by the Roman people, they were all powerful in
Rome, whereas the emperors were absolutely impotent.
Nevertheless, satisfied with that independence which was
necessary for them in the exercise of their sacred office, they
never attempted to do so. If Constantine Copronymus had
not renounced his authority, by refusing to aid the Romans
against the barbarians, in all probability the emperors would
have continued to exercise a certain authority over Rome
for a long period after. There is no trace of ambition in the
action of Pope Stephen. Every step he took was urged by
the most dire necessity.

As the Popes never took any active step towards assum-
ing the title of king up to the time of Pepin, neither have
they tried to extend their dominion during the long ages that
have elapsed since then. They have been arbitrators between
nations, they have brought tyrants to a knowledge of their
duty, they have been feared by the great ones of the earth,
and tempting offers have not been wanting ; but there is no
record that the Pope has ever attempted to extend his
dominions. What would have been more in accordance with
the history of other nations, than to use their immense power
to enlarge their kingdom ? What more natural than to retain
a portion of the provinces taken from the Saracens, which
the Popes disposed of? The Pontiffs, as De Maistre observes,
had incontestable rights over the kingdoms of the two Sicilies
bordering on the Papal States, but they never attempted to
annex them. Pius IX., at the beginning of his reign, was
offered the sovereignty of all Italy if he would declare war
against Austria ; but he nobly refused it as beneath the
dignity of his sacred office.1 During the long ages that the

1 Margotti, Vittorie dellq Chiesa^ Periodo i., c. iv. and v.

410 The Temporal Power.

Popes have held the temporal power, there is no trace of
those intrigues, usurpations or conqueststhat are characteristic
of other powers. No other nation in the world can justify
all its possessions as the Pope can his. He alone, of all, can
say that what he claims to-day, he held a thousand years
ago I

There is no royal house existing on the earth that can
trace such a legitimate descent from its first ancestors. In
origin the power of kings is generally like the source of the
Nile, hidden and uncertain. Few dynasties can boast a more
legitimate descent than the English. Still how often the
legitimate succession has been interrupted there! William
the Conqueror, Henry I., Stephen, John, and Richard III.}
all reigned in defiance of legitimate right, if that expression
has any definite meaning. Henry VIII. obtained an
Act of Parliament empowering him to leave the crown by
will, to his illegitimate daughter Elizabeth, to the prejudice
of the Scottish royal family. William III. had not a shadow
of legitimate right to the crown of England.

Nevertheless, none would dream of asserting to-day that
Queen Victoria has no legal right to reign. The Papal kingdom
alone, of all the kingdoms that exist in the world, can stand
investigation without prejudice. The Pope alone, of all the
sovereigns, can challenge history and the historian, saying:
Quis ex vobis arguet me de injustitia? Still, strange incon-
sistency of poor human reason, there are not wanting to-day,
even amongst the subjects of Queen Victoria, those who
would deny the Pope's legal right to reign, on the gratuitous
assertion that he never had one. We need not allude here
to the right they have to reign, who usurped the Pope's
kingdom. They have none, except what brute force has
given them.

We have seen that in the legitimacy of its origin, forma-
tion, and duration, the Papal dominion is distinguished from
all other kingdoms. We have seen that the Pope alone
cannot be accused of that inextinguishable thirst for terri-
torial acquisitionjwhich has characterised all other sovereigns,
and which caused them to have recourse to expedients but
too familiar to modern policy.

The Temporal Power. 411

The term of that long dominion, so justly begun, and so
legitimately kept up, has not yet come. The present seizure
is but a passing cloud, and none know that better than the
usurpers. The Church, since it was formed by the hand of
God, and launched into the sea of the world, has, like Peter's
barque on the Sea of Galilee, been tossed and buffeted by
fierce winds, and angry storms. But the voice of the All-
powerful One comes, at the moment when it seems most
likely to go in pieces, and then the great calm. Its enemies,
ever new in their inventions for attacking it, are endeavouring
at present to paralyze its action, by depriving the Supreme
Pastor of that independence, which he requires in the exer-
cise of his sacred office. As often in the past, so at present
these enemies seem to triumph for a moment ; but the time
of their humiliation will come, and they shall disappear like
smoke before the Spouse of Christ, which is to remain for
ever, to repeat with the Psalmist : " I have seen the wicked
highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanus.
And I passed by, and lo, he was not : and I sought him,
and his place was not found."1

How many enemies of the Church have come and gone
since the beginning ; and, after they had vented all their rage
against it, to give one more proof of its indestructibility,
they have passed away. And the Church ? The Church
remains, and shall remain to the end of time. Thus shall it
be with the enemies of the Pope's civil independence. Ipsi
peribunt, Ecclesia autem permanebit usque in finem saeculorum.

M. HOWLETT.
(To be continued.)

Ps. xxxvi.

[ 412 ]

DE MONTAULT ON CHURCHES AND CHURCH
FURNITURE.— III.

THE TABERNACLE.

THE tabernacle among other names is called Sacrarium
and Ciborium, the altar canopy being the open, and
this the closed Ciborium. For practical purposes the first
and usual name of tabernacle or tent is the most important for
our consideration, giving as it does an idea of the actual
form which the divine dwelling place has had during so
many centuries, and also of the shape required by the
present regulations of our ritual books. The tabernacle, in
fact, and its covering are to be in the form of a small
pavilion or tent ; even here the words are fulfilled, eo-K^vwcrev
ev rjfjbiv. There are still to be seen1 in the centre of the
baldachins, in Rome and elsewhere, the rings which supported
the chains for the suspended tabernacles.

When the tabernacle was in the form of a dove, thus
setting forth the appropriation of the sacramental gifts
to the Holy Ghost, it must be remembered that the dove
was placed inside a peristerium, and that this was usually
covered with a little tent of rich material ; so that the
medieval usage which at first sight seems so remote from
the modern Roman custom, is in fact almost identical
with it.2 The same continuity of idea and of practice
cannot be claimed for the pseudo-medieval constructions so
commonly seen in English churches, where the rectangular
base contains the Blessed Sacrament, and the upper part
forms a fixed niche for a crucifix or for exposition. In these
erections, owing to the absence of a tent-formed roof to the
Ciborium, the carrying out of the rule which requires a
conopeum or pavilion,3 covering the tabernacle on all sides,
and indicating the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, is not

1 Martigny's Christian Antiquities, s. v. Colonibe Eucharistique, Cf.
Martene De Antiq. Eccl. Kit. Lib. I., cap. v., art. 3.

2 Cf. Viollet-le-duc, Dictionary of Furniture, s. v. Tabernacle, and
JPugin's Glossary under J)ove.

s Conopeo debet obtegi tabernaculum, hoc est velo ad instar tentorii,
seu dipadiylione. Baruffaldi, Ritual Rom., rlit. 23-6.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 413

merely difficult but impossible. The simplest way then of
illustrating the type which the tabernacle should reproduce,
is to say that it should be a larger form of the veiled pyx
(or ciborium) which is reserved inside it for the communion
of the faithful.

De Montault points out that, according to the ordinary
rule, the tabernacle should be made of wood,1 as this material
is drier and preserves the host better than others. This does
not mean that stronger and more precious materials may not
be used. If the tabernacle is made *of stone or marble, a
lining of wood is necessary, to keep out the damp. These
materials are used indifferently, as also metal, silver or
copper gilt. The respect due to the Blessed Sacrament,
requires that the tabernacle should be as rich as possible :
that of St. John Lateran sparkles with precious stones, and
that at St. Peter's, which is made of gilded bronze, is
distinguished by pillars of lapis-lazuli. It should be gilt
completely outside, in order to make it brilliant. This
gilding is prescribed by the decree of 1575, already cited.
The Capuchins are allowed to use a tabernacle of simple
polished wood, because of their extreme poverty, which
precludes all luxury.

It should be decorated with emblems relating to the
Eucharist : ears or sheaves of corn, grapes, etc., or with
adoring angels. Sometimes also there are pious inscriptions.
At S. Croce in Grerusalemme (sixteenth century) and at
S. Paul les Vence (Maritime Alps), in 1539 :

HIC ' DEUM • ADORA
This last named tabernacle adds on the base :

PINGV1S • EST ' PANIS * CHRISTI • ET * PREBEBIT ' DELICIAS

REGIBVS
and on the frieze :

QVI ' INDIGNE ' MANDVCAT
ET ' BIBIT ' NON ' DIIVDICAT * CORPVS ' DOMINI

The marble tabernacle at the Cathedral of Grenoble, came

i Tabernaculum regulariter debet esse ligneum, extra deauratum,
intus vero aliquo panno serico decenter contectum* (S. Cong. Episc.
26 Oct., 1575.)

414 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

originally from the Grande Chartreuse ; the Chartreuse of
Pavia had offered it, in the seventeenth century, matri suae>
We read on the frieze this text from St. John :

HIC ' EST ' PANIS • VIVVS • QVI ' DE • CELO • DESCENDIT • SI ' QVIS
EX ' HOC ' MANDVCAVERIT ' NON ' MORIETVR ' IN ' ETERNVM

At the Church of Artanne, in the Diocese of Angers
(seventeenth century) :

HIC ' CORPVS ' CHR1STI

Though the colour of the silk which lines the inside of
the tabernacle is not fixed but left to choice by the Sacred
Congregation of Bishops, it should be white, as most suit-
able and as most in accordance with general custom, because
it is the liturgical colour of the Blessed Sacrament. The
Roman custom also requires that there should be inside the
door a curtain of white silk, which slides on rings along a
rod, or is fixed and divided in the middle.

Benedict XIII. , always precise, even to the slightest
details, tells us how the tabernacle should be lined : " The
interior, including the floor and the door, should be entirely
covered with some rich white stuff ; damask is preferable to
silk, which tears easily. It should be well stretched, and
nailed with gilt-headed nails, under which there should be a
silken braid. This damask should not be glued on, because
glue often attracts worms."

Inside, a corporal of the size of the tabernacle is laid ; on
this the pyx for communion rests. The most ordinary form
of the tabernacle is a rectangular case, with a cupola at the
top. This cupola terminates in a gilt globe and a cross,1 or,
as at St. John Lateran, in a figure of Christ, rising and
triumphant. In some places the upper part is moveable, so
that the throne for benediction or exposition may be placed
there, or even the cross of the altar, as is done in some
churches for want of room at the back or in front.
St. Charles, however, lays down that the altar crucifix should

1 Fiat tabernaculuin ligneum, honorificum pro ecclesiae facilitate et
dignitate, ad asservandum venerabile Sacramentum Eucharistiae, cum
cruce parva in apice praefixa. Visit. Apostol. Venet. Ita in Syn. Laur.
Patriarch. Prioli an. 1597. Cf. Bened. XIV. Encycl. Accepimus 16 Jul
1746.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 415

not be placed on the tabernacle except for want of space.
It will be seen afterwards that it should be placed in a line
with the candlesticks. In Rome the door is always rich
both in material and workmanship. It is made of silver,
gilt and enamelled (St. Cecilia, in Trastevere, sixteenth cen-
tury), or of gilded metal; on it is a representation of the
Last Supper, the Good Shepherd, or other pious subjects
such as a pelican, a cross, a chalice surmounted by a host, etc.
In some places, in order to be able to reach the pyx
without the help of a stool, they have a sliding shelf. This
system is preferable to the revolving tabernacles of Germany
and Belgium. In order to avoid all irreverence and profan-
ation, the tabernacle is kept locked. The key is made of
silver or of gilt metal. It ought not to remain in the hands
of a lay person, even a sacristan or a religious, but should
be taken care of by the rector, or by the priest who has the
charge of distributing the Holy Communion. This right
belongs to the rector personally, in preference to the
sacristan or chaplain. The key may nevertheless be kept in
the sacristy, on condition that it is in a cupboard, which is
itself kept locked.1

1 The Congregation of Bishops and .Regulars addressed the following
letter to Bishops. "The impious and sacrilegious robberies of sacred
vessels, with or without the consecrated particles, which have taken place,
owing in some cases to the negligence of those who ought to watch over
the preservation of the Blessed Sacrament and of the sacred vessels, have
moved the apostolic zeal of our Holy Father Innocent XIII. His Holiness
has ordered the Congregation of Bishops and Eegulars to address this
circular to Ordinaries, and instructions to the superiors-general of regulars,
so that due precautions may be taken to prevent such misfortunes in
future.

Hence your Lordship is to publish an edict to be put up in sacristies,
ordering, in the strongest terms, parish priests, rectors, sacristans and others
whom it may concern, to keep the key of the tabernacle, or to put it in a
safe place, under another key. Henceforth if a robbery takes place
without forcing the tabernacle, through the want of care of the clergy in
charge who may have left the tabernacle open, or with the key in the
lock, or in the sacristy, or in any other place where the robbers could take
it easily, you will take proceedings against the parish priests or others in
charge, even in execution of the decretal de custodia Eucharistiae. The
coatravener shall be condemned without further process to prison and
other discretionary penalties, according to the degree and negligence of
the fault ; he shall be deprived of the office of sacristan in perpetuity ;
regulars shall further be deprived of the active and passive voice. If any-
one is negligent in preserving the Blessed Sacrament, although a robbery

416 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

The tabernacle, being appropriated exclusively to the
reserved Host, must be empty of all other things : neither the
holy oils, nor relics may be kept in it. It is also forbidden to
place anything, excepting a crucifix, on the tabernacle ; all
pictures of saints, statues and even relics, for which the
tabernacle would serve as a stand, must, therefore be
removed.1 It is not lawful, notwithstanding the custom
to the contrary, which is declared to be an abuse, to
place before the tabernacle, so as partly to hide it, a vase
of flowers, which wonld conceal the pious engraving on
the door, and distract the faithful, or even a reliquary,
so that the worship of the Blessed Sacrament may not
suffer by the veneration with which the holy relics are
honoured.

The tabernacle should not be too large, otherwise, if the
choir is behind, it would prevent the priest at the altar from
being seen. The Roman tabernacles are generally rather
low, than high, and proportioned to the altar. It would be
going to the opposite excess, not to give them suitable
dimensions. Their being raised up too high has to be guarded
against, as also their protruding on the altar.

As the Blessed Sacrament may be reserved at only one

does not take place, rectors and others who are at fault are to be suspended
for three months, as is prescribed in the above chapter de custodia
Eucharistiae. Further, your Lordship is to set forth in the above edict that
the aforesaid penalties will be inflicted on the parish priests, sacristans, and
others in charge, even when it is some other priest who leaves the tabernacle
open, or the key in the wrong place. This does not exempt the negligent
priest from punishment ; but the parish priest and others who have care of the
tabernacle are responsible. They ought to make certain, after the services
are finished, that everything is right. The S. Congregation grants to you
by these presents the necessary and useful powers for proceeding to apply
the above penalties to regulars, conjointly with their own superiors, to
whom the same powers are granted in reference to their own subjects.
When you have proceeded against sacristans and others as above, you are
to give information of the case to the S. Congregation. Be good enough
also to communicate this circular to your suifragans, and to exhort them to
carry out the orders of the Holy Father." — Jan. 1724.

1 An toleranda vel eliminanda sit consuetude, quae in dies invalescit,
superimponendi sanctorum reliquias, pictasque imagines tabernaculo, in
quo augustissimum Sacramentuni asservatur, ita ut idem tabernaculuni pro
basi inserviat? Assertam consuetudinem tanquam abusum eliminandum
omnino esse. (Sac. Congr. Kit, Decretum generate, 3 April. 1821.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 417

altar,1 it is useless to have several tabernacles. Pius IX.
made this remark to a French artist, who shewed him the
plan of a church where each altar had its tabernacle.
Nevertheless, a tabernacle is kept in reserve in the sacristy,
in case the Blessed Sacrament has to be carried to a different
altar from that at which it is ordinarily preserved. This
tabernacle will serve for the reservation on Holy Thursday
and Good Friday, and on other days when it is obliged to be
taken from the church, as for repairs, etc. When the
tabernacle is empty, the door is left open and the conopeum,
or pavilion taken away, in order to give notice to the
faithful, that the Blessed Sacrament is elsewhere.

The tabernacle is placed in the Chapel of the Blessed
Sacrament in large churches, at the high altar in parish
churches.2 In any case, the Ceremonial requires the removal
of the Blessed Sacrament during High Mass and Vespers, e pen
when the celebrant is not the bishop, " Quod si in altari
majori, vel alio, in quo celebrandum erit, collocatum reperiatur
ab eo altari in aliud omnino transferendum est."

A decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites forbids the
tabernacle to be erected away from the altar, in the wall for
example, either at one side, or at the extremity of the apse.
The Sacred Congregation also authorises the bishop, in the
course of his visitation or otherwise, to suppress the hanging
tabernacles such as were used in the middle ages.

The ritual prescribes a conopeum or pavilion, to cover the
tabernacle. The word originally means a mosquito curtain
(Hor. Epod. 9, 16 and Juv. 6, 80), which necessarily hangs

ilnuno tantum altari designando ab Episcopo. (S. C. R., 21 Julii, 1696.
n. 3392, ad 8.) Ferri nequit consuetude asservandi SS. in pluribus altaribus,
illudque ratione festivitatis transferendi ad aliud altare. (S. R. C>, 16 Mart,
1861,~n. 5310 ad xiii.) Si SS. Sacramentum in ecclesia cathedrali vel
collegiata in altari maiori asservari nequeat, non custodiatur in altari
amovibili, sito in medio ecelesiae, sed collocetur in aliquo decenti sacello,
quod non sit e conspectu chori, (S. R. C. 14 Jan. 1845 n. 5028) ergo
in altari fixo laterali. Schneider's Manuale Sacerdotum, edited by
F. Lehmkuhl, S.J., p. 295.

2 Tabernaculum SS. Sacramenti in cathedralibus non debet esse in
altari majori, propter functiones pontificales, quae fiunt versis renibus ad
altare ; in parochialibus et regularibus debet esse regulariter in altari
maiori tanquam digniori. (S. C. Episc. 10 Feb. 1579, and 29 Nov. 1594. )

VOL. X. 2 D

418 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

on all sides, and is far removed from the idea of a curtain
merely placed before the door.1 The material for the
conopeum is not laid down, so that wool, linen, silk, and
even cotton may be used. This seems almost too liberal,
as it is a question of honouring the Blessed Sacrament.
Hence common, cheap stuffs should be avoided, and
the pavilion should be made as rich as possible.2

The colour may be either white, which is suitable to the
Blessed Sacrament, or according to the Roman custom, the
colour of the day. Violet is used at funeral services.

The pavilion, in Rome, is ornamented at some distance
from the edge, with a galoon of gold or of silk, which
follows the vertical and horizontal lines of each curtain ; a
fringe is added at the sides and at the bottom. If the taber-
nacle terminates in a dome, the base of the cupola is also
adorned with a braid and a fringe. The pavilion divides in
two, like a curtain, but that only in front. It should envelop
the tabernacle on all sides.

The Bishop, in the course of his pastoral visitation, is

1 Hoc autem tabernaculuni conopeo decenter opertum. (Rit. Rom. de
Sacram. Eucharist.) Utrum tabernaculum in quo reconditur Sanctissimum
Sacramentum conopeo cooperiri debeat, ut fert Rituale Romanum?
Affirmative. (Sac. Cong. Rit. in Briocen, 21 Jul. 1855 ad 13.) Rmus Dominus
Raphael Valentinus Valdivieso, archiepiscopus Sancti Jacobi de Chile,
exponens in ecclesiis suae archidioeceseos usum ab antique vigere non
cooperiendi conopeo tabernaculum, in quo asservatur SS. Eucharistiae
sacrarnentum, sed intus tantum velo pulchriori serico, saepe etiarn argento
aut auro intexto, ornari, a S.R.C. humillime declarari petiit ; num talis
usus tolerandus sit vel potius exigendum ut conopeum, ultra praedictum
velum, vel sine eo, apponatur juxta praescriptum in Rituali Romano?
sacra vero eadem Congregatio, in ordinario coetu ad Vaticanum hodierna
die coadunata respondendum censuit : Usum veli praedicti tolerari posse
sed tabernaculum tegendum est conopeo juxta praescriptum Ritualis
Romani. Atque ita respondit et servari mandavit. (die 28 April 1866).
Esse debet conopeo decenter opertum, ut rubricae dare praescribunt, ut
scl. pulchritudine panni primo statim intuitu dignoscatur, et fidelium attentio
ad divinitatis thronum dirigatur. Est autem conopeum velum, quo taber-
naculum ad instar tentorii extrinsecus tegitur. M. Hausherr, S.J., Compen-
dium Caerem., p. 90.

2 Utrum conopeum istud confici possit eo panno, sive gossipio, sive
lana, sive cannaba contexto ? Affirmative. S. Rit. Cong, in Briocen 21J ul.
1855. E materia nobiliori ... a summa parte crispatum, in fimbriis non
anguste, sed longe latius respondeat, et totum tabernaculum tegat ; in
extremis oris habeat de more ornatum laciniarum decore contextarum.
Bauldry, p. 314.

DeMontault on Churches and Church Furniture. 419

bound to enquire into the execution of these canonical rules.
This is the formula of Gavantus adopted by Monacelli :

" Eucharistia. — An retineatur in tabernaculo affrabre facto, et
extra majori ex parte deaurato, et interius undequaque serico panno
decentis coloris vestito ; in pyxide . . . super corporal! mundo.

"An ostiolum tabernaculi sit firmissima sera et clavi argenteaaut
deaurata clausum, quam parochus apud se diligenti custodia retineat ?

" An tabernaculum sit tectum decenti conopeo, et deillis provisum
omnium colorum ?

'* An in tabernaculo praeter pyxidem, aliquid aliud quantumvis
sacrum asservetur ? Quod si fiat, removeatur."1

The casket which is used exclusively for the chapel of
repose on Maundy Thursday is different from an ordinary
tabernacle, and is called a capsule? in the Missal. It is rather
an urn, standing on four claws, opening either in front or in
the upper part, and with a lid which gradually decreases in
size towards the top. In Rome it is usually made of carved
wood, gilt either entirely or partially. On the front is a
representation of a pelican feeding its young, and on the
cover the Paschal Lamb lies, or the Cross stands with the
instruments of the Passion. Benedict XIII. had one made
at Benevento, of silver, with the Last Supper engraved on the
front. At the Vatican, the urn is made of silver gilt ; it is
surmounted by a Lamb^ lying down, and is overshadowed by
a throne of metal, set with crystals, cut facet- wise, which
reflect the light of the candles. This urn is not covered with
a conopeum. The key is kept by the priest who is to cele-
brate on the next day, be he secular or regular, dignitary or
otherwise. It is not to be given to a lay person, however
high his rank may be.

THE THRONE FOR BENEDICTION.
The modern Gothic rectangular tabernacle, with a

1 Cap. Reliqui de f-ustod. Eucliar.

2 Capsula ipsa, ut notat Bauldryus Parte 4 sui Manualia, debet esse ad
modum arcae, vel sepulcri, longitudinis sc. quatuor palmorum, latitudinis
et altitudinis proportionatae lougitudini, neque fenestellam aut portulam
vitream in ejus parte anterior! habens, ut non sine magnoabusu alicubi fit,
verum egregie debet esse elaborata, et argento vel auro iilita, tarn intus
quam extra ex consuetudine Urbis. Catalani in Caerem,

420 De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture.

structural Benediction canopy over it, has been seen to fall
short :of the requirements of a genuine tabernacle with its
conopeum; we have now to consider that it does not fulfil what
rubricans indicate as to a throne for exposing the Blessed
Sacrament. Either it ought not to be on the altar at all, or
at least it ought to be possible to take it away when it is
not wanted.

The Clementine Instruction for the forty hours'
exposition prescribes that for this function " there is to
be placed above the altar, in an elevated position,
a tabernacle or throne with a proportionate baldachin
of white colour."1 That is to say, as Gardellini explains
in his commentary, a tabernacle or canopy open on all
sides for altars that are placed in the basilicau manner,
and a throne with a dorsal for altars that are seen only
from the side of the people. But, he adds, neither the
one nor the other should be placed on altars which already
have the prescribed baldachin, either supported on
columns or suspended) from the roof. Martinucci gives
the same rule,2 and this is also De Montault's teaching,
following the usage of the great churches in Rome. He
also points out that the Benediction throne, destined as it is
for a special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, is essentially
moveable. It should not remain on the altar as a fixture to
interfere with other services, with the fitting prominence

1 Sopra detto altare in sito eminente vi sia un tabernacolo, o trono
con baldacchino proporzionato di color bianco, e sopra la base di esso vi
sia un corporale per collocarvi 1'Ostensorio, o custodia, il di cui giro sara
attorniato di raggi, e non vi sara davanti alcun ornamento, che impedisca
la vista del Ssmo. Instr. Clem. sec. 5. Assurgat in eminenti loco ipsius,
tabernaculum, sen thronus cum superimposito baldachino, in ejusque basi
seu piano ^sternatur corporale seu palla. Crux ab altari amovetur Ritus
Servandus. Lond., 1849.

2 In quibus ecclesiis stabiliter positum in altari baldachinum erit, vel
ciborium quatuor columnis sustentum, non est necesse ut apponatur
thronus, sed satis erit in medio altari posita basis, in qua collocetur Osten-
sorium. Martinucci. Lib. ii., p. 278. When Leo XIII. gave Benediction at
the rle Deum for the close of the jubilee year, the monstrance was exposed,
according to the custom in St. Peter's, upon a gilt pedestal, about two
feet high, placed on the centre of the altar table. Before the Holy Father
actually gave the blessing this pedestal was removed so that he might be
seen by the people. Hence some of the papers said that the tabernacle
was removed for this purpose. There is no tabernacle in St. Peter's
except in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

De Montault on Churches and Church Furniture. 421

of the large altar crucifix, and with the proper relation of the
crucifix and candlesticks. In Rome it is placed on the altar
at the requisite time, and removed when this special service
'comes to an end. Its most natural position is the very spot
on the highest gradine,1 behind the tabernacle, which
normally the crucifix would occupy, on the same level
and in a line with the candlesticks. In fact it is hardly
possible to observe the regulations concerning the crucifix if
there is to be a permanent throne for Benediction.

When a throne is required, it is generally, De Montault
says, of gilt wood. The Clementine Instruction supposes it
to be adorned with drapery of white silk, to form the canopy
and the back ; these may be ornamented with gold lace and
fringe. Red is not a proper colour to put behind the monstrance.
Our author does not approve of the French addition of curtains
at the sides. There should be two branches for candles
attached to each side of the base.2 This point is sometimes
neglected, and hence, although a number of candles may
be alight on the altar, the monstrance remains in comparative
darkness. Sometimes, he says, the Benediction throne is
circular, the cupola being supported by columns, and
terminating in a cross ; in other cases it is surmounted by an
.ornament in the shape of a crown.

J. ROUSE.

1 Quae sint praeparanda. In altari sive supra gradum candelabrorum
'ne tamen altaris mensam impediat, statuetur thronus . . . erit ex
altari elatus aliqua basi seu f ulcro altiori : cavebitur autem ut altitudo
throni non ea sit, ut super mensam altaris ascendere cogatur Sacerdos qui,
Ostensorium in eodem throno collocaturus sit. Martinucci, Lib. II.,
p. 112.

Ardino sopra 1'altare almeno venti lumi . . . quattro dalli lati
dell' Ostensorio, nella cui parte opposta non vi si ponga onmnamente
lume alcuno. Inslr. Clem., sec. 6.

[ 422 ]

THE ORIGIN AND VALUE OF THE DISTINCTION,
« PRIMATE OF IRELAND," "PRIMATE OF ALL
IRELAND."

MANY of us may recall a puzzled feeling experienced in
our early years when we saw appearing here and there
in publications the titles, "Primate of Ireland,5' " Primate of
all Ireland." Few, perhaps, have followed the long and
bitter controversy between Dublin and Armagh on this ques-
tion of primacy ; yet, to trace the origin and weigh the value
of these distinctive titles, some historical outline of this con-
troversy will be helpful, if not necessary.

At the Synod of Kells, in 1152, Dublin, hitherto a Danish
See, was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of Canterbury, its
bishop, Gregory, getting the Pallium. The invasion soon
followed ; and John Oomyn, successor to St. Laurence
O'Toole, got from Pope Lucius III. a Bull, dated April 13th,
1182, forbidding any other archbishop to hold conferences or
hear ecclesiastical causes while the Archbishop of Dublin
was in occupation of his See, without leave of the latter or
express authority of the Sovereign Pontiff. Henry de
Loundres had this Bull confirmed in 1216 by Innocent III. ;
and in 122 1,1 he got from Honorius III. a more ample
authority, exempting not only the See, but the Province of
Dublin, from all intrusion by outside prelates. We have,
however, no reliable record of any dispute until Archbishop
Luke, who ruled from 1230 to 12 5 5, forbade Archbishop Reiner
of Armagh from carrying his cross before him in the capital of
the Pale. John Leech fought the question so fiercely with
Walter de Jorse,2 that he allowed a University, founded in
Dublin by Clement V., in 1311, to perish of neglect.
This De Jorse, or Joyce,3 landed in Howth in 1313,
and set out for Dublin by a roundabout route, having his
cross carried before him. The friends of Archbishop Leech,

1 Liber Niger, fol. 123. 2 Ware, fol. 111.

8 These two Archbishops Joyce were brothers to Thomas Joyce,
Cardinal of St. Sabina.

The Origin and Value of the distinction, etc. 423

getting wind of this movement, bore down upon the caval-
cade somewhere near Grace Dieu Convent, which stood
three miles north of Swords, and chased the northern prelate
beyond the Boyne.

A parliament was held in Kilkenny at the request of this
De Jorse, and again at the request of his brother and suc-
cessor Roland, for the arrangement of the dispute; but the
petitioners themselves withdrew before the case was fully
heard. David O'Heraghty came to attend a parliament at
Mary's Abbey in 1337.1 The king (Edward III.) sent letters
to Alexander Bicknor, Archbishop of Dublin, and to his
Vicar- gen era], commanding them not to obstruct the progress
of the Archbishop of Armagh. They disobeyed. O'Heraghty
exhibited, under the great seal, a Bull claimed by Armagh to
have been issued by Urban IV., in 1263, commanding all
prelates in Ireland to show the utmost respect and obedience
to the Primate of Armagh. In 1347,2 Richard Fitzralph
again exhibited the same decree. This archbishop came
again, in 1349, relying on the royal invitation, and stayed
three days in Dublin, with cross erect, proclaiming his
powers. Being opposed, he retired, and from Drogheda
issued sentence of excommunication against his opponents.
The Prior of Kilmainham, falling ill, sent for absolution : and
dying, was left unburied until the censure was cancelled.
The king, however, soon verified to Fitzralph the force of
the text, "Put not your trust in princes;" for, in 1350,
John de St. Paul got from his majesty a decree which
forbade the Archbishop of Armagh to raise his cross
within the Province of Dublin. This prohibition was
renewed in 1352.

Dublin claimed to have had the dispute settled in 1353
by Innocent VI., the titles being defined as they stand
to-day. Archbishop Allen testified to having read this
decision in the Pope's private library. This settlement
seems to have settled nothing. Milo Sweetman of Armagh,
finding nothing in the Decree expressly prohibiting him
to erect his cross in Dublin, insisted on his right to do

1 Ware, fol. 112, 113. 2 Camden ; Pryn, Animad., p. 271

424 1 lift Origin and Value of the distinction,

so when he came to that city in 1365. Thomas Minot of
Dublin, was as determined on the other side. Edward III.
thickened the complication by gravely, mayhap naively,
advising that the two Prelates should range each other's
provinces with crosses erect. Milo waxed wroth that
not only should his Primatial rights be denied but his own
province be invaded. The king called a conference. The
Metropolitan of Dublin did not appear, but sent instead an
order to his brother of Armagh to obey the king. Lionel, Duke
of Clarence, representing his majesty, summoned Minot to
come before him at Castledermot to answer for contempt.
Strange to say, history is silent about any after consequences.
For more than half a century the strife slumbered.1 But in
the decade following 1429, John Swain of Armagh excused
himself several times from attending Parliament on the plea
that Richard Talbot of Dublin would obstruct him in erecting
his cross. In the next decade John Prene, and after him
John Mey, made like plaint and apology. There was a slight
brush in 1493 between Octavian de Palatio of Armagh, and
John Walton of Dublin ; and again in 1533 between George
Cromer and John Allen. The heroic struggle of the Irish
Church against the creed of greed and sensuality, fittingly
introduced with force and fraud by Henry VIII. and his
corrupt followers, drove questions of precedence into the
background for more than a century. A like reason might
well have prevented their revival between the prelates so
soon to be martyred, Oliver Plunkett and Peter Talbot.
At a meeting of bishops held in Dublin in 1670 to pre-
pare an address to the restored king, Charles II., Dr.
Talbot insisted on presiding. Dr. Plunkett was equally
resolute on his side. The Archbishop of Armagh wrote
a book entitled, " Jus Primatiale Armacanum, or the
Pre-eminency ofj the Primacy of Armagh," The Archbishop
of Dublin replied with another, " Jus Primatiale Dubliniense,"
A rejoinder by Dr. Plunkett remained unpublished owing to
his martyrdom, and was lost during the Williamite
wars.

1 It is said by Brennau that King Edward commanded a truce.

« Primate of Ireland," « Primate of All Ireland:1 425

About the year 1716 a Father Valentine Rivers re-
enkindled the flame. He claimed the parishes of St. James and
St. Catherine, Dublin, on the ground of having administered
them for more than the canonical term, indeed for eight years.
The Archbishop insisted that he had duly appointed succes-
sively Father Patrick Golding and Dr. Felix Cavenagh as
parish priest, leaving Fr. Rivers to take their pi ace temporarily,
first while the former was completing his studies in Spain,
and then while Fr. Golding's successor was detained in
Paris as Prefect of the Irish College. As Vicars-General,
Archbishop Byrne contended they had a right by usage
•to the parish of St. Catherine.

Fr. Rivers appealed to Dr. Hugh MacMahon of Armagh,
who summoned both Archbishop and subject before him.
Dr. Byrne ignored the citation, and excommunicated the
appellant. He also withdrew all curates from Father Rivers.
Dr. MacMahon sent in their stead six curates from Armagh.
Dr. jByrne had applied to Rome for the sending of a legate.
The Propaganda took the whole case into its own hands,
ordering that meanwhile things should continue in statu quo.
The six northern priests, however, being left severely alone,
went home.

Dr. MacMahon sent his brother Bernard, Bishop of Clogher,
.afterwards his successor, to plead his case in Rome. Dr. John
Clynch, appointed V.G. and P.P. in succession to Dr. Felix
Cavenagh who had died during the strife, went to plead his
own and his Archbishop's cause. After waiting eight
months in the Holy City for Dr. Bernard MacMahon, who was
lying ill at Aries, and in whose absence no decision would be
given, Dr. Clynch returned home.

The case between Father Rivers and his Archbishop
was settled in 1723. But no decision was given by
Rome. Archbishop MacMahon, however published in
1728 a most exhaustive treatise "Jus Primatiale Arma-
canum," in which he replied to Dr. Talbot at great length-
In a supplement he deals severely with an anonymous
pamphlet, afterwards found to be the work of a Jesuit,
Father John Hennessy of Clomnel. A MS., the sole copy
'extant of Dr. John Clynch's statement prepared for the

426 The Origin and Value of the distinction,

Propaganda in 1720, and now in Trinity College Library,
exhausts the literature of the controversy. The case never
having been fully heard, the Holy See never since pronounced
any judgment.

The contention that this controversy arose from the
conferring of the Pallium on the Bishop of Dublin at the
Synod of Kells is untenable. No doubt, the more than
Primatial, indeed more than Patriarchal, jurisdiction pre-
viously exercised by the successor of St. Patrick was brought
within bounds. But the contention was necessary to the
line of argument pursued by Dr. Talbot. He rested his position
on the following assertions of fact and of Canon Law.
First, Armagh was never a Primacy. Second, when each of the
four Archbishops got the Pallium at the Synod of Kells, the
Metropolitan of the Civil Metropolis ipso facto became Primate
over the others. Third, Dublin was even then the Civil
Metropolis; and therefore Gregory, the first Archbishop of
Dublin, by getting the Pallium became at once the Primate
of Ireland. Fourth, even if the Archbishop of Armagh
had been previously Primate, his Primacy was transferred
by the granting of the Pallium to the Archbishop of the Civil
Metropolis.

It seems to me that in taking this line of argument
Dr. Talbot threw himself into the hands of his opponents.
Anyone can see even at the present day that facts
contradict both the statements and the Canon Law of
Archbishop Talbot. Neither Lyons nor Salzburg, nor Gran
is the civil capital, and yet their Archbishops are the Primates
in the different countries where they are situated. To
take a wider range, the Archbishops of Edinburgh, of
Westminster (London), of Paris, of Vienna, of Buda-Pesth, get
the Pallium. Yet they are not Primates. Neither was Dublin
the chief city of Ireland at this time. It was indeed a Danish
city, and was no more the metropolis of Ireland than the other
Danish cities, Limerick and Waterford, whose bishops had also
hitherto paid homage to Canterbury. The truth seems to be
that, when the power of the Danes had been crushed,
Ireland, being at peace, at once and earnestly set about
healing the wounds received by religion during the

Primate of Ireland" " Primate of All Ireland:' 427

incursions of Danish barbarism, and Rome sought to
crown that effort by uniting the three Danish cities
with the rest of Ireland. To this end Dublin was
made a Metropolitan See — as well as Cashel and Tuam, —
and was forthwith withdrawn from connexion with
England, whose monarch was attacking the indepen-
dence of the Church even to the extent of murdering the
sainted Beckett.

The other assertion of Dr. Talbot is equally untenable,
viz., that Armagh was never a Primacy. The claim of
Armagh has the highest historical support both before and
after the Synod of Kells. St. Fiech, Bishop of Sletty, calls
Armagh the "See of the Kingdom." In the sixth century
St. Evinus, of New Ross, says that an angel told St. Patrick
to make Armagh " Metropolim Hiberniae." (Art. 25, c. 22, on
St. Benignus.) In 810, Nuad ; in 835, Diarmuid ; in 1068,
Maelissa ; in 1106, St. Celsus, Archbishop of Armagh, made
visitations of Murister and Connaught. The last named
held a Synod at Usney in 1116. An unanswerable proof
that Armagh retained its Primacy after the Synod of
Kells is found in the fact that Gelasius held a Synod
at Clane, in the very province of Dublin, in 1162. Again,
in 1255, the jurisdiction of Armagh over Tuam was
confirmed by Alexander IV. (See Theiner, p. 68, n. 180).
And in various missives from Rome, the Archbishops
of Armagh are called Primates (Vide Theiner passim).
The Bull of 1263 is very strong : " Primatiam vero
totius Hiberniae quam Predecessores tui usque ad haec
tempora noscuntur ad exemplar Celestini Papae Praedeces-
soris iiostri tibi tuisque successoribus confirmamus, statuentes
ut Hiberniae Archiepiscopi, Episcopi. et alii Praelati tibi et
successoribus tuis tamquam Primati obedientiam et reveren-
tiam omni tempore debeant exhibere." It is not necessary,
however, to rely on it. Its authenticity is denied on
plausible grounds by Dr. Talbot and others, as it is not
found in the Apostolic Archives, Vatican Tabulary, the
JBullarium Romanum, or the Bullarium Ordinis Praedicatorum.
This last omission is the most serious, as Dr. Patrick O'Scanlain,
to whom it is said to have been given, was a Dominican. The

428 The Origin and Value of the distinction, '

absence of a document from the other records would tell against
Dr. Talbot himself with respect to the Decrees on which he
relied. Thus the record of the Annals of Clunenagh is borne
"out : " Archiepiscopum Armacanum super alios ut decuit
ordinavit." Other authorities proving that Armagh was
recognized as a Primacy, are Jocelyn, Girald. Cambr. (p. 150),
St. Bernard's Life of St. MalacUy^ Baronius, John Azorius, and
David Rothe's Analecta. See also Ware.

What then, it may be asked, has Dublin no claim to
Primacy? Undoubtedly it has. However unlucky in its
advocates its claim remains. Its inherent justice must have
been strong when such feeble defence did not secure its
rejection. Dr. Talbot in his anxiety to give an Irish origin
'to his Primacy turned his back upon the sound basis of his
case. The re-organization of the Irish Church, uniting the
whole island on strict canonical principles under four
metropolitans, with the successor of St. Patrick as Primate,
was not yet two decades in operation, when the invasion
took place. The Norse settlement of Dublin had not yet
had time to become welded or fused into the Irish
nation, and readily coalesced with their kindred, the
'incoming Normans.1 Another dozen years, and the patriot
prelate, St. Laurence O'Toole, dies broken-hearted. John
'Comyn, an Englishman, succeeded him in the See of
Dublin.

Immediately the thin end of the wedge was inserted.
The following decree was got from Lucius III., dated 1182: —
" Sacrorum quoque canonum authoritatem sequentes
statuimus ut nullus Archiepiscopus vel Episcopus absque
assensu Archiepiscopi Dubliniensis, si in episcopatu fuerit, in
dioecesi Dubliniensi conventus celebrare, causas et ecclesi-
"astica negotia ejusdem dioecesis nisi per Romanum Pontificem
'vel Legatum ejus fuerit eidem injunctum, tractare prae-
sumat." This Bull confirmed by Innocent ill. in 1216, was
amplified by Honorius III. in 1221, when Henry de Loundres
got the following : — Honorius Episcopus, servus servorum

It is an interesting fact that the coast line (and to a great extent)
the inland boundary of the Archdiocese of Dublin and the ancient
Scandinavian kingdom of Dublin are identical, (See Halliday.)

" Primate of Ireland," « Primate of All, Ireland." 42?

Dei, venerabili fratri Dubliniensi Archiepiscopo, &c., cum
Divina legis praecepto nemo falcem suam in messem debet
mittere alienam, &c., nos tuis praecibus inclinati auctoritate
praesentium inhibemus, ne cuipiam Archiepiscopo vel alio
Praelato Hiberniae (praeter suffraganeos Archiepiscopi
Dubliniensis aut Apostolicae SedisLegatum) sineipsiusArchie-
piscopi Dubliniensis et successorum suorum assensu bajulare
cnicem, celebrare conventus (Religiosis exceptis) vel causas
ecclesiasticas (nisi a Sedis Apostolicae delegatis) tractare
liceat in Provincia Dubliniensi, &c." Thenceforward Henry
de Loundres and his successors styled themselves each
" Hiberniae Ecclesiae Primas." By the first of these decrees
the Archbishop of Dublin, already freed from the authority
of Canterbury, became independent of Armagh. By the
second he became actual Primate of the Pale, and from his
point of view rightful Primate of Ireland. Let us see the
grounds of this claim.

Everyone knows that Primates rank next after Patriarchs
and had very similar rights. Everyone may not know the
source and history of their origin and the varying scope of
their authority. Political geography had its influence on
ecclesiastical geography. Dioceses changed their limits
with changes of territorial jurisdiction in the civil order.
{Sometimes districts juridically distinct although all under
the one secular government had separate Primates. Whoever
studies French Church history will find at one time several
primacies ; Bourges, first in order of time ; Aries, once first
in dignity ; Sens, Bourdeaux, &c. Lyons grew, and over-
shadowed, and now has extinguished them all. We find the
Archbishop of Paris once resisting the entry of the Primate
of Bourges with cross erect into that city as sturdily as the
Archbishop of Dublin ever resisted his brother of Armagh.
In like manner the Archbishop of York claimed to be Primate
of England, because York had been the capital of Northum-
bria, whereas Canterbury was always comparatively an
obscure place in the realm of England. And the settlement
of this dispute between York and Canterbury throws much
light on our present subject. After sharp contention it was
decided that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be styled

430 1 he Origin and Value of the distinction,

" Primate of all England," and the Archbishop of York should
sign himself " Primate of England." This arrangement holds
good in the Protestant Church to the present day. This fact
goes far to corroborate the alleged settlement of the dispute
between Armagh and Dublin on identical lines in 1353, a
record of which Archbishop Allen claimed to have seen in
the Pope's own library.

This, then, appears to be the key at once to the origin and
to the value of this title, "Primate of Ireland." The Pale
was politically a distinct country. The Archbishop of
Dublin was often actually, and still oftener virtually, viceroy.
How could he be subject to a Primate living among a hostile
people ? It may be objected that this entails the total repud-
iation of the claims of Armagh, and the setting up of
Dublin as sole primacy when the English rule overpassed
the Pale and extended to the whole island. But two things
intervened to prevent such a result The Holy See ever
considers hard facts. Thus, although Glendalough was incor-
porated with Dublin in 1224, we find bishops of Gleudalough
recognised for more than two hundred and fifty years after-
wards, in deference to the independence of the Wicklow clans.
And so, as the Pale took long to spread, and as besides the
Irish people viewed with keenest jealousy any rivalry with the
See of St. Patrick, the Court of Rome would in any event
have been slow to make any change. Soon the English
kings found cause to delay rather than hasten a change.
They began to nominate Englishmen or pro-English
Irishmen to Armagh as well as to Dublin. Thus they had
two centres instead of one for political purposes, and after the
religious revolt for proselytising purposes also. They may
also have been well pleased to keep up the quarrel between
the prelates. A policy of division was always a favourite
weapon of English diplomacy. Possibly, too, anything that
checked the over -inflation of one-man power in national
Churches may not have been unwelcome at Rome.

It may also be objected that there cannot be a primacy
unless there are metropolitans under the prelate who claims
to be primate. But the title and authority of primates
depends altogether on the Sovereign Pontiff, who may limit

Primate of Ireland, <c Primate of All Ireland" 431

or "extend their powers by express decree or tacit assent.
This objection would apply to Armagh before the Synod of
Kells just as much as to the later claims to Dublin.

The consideration of other objections must be omitted
here as fulness of treatment must yield to the exigencies of
space.

Ifc only remains to essay some definite statementon the value
of the distinction. No tract known to the present writer throws
the smallest light on this question, or touches the point at all.
Father Malone merely says " it is a distinction without a
difference." This is hardly accurate. The Archbishop of
Armagh at one time exercised primatial rights outside his
own province ; and when the Archbishop of Tuam, in 1255,
resisted such rights, he was compelled by the Holy See to
submit.1 (See Theiner, p. 68, n. 180). No case can be
proved where the Archbishop of Dublin exercised primatial
rights (i.e., right of hearing appeals, of visitation, of erecting
cross, &c.), in any province outside of Leinster. In brief, the
radical right of the Primate of the Pale to national jurisdic-
tion was nipped in its growth by the loyalty of Armagh ; but
the title remained.2

The high authority of Renehan's collections insists that
Armagh had the right of hearing appeals from Dublin,
provided they were heard outside Dublin province, and
that Dublin had only exemption from the personal
intrusion of the Primate of Armagh acting as such.
Many of the cases however, on which he relies, are not
conclusive.

The great bone of contention in the past was whether an
appeal lay from the Primate of Dublin to the Primate of
Armagh. It is certain no such appeal now lies. Indeed the
title of Primate is almost everywhere purely honorary.
How much the shock of revolutions, — particularly that which

1 This case tells in favour of Dublin, whose claim would have been
condemned too, had it been equally weak.

2 1 have not referred to the conferring of the Primacy of All Ireland
on Geo. Browne by Edward VI. It is of no value, being a reward for
apostacy. Queen Mary marked the record of his appointment " Vacat."
The Protestants themselves did not follow the precedent.

432 The Holy Places of Connemara.

weakened^ Gallicanism — and the easy access to Rome, have
had to do with the change, may easily be conjectured.
Appeal from a metropolitan to a primate seems to have
almost everywhere fallen into disuse. The Archbishop of
Armagh sat among the primates at the Vatican Council. 80
doubtless should Dr. Cullen had he not been a cardinal. By
express (1353) or implied sanction of the Holy See, Armagh
takes the title " Primate of All Ireland," and Dublin
" Primate of Ireland" ; and the court of Rome so addresses
the prelates respectively. The " Primate of All Ireland " takes
precedence as having the more ancient, and what was in days
of jurisdiction the more widely recognised authority.
No question of title is now raised on one side or the other
Wholesome harmony prevails, and the long and bitter
controversy sleeps, let us hope to wake no more.

F. MACENERNEY, C.G.

THE HOLY PLACES OF CONNEMARA.— I.

LIKE a fringe of fantastic embroidery set along the coast
of Connaught, washed by the Atlantic waves which
have hollowed its shores into countless creeks, bays and
inlets, traversed by huge ranges of mountain, dotted with
sparkling lakes and watered by almost innumerable rivers,
is the district, famed in song and story as Connemara. To
most people this territory bears the same relation to Ireland
as Boeotia did to ancient Greece— a land of barrenness,
barbarism and desolation. And yet Connemara is a much
maligned country. If here nature has been, in some respects,
less prodigal of her gifts than to other parts of Ireland, she
has in other ways, more than compensated for her
parsimony.

In the boldness and beauty of its natural scenery, in the
richness of its botanical and geological treasures, Connemara
stands unrivalled. But more than this, it is the very

The Holy Places of Connemara. 433

paradise of the archaeologist. Within a radius of twenty
miles of the town of Clifden, the picturesque and interesting
capital of Connemara, is to be met with the largest number
of Pagan, early Christian, and medieeval monuments, to be
found in an equal area in the world.

About five Irish miles from Clifden, on the way to Slyne
Head, is the village of Ballyconneely. Not many years ago,
this place was one of the great strongholds of proselytism
in the west, but the only relics of the vile system which now
remain are a few white-washed rookeries occupied by
degraded looking creatures, whose scared faces remind one
of the inmates of pauper houses.

Beyond a fine view of the Twelve Pins which present
the appearance of a huge wall raised by giant hands, here
and there gapped by the artillery of invading armies, the
hamlet itself is remarkable for nothing except dreariness.
Solitude and desolation reign supreme. The querulous
shriek of some startled snipe roused from his perch in a
swamp, the whistling of the ubiquitous curlew, and the
solemn roar of the ocean, never ceasing its plaintive moan,
are the only sounds which break the monotony of the
scene.

On one day of the year, however — the 13th of November —
the place becomes a veritable bee-hive of activity. Crowds
of peasantry clad in white flannels, Scotch caps and fantastic
shawls, are met trudging along cheerfully in the direction of
Slyne Head. They are on their way to a holy well. The
morning of the 13th, finds Ballyconneely completely trans-
formed. The streets are covered with tents, booths, and
gaily covered marquees, well stored with tempting cakes and
sweets in abundance for the children ; nor are the grown
people forgotten ; for the long rows of bottles, and casks,
piled one over another show that the thoughtful caterer has
not forgotten to make provision for their tastes. Men and
boys are shouting; half a dozen pipers are filling the air
with asthmatic groans, while in the meantime a living tide
of human beings is flowing from all directions.

The stranger asks in astonishment what is the cause
of all this commotion, and he is told in reply that it is
VOL. x. 2 E

434 The Holy Places of Connemara.

St. Caillin's day. On making further enquiries he finds that
this saint is the patron of the district, that his holy well,
much frequented, is a few miles off, and that the church in
which he fasted, prayed, and worked miracles, may be seen
on a, little island, inside the light-house, known in modern
times as " Duck Island." You are, moreover, told in con-
fidence, that the " pathern " was originally held near
St. Caillin's well, on a sandy beach which looks like a
veritable Sahara. When it was resolved to change the place
of meeting, as if in disapprobation of such a profanation, a
bell on the church of St. Caillin kept ringing the whole
night. Finally, you are apprised of a miracle which recently
took place at the well of Caillin. A cripple had come there
to perform a station. Unable to cross over a wall which
obstructed his progress he cried out : — " Slid cugat me, a
Caillin, aird-mic righ Laigin ; ta me mo clairineac agus ni
saruigim an cloide :" — which, translated into English, means
" behold me, 0 ! Caillin, great son of the King of Leinster 1
I am a cripple, and cannot climb over the wall." The result
of this implicit petition was, we are told, the complete
restoration of the cripple, who walked home joyfully without
the aid of his crutches.

The tradition prevalent in this district, expressed in the
cripple's prayer, viz. : that Caillin was son of the King of
Leinster, seems without foundation. He belonged to a
Connaught family, in which province he was born probably
towards the end of the fifth century. Colgan tells us that
he and St. Jarlath of Tuam were disciples of St. Benignus,
and under the year 464, the Annals of the Four Masters
chronicle the burial of Conal Gulban by St. Caillin, in his
church of Fenagh.

Like many of the Irish saints of the early ages, Caillin
was a scion of one of these great Milesian families which
trace their origin back to the very cradle of history. His
father, Niata, was descended in a direct line from Rudraige
Mor, a great warrior who ruled as Ard High of Erin about
thirty years before the Christian era. This monarch was
grandson of the famous Fergus Mac Roy, who through
feelings of hostility to Conor Mac Nessa, King of Ulster,

The Holy Places of Connemara. 435

came to Connaught as a voluntary exile, and having become
the husband or paramour of Queen Maedh, the Cleopatra of
Ireland, was the progenitor of the great Conmaicne family,
from whom St. Caillin was descended.

The ancient authors or compilers of the lives of the Irish
saints, in endeavouring to exalt the virtues and merits of
their heroes have so mixed facts with tablets, that an effort to
arrive at the truth is sometimes very difficult if not altogether
impossible. This is particularly true of St. Caillin. In the
Book of Fenagh, said to have been originally compiled by
the saint himself, but which bears manifest traces of a more
recent origin, he is represented as having arrived at the
patriachal age of iive-hundred years. The place of his
birth is not mentioned, but the annalist takes care to tell us
that when the saint had reached the modest age of one-
hundred, he was commanded by a certain Fintain to proceed
to Rome in order to learn wisdom and knowledge, that he
might afterwards be a precious gem, and a key for unlocking
ignorance. This Fintain, if we believe the ancient records,
must have been a very wonderful personage indeed.
Mathusalern falls into the shade in comparison with him.
Having originally come to Ireland in the train of the
renowned Cesair, said to have been the grand-daughter
of Noah, he out-slept the flood, and having witnessed
the arrival of Partholan the Greek, of the Nemedians,
Fomorians, Firbolgs, Tuatlia de Dananns, and Milesians,
he turns up hale and hearty to volunteer his valuable
services and rich experience as guardian and tutor of
St. Caillin.

The latter, we are told, remained two hundred years in
Rome, where he was promoted to the various degrees of
Holy Orders and was consecrated bishop. Twelve years
after the advent of St. Patrick, St. Caillin returned from
Rome. On his arrival, St. Patrick appointed him arch-legate
of Ireland, which office he continued to discharge for a
period of one hundred years. The occasion of St. Caillin's
return to his native land was an invitation sent him by his
kinsmen the Conmaicne, who occupied the western portion
of the province of Connaught. Their lands becoming too

436 , The Holy Places of Connemara.

thickly populated, one section of the tribe plotted the
destruction of the other, and were about carrying^ their evil
designs into execution until warned by an angel, who advised
them to send to Rome for their father Caillin, who would
settle the difficulty.

Having arrived in his native land, Caillin went straight
to the Conmaicne and said to them :

" That which you purposed is not right. Do what I tell
you." " We shall do truly, 0 arch-legate !" they replied,
" whatever in the world thou commandest us."

" My advice to you then, sons of Conmac," said he, " is to
remain on the lands on which you at present are. I will go
to seek possessions for you."

With this object in view he made a tour of Connaught,
visiting among other places Ard-Carva, now Ardcarn, and
Cruachanai, now Croghan, both in the county Roscommon,
and Dunmore, county Galway. The Cinel-Faghertaigh, a
fierce tribe from whom the modern name Faherty is derived,
had possession of the latter district. St. Caillin, however,
seems to have learned the secret of the Blarney stone, for
he not alone prevailed on this clan to comply with his
demands, but was also successful in all the places he had
visited.

Having succeeded in his purpose, and cursed a few lakes
and rivers on the way for not producing fish, he directed his
steps towards Magh Rein, now Fenagh, in the county
Leitrim. A famous druid named Cathbad, who had lived in
the time of Conor MacNessa, had foretold that Caillin would
found a church there. When he had arrived at the place he
was encountered by Fergna the King, who endeavoured to
resist him by violent means. He sent his son Aedh Dubh, at
the head of a great host to expel Caillin and his followers
from the district. But when the army and its leader saw the
heavenly appearance of the monks, and heard their prayers
and psalmody, their hearts were touched, they believed in
the God of St. Caillin, and received baptism. Fenagh was
presented to the [saint by the son of Fergna. When the
latter heard of the unexpected conversion of his son
and whole army, he raged like a wild beast. He sent for

1 he Holy Places of Connemam. 437

his druids and commanded them forthwith to summon all
their supernatural powers for the expulsion of the invaders.
The latter commenced to fulminate against the holy men a
series of incantations so foul, coarse and indecent, that the
indignation of Aedh Dubh was aroused, and he commanded
his army to destroy the pagan priests. " No," said Caillin,
" we will not employ human power against them, but it is my
will, if it be the Will of God, that the druids may be changed
into stones."

The words were no sooner spoken than the howling priests
were changed into huge boulders, which remain to this day
as a testimony of the truth of this narrative.

Fergna instead of being converted by this miracle only
grew more obstinate in his infidelity. But his punishment
was near at hand. Filled with fury he turned away from
the scene of his discomfiture swearing vengeance against
Caillin, when lo ! a vast chasm opened under his feet and he
was swallowed up alive into the earth.

These miracles were followed by another, performed in
favour of Aedh Dubh, the friend of our saint. That prince
was so-called because his personal appearance was dark and
unprepossessing. He besought the saint to transform his
visage, and give him the form and appearance of Rioce of
Innisbofinde, son of Darerca, sister of St. Patrick, and the
handsomest man in Ireland. Caillin and his monks fasted
and prayed for the desired change in the appearance of the
king. On the following day the transformation had been so
complete that there was no distinction between the two,
except the tonsure on the head of Rioce who was a monk.
From thenceforth Aedh Dubh was known as Aedh Find or
the Fair.

In gratitude for this favour the king loaded St. Caillin
with gifts, and placed himself, his territory and descendants
under perpetual tribute to the church and monastery of
Fenagh.

Another wonderful miracle recorded of St. Caillin was the
raising of the famous Conal Gulban to life. This prince was
killed by a flying spear flung from the hand of one of the
Tuatha-Slecht, a tribe inhabiting [the district adjoining

438' The Holy Places of Connemara.

Fenagh. Conal was five years and a-half dead when
St. Caillin came to his grave. He was sorely grieved when
the manner of his death was related to him, and more so
when he learned from supernatural sources that the king was
suffering torments in the other world. The saints of Ireland
were assembled, and they prayed and fasted for the resusci-
tation of Conal. God heard their petitions, and the king was
restored to life, and baptised in the famous bell of Clog-na
Righ, which still exists in the church of Foxfield, near
Fenagh, county Leitrim.

St. Columcille now appears on the scene. In the life of
this saint, written by O'Donnell, we are informed that it
was to St. Molaise of Devenish that Columba came for abso-
lution after the Battle of Cul-Dremne. The Book of Fenagh,
however, states categorically that St. Caillin was the person
to whom the Dove of the Cells had recourse in his troubles,
and that on this occasion the great penitent made his confessor
a present of the Cether-lebor, or " Book of the Four Gospels,"
and the Cathac, or " Book of the Psalms," transcribed by
St. Columba, and which is said to have been the cause of all.
his misfortunes.

As the departure of St. Columba for lona took place
about the year 563, St. Caillin, according to this account,
lived to a much later date than is generally believed.
Adamnan, the biographer of the great Abbot of lona, is also
introduced into this narrative as a contemporary of St. Caillin.
The latter had a vision in which he saw Fenagh swarmed
with monsters; the wolves of the forest roving through it;
the sea inundating it ; a bright torch flaming round it ;
furious lions contending against himself and Fenagh. He
fancied himself extinguishing the torch with his breath,
fighting the lions, and exhausting the sea.

The interpretation of this dream was given by St. Adamnan,
who is represented as having been then at Fenagh. The
portion of the manuscript containing it has, however, been
lost.

The so-called prophecies of St. Caillin are also found
recorded in the Book of Fenagh. An angel appears to the saint,
and dramatically describes the various colonizations of Erin.

The Holy Places of Connemara. 439

from the landing of the great Lady Cesair to the arrival of
Heremon and Heber. The line of the Milesian monarchs is
given in detail down to the reign of Diarmiad Mao Fergus
Cerrbheoil, during whose time Caillin lived. Then follows a
catalogue of the kings who were to rule over Erin until the
year 1172; Ruaidhri O'Conchobhair occupying the last place.
The most remarkable portion of this prophecy is, however,
the enumeration of the monarchs — eleven in number — who,
from the death of Roderic O'Conor, would rule over Ireland
until doom's-day. The names are given, but are merely
fanciful descriptions of the supposed qualities of the person-
ages indicated. They are : Derg-donn (brown-red); Aedh of
the long hair ; Lam-fada (long-hand) ; Cliab-glas (grey-chest);
Crissalach (dirty-girdle); Sraptive; Brown-faced Osgamuin;
Osnadach (the signer) ; Jartru of Ailech ; Foltgarb and Flann
Cittiach (the slender), the last Arch-king of Ireland. Next
follow the O'Ruaircs, Lords of Breifni, down to the year
1430. The other prophecies contained in this book relate
to the family of Conal Gulban, the abbots of Fidnachta, and
other matters of minor importance.

Among the disciples of St. Caillin is said to have been
St. Manchan of Maethail, or Mohill, Co. Leitrim. To him
were confided the custody of the relics which St. Caillin had
brought from Rome ; and to him also fell the duty of ful-
filling his sainted master's last wishes, and of administering
to him the last Sacraments of the Church. St. Caillin had
directed that his remains should be interred in Relig-
Mochoemhog, or the " Cemetery of St. Mochoemhog," now
Lemokevoge, Co. Tipperary.

When the time of the holy man's death approached, he
came, in company with St. Manchan, to the Church of St.
Mochoemhog. Here he made many revelations to his compan-
ion, who afterwards anointed him.

" I grieve, 0 Caillin," said Manchan, " that it is not in
thine own Cahir and fair church thy relics and thy resurrec-
tion should be — i.e., in Fidnacha of Magh Rein."

" When my bones and relics shall be bare," said Caillin,
"do thou thyself come, 0 Manchan, and my congregation
from Fidnacha, and bear my relics to my own church,"

440 The Holy Places of Connemara.

" We will come truly," said Manchan, " and the Twelve
Apostles of Ireland will come with us, and we will convey
thy relics to thy church."

" My blessing on thee, 0 Manchan," said Caillin, " and
whosoever destroys both our churches shall not obtain terri-
tory or tribe."

After this St. Caillin went to receive the reward of his
labours. His body, as he desired, was laid to rest with great
veneration in Relig-Mochoemhog. His relics were after-
wards brought to Fenagh, where they were interred with
•great pomp.

In an eloquent panegyric his biographer speaks of him
as a man of truth, with purity of nature, like the patriarchs ;
•a pilgrim, like Abraham ; gentle and forgiving, like Moses;
a psalmist, like David ; a treasury of wisdom, like Solomon ;
and a vessel of election, like Paul.

Nor should we doubt the truth of this eulogium.
Legendary and fanciful as many of the acts recorded of St.
Caillin undoubtedly are, it is beyond question that he was
one of the galaxy of saints who have made the golden era
of the history of our country ; that he was endowed with
true wisdom, the wisdom of the saints; that he was a vessel
of election to our pagan forefathers, who have handed down
-from son to son the fame of his sanctity. Nearly fifteen
centuries of change have taken place since he lived ; kings
and conquerors are forgotten, or only mentioned with execra-
tion, but a memorial of gratitude to St. Caillin still remains —
a monument, not, indeed, raised in stone or brass, but
inscribed on more enduring tablets — the hearts and minds of
a loving posterity.

WILLIAM GANLY, C.C.

[ 441 ]

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS.

CLANDESTINITY AND DOMESTIC SERVANTS AGAIN.

" VERY REV. SIR, — A decision in the January number of the
EECORD caused a good deal of comment, and I ventured to call atten-
tion to it in the February number. I did not overstate the case when
I said the decision created uneasiness and even alarm. I stated the
reasons why I thought the decision could not be upheld ; and my desire
was to get substantial answers. The decision is amended somewhat
now ; but I still venture to think that even in its amended form it is
not in accordance with what has been considered safe practice, and
I am convinced that it is at variance with the recognised principles
of both theologians and canonists. This is my apology for troubling
you again. I shall endeavour to make good these statements. In
doing so I shall adhere to the reasons I have already given— only
I shall develop them a little.

" But first I must return thanks for the answers given in the
RECOBD of February ; and I must express my regret that my letter
did not reach you earlier, so that the trouble of a special answer
might have been obviated. Then, I make no doubt, the necessity
of at least the parallel columns would have been obviated. For the
parallel cases which I made were made the basis of the amended
answer.

4< But let me take up the reasons one by one : —

" I. THE ANALOGY.

*' The case which I proposed as analogous is not of course analogous
in every respect : it is not analogous as analysed and set forth in the
RECORD, opposite the case of the servant into which new positions
and saving clauses have been introduced.1 But the case as set forth
by me is analogous to the case set forth in the RECORD, from which I
quoted,2 and what is strange, these two are made analogous in the
solution of the case proposed by Parish Priest, the enquirer in the last

1 I. E. .RECORD, Feb. 1889, p. 174, v.g. n. 6, " neither a home in the
parish, nor the intention of continuing a resident ; on the contrary, leaving
the parish. . . ."
lUd, p, 172,

442

Theological Questions.

number of the RECORD.
columns ?

May I claim the favour of using parallel

" II. THE ANALOGOUS CASF.
" I . A sponsa sends away all her

effects to
sponsvs.

the residence of the

"2. On the day appointed she
leaves her father's house ; goes
directly to the parish priest ; gets
married ; and leaves the parish.

" I. THE CASE OF THE SERVANT.

" 1. A female servant who has
spent four years in her present
situation, having arranged to get
married in the parish of her ser-
vice, gives notice to her mistress
of her intention to leave.

" 2. On the day appointed, she
leaves the residence of her
mistress ; goes directly to the
parish priest ; gets married ; and
leaves the parish.

" Now, these two cases are analogous for the purposes of my argu-
gument, as I shall point out lower down. Meanwhile, I wish to
direct attention to the fact that, * in order to prevent further ambi-
guity, and to guard too against further disturbance and disquietude
of conscience,'2 two cases have been made out of the case of the
servant as set down above, one as proposed by M. H., the enquirer in
the January number, and two cases have been made out of the analogous
case. The two cases are declared parallel each to each, and in this
parallelism lies, if I mistake not, the substance of the solution. Here
are the cases with the new positions in brackets : —

" I. THE CASE OF THK SERVANT.

" CASE A.»
" 1. As above.

" II. THE ANALOGOUS CASE.
" CASE A.

" 2. On the day appointed she

leaves the residence of her leaves her father's
mistress ; [but, being on good
terms with her mistress she is
welcome back for refreshments]
thence goes directly to the parish
priest ; gets married ; and leaves
the parish.

"1. As above.

" 2. On the day appointed , she
house ; [with-
out, however, either formally, 01
virtually determining not to re-
turn] goes directly to the parish
priest ; gets married ; and leaves
the parish.

1 Idem, Jan. 1889, p. 80.

2 I. E. RECORD, Feb. 1889, p. 167.

s Ibid. "Now, there are two corresponding cases in connection with
servants. . , ,"

Theological Questions. 443

"CASE B. " CASE B.

" 1. As above. " 1. As above.

"2. On the day appointed she "2. On the day appointed she

leaves the residence of her leaves her father's house ; [to

mistress ; [but being on bad terms which she may never again re-

with her mistress may not return, turn, and to which she does not

and does not intend ever to return intend ever again to return] goes

to that house] thence goes directly directly to the parish Church ;

to the parish priest ; gets married ; gets married ; and leaves the

and leaves the parish. parish.

" In cases A. and A. the marriages are valid. Neither the servant
nor the sponsa has relinquished her residence in the parish. It was
this case of the servant I had in view when I said : — 1 ' The hypothesis
I have marked in italics is for me the practical one.' But, although
the marriage of the servant in the case is valid, I would not be pre-
pared to say that the same servant may come up to Dublin, and with
the permission of the parish priest of her mistress's residence e;et
married validly in Dublin. I think most priests would feel nervous
in acting on such a statement if made. Jt follows immediately from
the doctrine of the RECORD ; but on that point I prefer to suspend my
judgment.

" If the domicile and quasi-domicile have not been relinquished in
cases B. and B., it makes very little difference whether the new
positions in A. and A. be introduced or not. They are beside the
question. Now I venture to assert that in cases B. and B. the domi-
cile and quasi-domicile have not been relinquished. I am compelled
to make this point good. I do so by repeating my original argu-
ment : — •

" The sponsa, neither in case A. nor in case B., as above, is a
vaga : so, neither is the servant in the two corresponding cases a
vaga quoad parochiam servitii — she has not relinquished her quasi-
domicile. It is admitted with regard to cases A. and A. I shall
prove the statement in reference to B. and B.

" I find Sanchez, who is a classical author in this matter, maintains
that the sponsain case B. as well as in case A. is not a vaga. ' Dixi
vagum appellari qui nullibi certam sedem et domicilium habet ; sed
qui relicto priori domicilio tier agit ad locum, ubi figere pedem
decrevit, dum est in via, caret domicilio . . . vagus dicitur qui
pristinum domicilium omnino cleserens, amisit^ et iter agit, aut navigat,

i J. E. RECORD, Feb., 1889, p. 172,

444 Theological Questions.

animo acquirendi 'novum.'1 The phrases c iter agit,' * aut navigat.
<dum est in via,' are opposed to ' habitatio ' of the canonists and
theologians, and imply that the person in question has left the parish.
But these phrases cannot be applied to the sponza in the case under
consideration. Therefore, she is not a vaga; so neither is the servant
in reference to the parish in which she still lives.

" But, perhaps, the illustrations of Sanchez are opposed to me ?
No. For he gives three examples in order to apply the principles
laid down above, and in each of them he supposes the person has left
the parish. ' Hinc infertur, qui relicta parothia, nondum statuit ad
quam migraturus est." Also : Advenientes ad certum oppodum. . ."
Again, " Idem dicendum est, quando relicta priori parochia ad aliam
se transferunt, et dum domus ilia ad quam se transferunt expeditur
habitatore, hospitantur in aliqua domo alterius parochiae ; hi vagi
sunt."2

" And so true is it that one should have finally passed out of the
parish in which one had a domicile in order to be considered a vagus,
Sanchez, and after him Lacroix, make an exception of a person who
passes to some place very near, such as to another parish in the
same city. " Ille tamen non censetur vagus, qui de una Parochi§,
intra unarn urbem, v.g. e Parochia S. Severini vult ire habitatum ad
Parochiam S. Cuniberti, et interea moratur in Parochia S. Martini,
cum enim talis notus sit in urbe, debet proclamari et conjungi, vel ubi
diutius habitavit id est, in Parochia S. Severini, vel ubi inhabitare ince-
perit cum animo ibi permanendi, saltern per majorem anni partem."3
How then, I am curious to know, can a person be considered a vaga
who has not yet passed out of the parish, but who still lives in the
parish? " In eo loco habitare quis dicitur, ubi majori anni parte
habitat."4

" And what is more curious still, all the principal modern authors
whom I have consulted quote Sanchez with approval. None of them
have found fault with his doctrine, although some of them have
obscured it. I do claim unmistakable authority before I depart from
the doctrine of Sanchez.

" Bened. XIV., following Sanchez, is even a little more extreme,
here is his definition of a vagus. " Vagus ille appellandus, qui
relicto suo domicilio, sedem in exteris terris inquirit ut ex jure depre-

1 Sanchez, De Matri., Lib. iii., D. xxv., n. 3.

2 Idem, n. 4.

8 Lacroix. De Matri., Lib. vi., pars, iii., 746. Sanchez, Ibid, n. 8.
* Sanchez. De Miatn^ Lib. iii., D. xxiii., n. 12.

Theological Questions,

henditur (L. ejus S; Celsus ff. ad municipalem)."1 Ballerini finds
fault with this definition ; but the definition Ballerini gives suits me
very well. ' Ut vagus quis dicatur relate ad parochiam ....
generatim satis est, quod priori parochia relicta, non dum in alia
sedem defixerit.'2 And Dr. Murray says to the point : ' Vagus est
qui nullibi aut domiciliuin aut quasi- domicilium habet, a parochia in
parochiam commeans.'3

" It would be easy to multiply quotations ; but I feel that I have
established what I set about establishing — viz., the Sponsa in Case B,
has not become a vaga. So 'neither has the servant in Case B lost
her quasi-domicile.

" II. THE EXPOSITION OF THE CONDITIONS.

"I did not find fault with the following statement : — u A quasi"
domicile ceases when the conditions necessary for its inception cease.1'
It is a statement in other words applied to an individual case of the
well-known regula juris. ' Omnis res per quascumque causas
nascitur, per easdem dissolvitur.' But I did find fault with the
" meaning assigned to the conditions in the solution of the case." I
do find the same fault still — viz., the meaning assigned to factum
habitationis as a condition required for the inception of a quasi-
domicile.

" III. THE MEANING OP THE factum habitationis.
*' I considered that in the solution of the case in the January
number too much stress had been laid on the necessity of residing
always in a fixed residence in order to continue a quasi-domicile. It
is true a fixed residence is presupposed in order to have it said in
foro externo that a quasi-domicile had begun. For in order to acquire
a quasi-domicile two things are required : (1) the intention of re-
maining in the parish for the greater part of the year ; (3} some fact
indicative of that intention, and it is in this sense the residency for a
month is proof presumptive that the first condition is present, while
on the other hand, it is proof presumptive4 that a person living in a
parish " more vagi ac itenerantis " has not had the intention of remain-
ing there for the greater part of the year. But take a person who

1 Inst. 33, & Sed jam deveniamus.

2 Gury, Ball., vol. ii., n. 848. Note (b).

3 Murray. De Impedimentis Matrimonii, cap. xiv., n. 387. I am aware
that Dr. Murray modified his views somewhat on this matter ; but I prefer
his former views.

4 Dr. Murray. De Impedimentis Matrimonii, n. 359, appears to take a
different view of this part of the Instruction of 1867.

Theological Questions.

has had a domicile or quasi-domicile, in order to be said to have
relinquished either one or the other, he must have revoked his inten-
tion of living longer in the parish, and he must give proof of that by
some fact indicative of his intention. ' Omnis res, per quascumque
causas nascitur, per easdem dissolvitur.' I may here remark that
the case which is made in the February number of the RECOKD,
p. 1 G4 (ii.), is not by any means a clear case of a vagus. See the quo-
tations which I have given above from Sanchez, and the case made
by Sanchez and Lacroix.

"IV. THE AUTHORITY OF FEIJE.

<f I again quote from Feije in exactly the same manner that I
quoted from the last number of the RECORD, and I shall set oppo-
site it the translation given in the RECORD of what was supposed to
be the important clause : —

*' Sedulo curandum est ut pa-
rochianus vel parochiana non
deserat suum quasi-domicilium
ante diem celebrationis matri-
monii, sed maneat in parochia
sive in eodein famulatu, sive in

alia domo intra parochianij usque . .let her remain in the parish,
adcontractumineamatrimonium, either v.g. in the same employ-
secus enim quasi-domicilium dis- ment, or in some other house in

pareret."1 the parish

"I leave it to the readers of the RECORD to judge what is the
meaning of the quotation from Feije, and I must say in conclusion
that I do not consider it fair to have emphasised the single word
house, then to have credited me with it, and to have argued at length
in eloquent fashion on that assumption.

" I remain, Very Rev. Sir,

" Yours faithfully,

" C."

Our correspondent commences his present contribution in
rather bad humour ; he seems to have been absolutely
bewildered by the conclusiveness of the parallel columns in the
February number of the RECORD ; and, while he would fain
deplore their introduction, he cannot help according them

1 Feije. De Impedimentis et Dispensationibus Matrimonialibus, ed. tertia,
229, 3°.

Theological Questions. 447

the flattering though unwilling homage of a thrice-essayed
effort at imitation.

Again, in the February number of the RECORD, in reference
to our correspondent's communication, [ wrote : " Had this
letter reached the Editor a little earlier, the necessity of a
special answer might have been obviated. The answer to the
preceding question could be easily adapted to both questions."
Our correspondent now charges that his letter reached us
sufficiently early, and that it was his letter which suggested
the division of cases that preceded it in the RECORD. I
shall not notice this observation, and perhaps I should
allow our correspondent the trifling consolation which
he claims ; but, nevertheless, the division of cases to which
he refers, and to which I shall presently revert, was in the
hands of the publishers before our correspondent's manuscript
arrived, and, still earlier, it was contained in a private letter
to a respected correspondent, whose name and address can
be had for the purpose of verification.

I would gladly abstain from reproducing in the present
number what was fully treated in past numbers of the
RECORD ; but the evil genius of misrepresentation, and of
rather substantial suppressio veri, has so haunted our corre-
spondent during his present effort, that it becomes necessary
to recapitulate the substance of my previous papers.

THE RECAPITULATION.

In the January number of the RECORD a correspondent
proposed for solution a case which was substantially as
follows : —

" A female servant has spent four or five years in a situation,
and, having now arranged to marry a person who belongs to a
different parish, she gives notice to her mistress of her intention to
leave, and another servant is engaged to take her place at her depar-
ture. Although she has a domicile at her mother's house, which is
situated in an adjoining parish, her wish is to be married in the
parish of her place of service ; not before her departure, but imme-
diately after it."

Our correspondent thought himself that, in those circum-
stances, the parish priest of the place of service could not
validly assist at the marriage ; and he added the following

448 Theological Questions.

hypothetical case : " If this be a correct opinion, it would
seem to follow that, though she were to proceed direct, after
having quitted her service, to the parish priest of her mistress,
he could not validly assist at her marriage."

Having explained the theological principles involved in
the case, I concluded that the parish priest could not validly
assist at the marriage either in the real or hypothetical case,
and I wrote : " Now, does this girl retain a fixed residence
in the parish ? Does the intention of continuing to reside
in a fixed abode, as people who have a domicile, persevere ?
Leaving her former mistress, she left the only residence she
had, or hoped to have, in the parish ; she has no longer any home
in the parish. She may, during the interval before her mar-
riage, spend a few days successively with her acquaintances
in the parish, or she may go to lodge in one particular house,
or she may go directly from the house of her mistress to the
parish priest, get married, and leave the parish. In all those
cases, when she removed her effects, and ceased to reside with
her late mistress, she had no longer a fixed residence in the
parish, nor an intention of residing in & fixed abode, ' quemad-
modum ceteri solent qui in eodem loco verum proprieque
dictum domicilium habent.' '

Any fair-minded critic, who will not confine himself to a
superficial examination of the garbled extract, " Or she may
go directly from the house of her mistress to the parish priest,
get married, and leave the parish," but who will consider the
terms of the question and the context of the answer, will
recognise in the above-quoted summary all the elements
contained in the following analysis, given in the February
number of the RECORD (p. 174) :—

" 1. The girl is supposed to have finally and irrevocably left the
home of her late mistress ; to have gone to the parish priest ' after
having quitted her service;' after she had ' ceased to reside with her late
mistress. '

"2. The girl excludes her intention of returning : ' Leaving her
former mistress, she left the only residence she had, or hoped to have,
in the parish.'

" 3. She removes all her effects ; this, however is not material to
the cessation of quasi-domicile.

' " 4. She is succeeded by another servant.

•'5. If any mishap prevented the marriage, she could not return

Theological Questions. 449

to her late residence as to a home. It had ceased to be her residence.
She is supposed, in the question, to have finally quitted this residence
before approaching the parish priest.

" 6. Leaving her mistress, she has a positive intention of not
continuing a resident — of not procuring for herself another permanent
home in the parish. 'Leaving her mistress, she left the only resi-
dence she had, or hoped to have, in the parish.' ' In all those cases
.... she had no longer a fixed residence in the parish, nor an
intention of residing in a fixed abode in the parish.'

" 7. Having therefore left her only residence in the parish, and
having revoked her intention of continuing in any fixed abode in the
parish, homeless in the parish she presents herself to the parish priest
to be married."

Our correspondent speaks of " an amended answer," and
of the introduction of new clauses, or new positions into my
argument. I would gladly have amended my previous
answer if it required amendment. I would gladly too have
adopted a new position if it were needed ; but neither was
required ; neither was done ; unless indeed the analytical
exposition of an answer already sufficiently intelligible, but
misconstrued by careless readers, can be called " the
introduction of new clauses or new positions." Even our
.correspondent — prejudiced as he writes — must admit that
the original answer contained all the elements of the above
jquqted analysis ; unless, indeed, he contends that a garbled
.extract should be interpreted independently of the
nature of the question, or the context of the answer,
as it is interpreted by him in his first attempt at parallel
•columns.

1 had indeed foolishly flattered myself that the most
,careless reader could not have at any time distorted the
meaning of the analysed sentence ; and when I learned that
it was misconstrued — and our correspondent now repeats
the garbled extract in his first effort at parallel columns,
notwithstanding that I explained its intended and obvious
meaning in the February number of the RECORD — I hastened
to remove all possible danger of future misconception.
I described, in this connection, two cases of domestic
servants about to be married, and 1 illustrated them by two
examples from domiciled persons about to be married. I
VOL. x. 2 F

450 Theological Questions.

called the examples Case A and Case B : it is unfortunately
necessary for me to repeat them : —

CASE A.

" Ladies from rural parishes, or from provincial towns, not
unfrequently come to Dublin to be married, accompanied by their
friends, and by their parish priest or his delegate, who assists at the
marriage. These ladies, in the common estimation of men, have not
forfeited the rights and privileges of their original domicile. They
have still a fixed residence — a home in their native parish ; they have
not formally or virtually revoked the intention of residing in their
native parish ; and if anything unforeseen occurred to prevent the
marriage, they would doubtlessly return home as if their journey had
been an ordinary pleasure visit to Dublin."

The corresponding case of servants was thus described : —

" Servants sometimes present themselves for marriage when, in
the common estimation of men, they have not yet ceased to belong to
their employer's household ; when the employer's home is still their
home ; while they have yet a fixed residence in the parish ; and when
they have not yet absolutely revoked their intention of continuing
residents of the parish," &c.

The validity of the servant's marriage in this case has
never been questioned. Our correspondent adds : " I would
not be prepared to say that the same servant may come up
to Dublin, and, with the permission of the parish priest of
her mistress's residence, get married validly in Dublin. . . .
It follows immediately from the doctrine of the RECORD." It
would be very desirable that our correspondent would quote
the passage from which he draws a certain inference. The
RECORD said : " Servants sometimes present themselves for
marriage when, in the common estimation of men, they have
not yet ceased to belong to their employer's household," &c.,
and then they could be validly married by the parish priest
of their mistress. Now, if such a servant left her parish,
came to Dublin, and presented herself for marriage, would
she, in the common estimation of men, still belong to her
employer's household? I think I had better abstain from
noticing our correspondent's interpretations and inferences.

CASE B.

"Again, a young lady may have had a serious misunder-
standing with her family. She may know that she will be

Theological Questions. 451

ignominiously expelled from her home unless she anticipatss by
flight any serious action on the part of her family. Married or
unmarried she must leave. She then arranges with a young man
from a neighbouring parish to get married in Dublin, and she finally
and absolutely leaves home, intending never to return to her parental
parish. This girl becomes a vaga when she leaves home, and, if the
sponsus withdrew from his engagement, return home would be for her
impossible."

The corresponding case of servants was thus described :—

" Again, a servant may have been giving extreme dissatisfaction
to her mistress ; the sponsus and sponsa may have been servants in the
same family; they may have been guilty of several larcenies ; and their
doubtful morals may have caused serious annoyance and embarass-
ment to their employers. They are threatened with prosecution for
their injustice, and the wrath of the parish priest for their immorality,
unless, to save the character of their employer's house, they quit the
parish without delay. Finally, they are dismissed. And now they
hasten from the parish with all possible speed ; and, having heard
that the parish priest could give them all the necessary dispensations,
they approach him to get married, if possible, before they return to
their parental parish. They are anxious to be married ; but married
or single, they are determined to leave the parish as speedily as
possible. These persons would have lost their quasi-domicile."

As our correspondent's present paper is devoted to prove
that in Case B the quasi-domicile is not lost as long as the
servant remains within the confines of the parish, I have
reproduced the case at length. Our correspondent again
in his third effort at parallel columns emphasises the
unimportant elements of this case — he enjoys heartily
the idea of a servant being welcome back again, and he is
positively fascinated with the idea of the refreshments — but
he rather suppresses important elements. Our readers, how-
ever, will recognise in Case B all the elements of the original
offending case proposed by M. H. In Case B — 1. The servant
finally and irrevocably leaves the home of her late mistress.
2. She excludes the intention of returning. 3. She removes
all her effects. 4, She may be succeeded by another. 5. If
any mishap prevented the marriage, she dare not return -to
her mistress, 5. She has neither a home in the parish, nor the
intention of continuing for a moment a resident with a fixed abode
in the parish (our correspondent omits this) ; on the contrary,

4:52 Theological Questions.

leaving the parish, she has a positive intention of riot con-
tinuing a resident — of not procuring for herself another
permanent home in the parish. 7. Thus, homeless in the
parish, she presents herself to the parish priest.

In the February number of the RECORD I argued that in
Case B the quasi-domicile had ceased even before the persons
left the parish ; because " quibus modis quasi-domicilium
contrahitur, iisdem etiam solvitur " : and as actually com-
menced residence in some fixed abode, and the intention of
residing in some fixed abode in the parish, for the greater
part of a year, are essential for the inception of quasi-
domicile; so when the fixed residence is abandoned, and
when the intention of continuing in any fixed abode in the
place is revoked, the quasi-domicile again ceases.

Our correspondent contends that quasi-domicile continues
at least while the persons remain within the confines of the
parish; he argues chiefly from authority— from Sanchez,
Ballerini, Benedict XIV,, Dr. Murray, and Feije, I find it
convenient for myself to commence with

1. — DR. MURRAY.

" And Dr. Murray," writes our correspondent, " says to
the point : ' Vagus est qui nullibi aut domicilium aut
quasi-domicilium habet, a parochia in parochiam corn-
means.' ;> The conclusion is that according to Dr, Murray
a person cannot be a vagus, unless he travels from parish
to parish. Ut quid suppressio haec ? Why did not
our correspondent abstain from quoting Dr. Murray ; or
refrain from mangling his teaching? What has a theo-
logical controversy to gain by substantial suppressio veri ?
Dr. Murray writes " Vagus est qui nullibi aufc domicilium,
aut quasi-domicilium habet, a parochia in parochiam corn-
means — de vagante intra eamdem parochiam, vid. supra,
n. 359." Our correspondent omitted the inconvenient words,
though they immediately follow his quotation, and are
part of the same sentence. Dr. Murray requires for the
inception of quasi-domicile, actual residence in some
fixed abode, and the intention of residing in some fixed
abode for the greater part of a year. And the quasi-domicile

Theological Questions. 453

will cease when -the two conditions necessary for its inception
will cease, whether the person continues wandering about
the parish, or departs for some other parish. In n. 359
Dr. Murray conceives the case of a parish in which there
are six villages. An itinerant merchant remains permanently
in the parish ; he intends to spend two months successively
in each of the villages ; he intends to confine his perambula-
tions to the parish; and yet though he will not leave the parish,
Dr. Murray considers it a res decisa, that such a person is a
vagus. I shall have to revert to this again ; but meanwhile
Dr. Murray teaches that a person who has -no permanent
home, nor the intention of residing in a fixed abode in a parish,
is a vagus therein. The servant in Case B departing from
the parish has neither a home in the parish, nor the intention
of continuing for a moment in any fixed abode in the parish.
She is therefore a vaga in the parish; or rather a peregrina,
as she retains her maternal domicile. Moreover, had she not
a domicile in her maternal parish, the servant in Case B
would sufficiently verify even the garbled extract of our
correspondent " a parochia in parochiam commeans :" she
had commenced to travel from parish to parish. I now
proceed to the objections from

II.— SANCHEZ.

Sanchez (a) tells us how a domicile — and the same is true
of quasi-domicile — may be lost ; and (6) he gives us various
definitions of vagus. 1 shall quote the principal definitions.

A.

" Hinc fit sicut domicilium non solum animo, sed
animo et facto constituitur ; ita ut transferatur et deperdatur
opus esse animo et facto, nempe desertione habitations eo
domicilio ; quare sola mutatione animi perpetuo manendi,
dum autem non mutatur prius illud domicilium habitations
acquisitum, non deperditur (D. xxiii., n. 2). It is not there-
fore sufficient to ^limit, or revoke, the intention of perpetual
residence in the parish, but the revocation of the intention
must be accompanied, by the desertion of one's habitation,
or home, in the place of his domicile. Both conditions
destroy the quasi-domicile ; both conditions were fulfilled in

454 Theological Questions.

the case of the servant described in Case B. Therefore she
had lost her quasi-domicile in the parish. Why did our
correspondent omit all reference to this passage ?

B.

Sanchez next gives us a general definition of vagus ; 2° a
definition of vagus in reference to the parish he is leaving ;
3° a definition of vagus in reference to the new parish he may
have entered ; and 4° he explains the Tridentine law, which
requires the parish priest to get the permission of his
Ordinary before assisting at the marriage of vagi. Of course
the servant in Case B is not a vaga but a peregrina ; she
retains her maternal domicile. Nevertheless these definitions
will help us to determine when a quasi-domicile is lost in
a particular parish.

1° The general definition : " Praemittendum est, qui dican-
tur vagi ? Hi enim dicuntur qui nullibi certam ac constantem
sedem, ac domicilium habent, sed hinc inde vagantur."
(D. xxv., 1, iii., n. 1). Conformably to this definition I wrote
in the February number of the RECORD :

" Suppose a servant has given a few years of service in a certain
house ; her terra of service is now expiring • she resolves to discon-
tinue her residence in this house, and she intends moreover not to
seek any fixed residence in the parish in future. . . . She then
leaves the house of her mistress, and commences to follow the avoca-
tion of itinerant merchant or pedlar of no fixed residence. Does she
retain her quasi-domicile ? If not when did it cease ? Was it a
month after she had ceased to have a permanent home in the parish ?
Or a fortnight ? Or a week ? Even though she confined her
perambulations within the boundaries of the parish, we must rather
say that she lost her quasi-domicile when she ceased to reside with
her mistress, resolving not to seek a fixed abode in the parish in
future."

Why does this servant lose her quasi-domicile 1 Because
she is supposed to leave the only fixed residence — " certa
ac constans sedes ac domicilium " — she has in the parish, and
because she intends not to procure any fixed abode in the
parish in future ; hence she must wander about. Now the
servant in Case B has no longer a fixed abode in the parish,
nor the intention of continuing in any fixed abode in the
parish for a moment longer; hence she would be a vaga in the
parish had she "not still her parental dom icile,

Theological Questions. 455

2° Sanchez defines vagus in reference to the parish he is
leaving : " Dicuntur etiam vagi qui pristinum domicilium
omnino deserentes, navigant vel iter faciunt, quaerentes ubi se
collocent; hi enim sine domicilio sunt, ob idque vagi
dicuntur." (Ibid., n. 2). I illustrated this doctrine by the
following example in the February number of the RECORD ;
" A labourer, let us suppose, is removing from the house he
has occupied lor a few years, to a house in a neighbouring
parish ; he had been living two miles from the confines of
the parish ; all his effects have been removed from his late
home ; he gives up possession of the house, where another
labourer immediately succeeds him ; and sets out for his new
home, &c." This labourer became a vagus ; he had given
up his only fixed residence ; he was deserting his domicile — •
he had commenced his journey in quest of a new home ;
therefore he was a vagus. The girl in Case B was also
permanently leaving the parish; she therefore too was a
vaga as far as regarded the parish. Our correspondent's
only argument from these extracts is : the phrases " iter agit,"
" dum est in via " cannot be applied to the sponsa, nor to the
servant in Case B! They have therefore still a habitatio in
the parish !

In reply to this argument I shall only ask the readers of
the-RECORD to read Case B; and I may ask our correspondent
when did the labourer above described, begin to be
"pristinum domicilium deserens^ when did he begin his journey
to his new home 1 When did he commence to be " in via" ?
Had he absolutely left the parish before he could be said
to be deserens omnino pristinum domicilium? And if he
should have actually deserted the parish, how could he be
described as deserens f Had he deserted the parish before he
commenced the journey to his new home 1 Had he passed the
confines of the parish on his removing journey, before he
commenced to be in via 1 The labourer, sponsa, and servant
in Case B, commenced their journey when they " deserted
their habitation, or home, in the place of their domicile,"
resolving to live in the 'parish no longer. Then also they
lost their domicile or quasi-domicile in the parish.

0 Sanchez defines vagus in reference to the new parish

456 Theological Questions.

he may have entered. Our correspondent takes alL> his
illustrations from this heading, and more suo he completely
misrepresents the teaching of the classic Sanchez. He empha-
sises the words " relicta parochia" " advenientes ad cerium
oppidum" as if Sanchez taught that the former domicile
persevered until the person had left the parish. Sanchez, as
I have mentioned, in the passages now under discussion,
supposes a person to have passed into another parish, and
teaches solely what his condition in this second parish is.
There is no reference to the conditions necessary for the
cessation of the person's former quasi-domicile. He dis-
tinguishes again two cases : (a) He considers the case of a
man who has left his former domicile; who has not yet
selected the place of his future residence ; but meanwhile
sojourns for a few days in some neighbouring parish ; and
our author, of course, teaches that this man is a vagus in the
parish of his sojourn. " Hinc infertur, qui relicta parochia,
nondum statuit ad quam migraturus sit, sed quaerens
domum, interim in aliqua parochia hospitatur ad breve tempus,
dicit vagum respectu parochiarum iliius oppidi." (Ibid., n. 4.)'
Why did our correspondent mutilate this passage by quoting
merely the words " relicta parochia " ?

Again, our author writes in reference to the same
subject : " Et ita videtur expresse tenere Ledes . . .
ubi ait, de novo advenientes ad certum oppidum, qui
nondum habent domicilium, nee statuerunt ubi morabuntur,
censeri vagos, nee oportere respicere, ubi hospitentur ad
breve tempus." How does our correspondent prove from
" advenientes " (!) that domicile continues until a person has
left the parish ?

(b) Sanchez considers the case of a man who has left his
former domicile ; who has chosen his future residence, but
who temporarily resides in some neighbouring parish until
the present occupant of his new home shall have vacated it ;
and he teaches that the man is a vagus in the parish of his
sojourn. Again there is no reference to the conditions
necessary for the cessation of his former domicile. He
writes : Idem dicendum est, quando relicta priori
parochia, ad aliam se transferunt, et dum domus ilia

Theological Questions. 457

ad quam se transferunt expeditur habitatore, hospitantur in
aliqua domo alterius parochiae ; hi enim vagi sunt similiter"
(Ibid.}. In all those cases therefore Sanchez merely explains
the condition of persons in regard to domicile in the new
parish in which they are living.

THE LAST AND UNANSWERABLE OBJECTION FROM SANCHEZ.

" And " our correspondent continues, " so true is it, that
one should have finally passed out of the parish in which he
had a domicile, in order to be considered a vagus, that Sanchez,
and after him Lacroix, make an exception of a person who
passes to some place very near— such as to another parish in
the same city," &c. <4 And all the principal modern authors
whom I have consulted quote Sanchez with approval."

But, first, the most modern theologian whom I have read
most distinctly condemns this doctrine. A correspondent, who
signs himself P. C. C., writes in reference to a sentence of
mine in the February number of the RECORD, " That it is
a mistake to assume that a quasi-domicile once established
in a parish, continues whilst the resident is within the
confines of the parish but it is a greater mistake to think that
any one assumed it." P. C. 0. thinks it unthinkable that any
one should defend such a monstrous proposition. Our
correspondent C. argues the truth of the proposition from
Sanchez. Well, as three against one is rather an unfair
warfare, I would suggest that C. and P. C. C, give me
some breathing time, and settle this little matter between
them in some future number of the RECORD.

2° Our correspondent quotes in proof of his statement a
sentence which he attributes to Sanchez (n. 8), and to
Lacroix. But it is manifest that our correspondent has
never read Sanchez on this subject. He treats us, no
doubt, to a dish of declamation about the merits of
Sanchez, " who is a classical author on the subject." " All
the principal modern authors whom I have consulted quote
Sanchez with approval." " None of them have found fault
with his doctrine." " Some of them have obscured him I" But
had our correspondent taken the trouble to read Sanchez,
even cursorily, he could not possibly have so misrepresented

458 Theological Questions.

the teaching of the classical author. In the passage referred
to, Sanchez treats solely of the Tridentine law, which com-
mands parish priests to make diligent enquiry, and to obtain
the permission of their Ordinary before assisting at the mar-
riage of vagi. He distinguishes between vagi and vagantes.
Vagantes are those who extend their perambulations over a
wide area, and who consequently are very little known to
any parish priest. Vagi are those who have neither domicile
nor quasi-domicile ; who are, however, well known in the
place ; and who are not " incertas habentes sedes." In the
former case the permission of the ordinary is necessary ; in
the latter, it is not necessary. Here is the passage per paries.
It is too long to reproduce in its entirety ; but I shall omit
nothing important.

(a) "His praemissis sit I. conclusio ; parochus non potest vagorum
matrimonio interesse, nisi diligenti inquisitione praemissa, et obtenta
ordinarii licentia." (Ibid, n, 8.)

(#) Intellige tarnen non de quibuscumque vagis : Tridentinum
enim in eo decreto loquitur de iis qui vagantur, et incertas habent
sedes ; quare licet illi qui de certa parochia, intra idem mutantur
oppidum, dicantur vagi, dum ad aliam parochiam translati non sunt,
sed ad breve tempus alibi hospitantur, ut dixi, n. 4." [He refers us
to n. 4 which I have already quoted, in which he had stated that such
persons are vagi " respectu parochiarum illius oppidi."]

(c) " Manifestum est de illis non loqui Tridentinum ; quia non
sunt vere vagantes et incertas habentes sedes. Praeterea in illo
oppido noti sunt : quare praemissis denunciationibus in parochia ubi
diutius habitarunt, juxta dicta hoc 3 L., disp. 6, n. 6, possunt absque
licentia ordinarii a proprio parocho matrimonio conjungi"

Sanchez, therefore, teaches (1), that such persons are vagi
in the town ; (2) they are not vagantes ; (3) therefore, it is not
necessary to get the bishop's permission to assist at their
marriage; there could be no question about the bishop's
permission if they had still their former domicile ; (4) a
distinction is drawn between where the banns are to be
published and where the persons are to be married ;
(5) the banns are to be published where they resided for a
considerable time ; the existence of impediments would most
likely be known there ; (6) then they can be married by their
proprius parochus without the permission of the bishop ;
" Parochus proprius vagorum est parochus loci in quo actu
contrahunt."

Theological Questions. 459

That there may be no possible ground for doubting what
Sanchez means by proprius parochus, I will quote what he
writes in n. 13 (Ibid.) : " Similiter dum non habet parochiam,
quia prim am deseruit, et quaerit aliam, et ad breve tempus hospi-
tatur in aliqua, potest coram quocumque paroclio illus oppidi
contrahere ; quia est vagus respectu parochiarum ; ut dixi n. 4."
Again I ask, why did our correspondent so misrepresent and
distort the teaching of Sanchez ?

This same distinction is made by modern theologians :

"Merito advertunt Sanchez, Pontius Salman graviter peccare
parochum qui ejusmodi vagorum Matrimonio assisteret sine licentia
ordinarii, extra urgentem necessitatem, Observa autem hanc pro-
hibitionem non concernere illos, qui, relicto proprio domicilio, alicubi ad
tempus commorantur, dum novum adire queant, si in eo loco, aut
in vicinia bene cogniti sint : tune enim ratio prohibitions non subsistit,
nee proprie tales dicuntur vagari et incertas sedes habere ; adeoque
praemissis, ibi et in loco ultimi domicilii, consuetis proclamationibus,
ad Matrimonium admitti possunt." (Mechlin, n. 89, see also
St. Liguori, 1, vi., t. vi., c. iii., n. 1889, near the end.)

It is manifest that our correspondent has never read
Sanchez ; but has taken his quotations from some other theo-
logians ; otherwise he would not have made so many mistakes
about Sanchez.

III. — LACROIX.

What shall we say to the extract from Lacroix ?
Assuming it to be correctly interpreted by our correspondent
we should judge it on its intrinsic and extrinsic merits. The
intrinsic reason for the continuance of the domicile is, because
the person is known in the city ; " cum enim talis sit notus in
urbe, &c." But how does the fact that the man is known
in the city prolong his domicile ?

Suppose the man intended never to procure a fixed
residence in the town, but to travel from parish to parish there,
would he retain until death his former domicile ? Yet he
would be "notus in urbe." The only extrinsic reason
Lacroix gives is a reference to Sanchez ; I have quoted the
passage from Sanchez, and the reference of the Mechlin
theology to it, and it will be seen that the doctrine of Sanchez

460 Theological Questions.'

differs toto caelo from the interpretation of Lacroix given
by our correspondent.

Lacroix, however, should be interpreted by Sanchez,
whose authority he cites; and his meaning then will be:
the person mentioned is not a vagus in the sense of
being a vagans ; it is not, therefore, necessary to have
the bishop's permission for assisting at the marriage.
The person can be validly married in his present parish ;
but as the banns should be published in his former parish, it
is meet that he should be also married there : " debet pro-
clamari et conjungi," &c. Of course the marriage would be
validly celebrated in his former parish, because the marriage
of a vagus will be validly celebrated in the presence of the
parish priest of the place in which the marriage is contracted.
We must remember that Sanchez says of such persons, " dicit
vagum respectu parochiarum illius oppidi." "Potest coram
quocumque parocho illius oppidi contrahert."

IV. — BENEDICT XIV. AND BALLERINI.

It would unduly prolong this paper to explain the teaching
of Benedict XIV. and Ballerini, and to remove the erroneous
interpretation of our correspondent. But the teaching of
Benedict XIV. and Ballerini is identical with the teaching
of Dr. Murray, and Sanchez already explained.

V.—" FACTUM HABITATIONS " CESSATION OF QUASI-

DOMICILE.

I do not purpose to follow our correspondent at great length
through the remainder of his paper. Our correspondent
cannot accurately state when quasi-domicile ceases, while he
gives the following conditions for the inception of quasi-
domicile : " Two things are required, (1) the intention of
remaining in the parish for the greater part of the year.
(2) Some fact indicative of that intention!" Dr. Murray's
itinerant merchant is supposed to remain in the parish for the
greater part of the year ; and to leave no doubt about his
intention ; and yet he is a vagus. (Murray, n. 359.)

I quoted in this paper the example of a labourer changing
from one parish to another, who was said to be a vagus, If

Theological Questions. ,461

our correspondent had any faith in Lacroix, or any faith in
his own view of domicile, he should most unhesitatingly say
that the labourer was not a vagus until he had left the parish,
and gone where he was not known ; yet under the heading,
" The meaning of factum habitations ," he says, " the case
which is made in the February number of the RECORD, is
not by any means a clear case of a vagus.

VI.— FEIJE.

Our correspondent finally returns to Feije, and considers
it unfair that 1 should have emphasised the single words " in
alia domo " in the February number of the RECORD.

Well, it will be remembered that in the February number
I gave my interpretation of the whole passage ; but I specially
singled out for criticism the words " in alia domo," (1) because
they were the only words that could specially support our
correspondent's view ; and (2) because — and I regret to have
to give such a pointed contradiction — they were the words
on which our correspondent did most specially rely.

1. They were the only available support for our corres-
pondent. Let us examine the extract per partes.

(a) " Sedulo curandum est," says Feije, " ut parochianus,
vel parochiana non deserat suum quasi-domicilium, ante diem
celebrationis matrimonii.''

How could this sentence, or any word in this sentence,
specially avail our correspondent ? Did we not both hold
that a quasi-domicile should continue up to the time of
marriage ? And what about our correspondent's contention
that a person retains his domicile or quasi-domicile after
leaving the parish, provided he may be " notus in urbe."

(b) " Sed maneat in parochia." Having taught us that
the quasi-domicile should continue up to the time of marriage,
Feije tells us how it is to continue. The first condition is " sed
maneat in parochia." How do those words avail our corres-
pondent ? Do we not both require the person to remain in
the parish ?

(c) " Sive in eodem famulatu.", How do those words avail
our correspondent? Have I not repeatedly stated that the
marriage would be valid if the servant were still a member
of her employer's household ?

462 Theological Questions.

(d) " Sive in alia domo intra parochiam." The whole
controversy then turns on the words " in alia domo." These
are the only words which can benefit our correspondent. I
gave my version of tjieir meaning in the February number
of the RECORD ; and it is significant that our correspondent
has now no better point to make than to complain of my
emphasising those words in the last number of the RECORD,
and to disclaim having founded his argument on them.

2. The words " in alia domo " were the words on which
our correspondent did specially rely in the February number
of the RECORD; because, while he underlined the words
" quasi-domicilium," " parochia," " intra parochiam," with a
single stroke, he doubly and extra heavily underlined the words
" in alia domo " in his manuscript. Why then does he
complain of me for having routed him from his " alia
domus?"

MS. No. 2.

I have been asked by the Very Rev. Editor of the
RECORD — owing to want of space for MSS. No. 2 and No. 3
— to give a summary of the communications sent to the
RECORD by correspondents signing themselves P. C. C. and
W. Q. B. respectively. I will commence with the former.

Our correspondent P. C. C. confines himself " to the case
of a servant, who had spent two or three years in a parish,
who left her service two or three days before her marriage,
intended never to resume it, and merely spends the three
days at lodgings in the parish."

He reproduces at great length the RECORD'S exposition
of the conditions necessary for the inception, continuation,
and termination of quasi-domicile, with which he agrees — I
except his mistaken interpretation of the RECORD about the
continuation of quasi-domicile. He would admit that, when
a girl leaves the only fixed residence she has had, or hopes
to have in the parish, and revokes her intention of continuing,
even for a moment, any fixed residence in the parish, she
loses her quasi-domicile.

Nevertheless, he contends that — in the case he makes —

Theological Questions. 463

the quasi- domicile perseveres; that actual residence, even
for one day in a house, is a fixed residence ; and that, there-
fore, the servant has still a fixed residence, and the intention
of continuing in a fixed residence. This is his argument.
" What can constitute quasi-domicile can constitute sedes
fixa. But actual residence of one day is enough residence to
constitute quasi-domicile. Therefore it is enough to consti-
tute a fixed abode."

1 might say : Distingue minorem ; actual objective residence
of one day is enough to constitute a quasi-domicile, nego.
Actual subjective residence of one day is enough to constitute
a quasi-domicile — subdist. Assuming that it is residence
in a permanent home — in a permanent objective residence,
concedo, otherwise, nego.

Our correspondent strangely confounds two meanings of
the word residence. There is what 1 may call the objective
residence — the material structure in which a person dwells ;
and the subjective residence — the act of dwelling in this
material structure. Now, it is manifest that a material
structure does not become a person's fixed abode, if it is hired
only for one day. I would direct our correspondent's
attention to Dr. Murray's "itinerant dealer " who dwells in one
house for two months successively in each of the six villages of
a parish, and who, nevertheless, has not a sedes fixa in the
parish. (Murray, n. 359.) How then can the ownership of a
room in a lodging house for one day make the house one's
fixed abode ? And, yet, when theologians require for quasi-
domicile a fixed abode, they always mean a residence objectively
considered. Then when a person has procured such a resi-
dence, and commenced to reside there, intending to remain
a resident for the greater part of a year — immediately he
acquires a quasi-domicile ; even a day's subjective residence
is not required.

All the conclusions of our correspondent are founded on
this strange error. He interprets the past papers in the
RECORD, too, according to his own standard of what con-
stitutes a fixed place of residence. Need I say then that
his exposition is a very inaccurate representation of the
RECORD'S teaching on quasi-domicile?

464 Liturgical Questions.

MS. No. 3.

1. W. Q. B. objects to our doctrine regarding the cessation
of quasi-domicile ; he thinks that a quasi-domicile should

- cease when one of the conditions necessary for its inception

ceased. He asks, "when, two conditions are required to
^constitute a certain thing, if even one of the conditions

be absent, does it not follow you cannot have that of which

both conditions are essential elements ?"

Ans. Read Dr. Murray's little treatise, nn. 360 and 373 ;

or any approved hand-book of theology.

2. W. Q. B. continues, " when the servant, after leaving
her mistress's house, goes into lodgings for some short period,
her residence continues up to the time of marriage."

Ans. When a servant leaves the only fixed residence (in
the sense explained) she has had in the parish, and formally
or virtually revokes the intention of continuing, even for a
moment in any fixed residence in the parish, she becomes a
vaga, though she may continue moving about the parish
until the end of her life.

D. COGHLAN.

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

THE CEREMONIES OF SOME ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS.

SOLEMN MASS — (continued).

The Celebrant goes up to the altar saying the prayer,
and keeping his hands joined in front. Arrived at the
altar he rests his fingers on the front of the table while
saying the prayer Oramus\ at the words quorum reliquiae he
kisses the altar, and turns towards the deacon.

The Deacon, raising with his left hand the front of the

Liturgical Questions. 465

celebrant's alb, his right resting against his breast, ascends the
altar on the celebrant's right. When the celebrant kisses
the altar, the deacon genuflects on the predella,* keeping
his hands joined and not resting them on the altar. He then
retires a little to permit the thurifer and master of ceremonies
to approach. From the latter he receives the incense-boat
in his right hand, and immediately transfers it to his left.
Taking the spoon in his right hand, he inclines slightly
to the celebrant, and saying2 Benedicite, pater reverend*, he
kisses, first the handle of the spoon, and then the right hand
of the celebrant.

The Sub-deacon having his left hand resting against his
breast, and with his right raising the alb of the celebrant,
goes up to the altar on the celebrant's left. On the predella
he joins his hands and makes a genuflection with the deacon
when the celebrant kisses the altar. During the blessing of
the incense he stands turned partly towards the altar near
the celebrant's left.

The Master of Ceremonies receives the incense-boat from
the thurifer, and when the sacred ministers ascend the
altar, he, also, having the thurifer on his right, ascends by
the steps on the epistle side, and genuflects3 on the predella
along with the deacon and sub-deacon, to the former of whom
he hands the incense-boat.

The Thurifer comes to the altar during the Confiteor,
carrying the censer in his left hand and the incense-boat in
his right. He salutes the choir, genuflects at the centre of
the altar, and, going to the epistle corner, kneels on the
right of the master of ceremonies, to whom he gives the
boat. At the Or emus he rises, goes up to the altar on the
right of the master of ceremonies, genuflects with him on
the predella, and prepares the censer to receive incense from
the celebrant.

The Acolytes rise from their knees when the sacred

1 Vavasseur, part vii., sect, i., chap, i., art. 3, n. 31. De Conny, liv,
ii., chap, ii., art. 2.

2.De Conny, iv. i.,chap. x. Vavasseur, part vi., sect, ii., chap, vii., art. 2,
n. 20.

3 Vavasseur, part vii., sect, i., chap, i., art. 3, n. 32. De Conny. loc. cit.
De Carpo, loc. cit. x. 209.

VOL. X, 2 Q

466 Liturgical Questions.

ministers begin to ascend the altar, and remain standing in
their places by the credence during the incensation. They
incline and genuflect along with the sacred ministers.

The Choir stands up at the same time but without
turning towards the altar.

The Celebrant, with the spoon, transfers incense from the
boat to the censer three distinct times,1 keeping his left hand
meantime on his breast. The first spoonful he puts into the
middle of the censer, the second to his own left, and the
third to his own right. At the first he says, Ab illo benedi-
caris ; at the second, in cujus honore; and at the third,
cremaberis. Amen.2 Having returned the spoon to the deacon,
he places his left hand on the altar,3 and makes, with his
right, the sign of the cross over the incense in the censer.4

1 The incense must be taken three times from the boat. " Accepto
cochleari suniit (Celebrans) cum eo ter, ex navicula thus, illudque etiam ter
in thuribulum mittit." (Caerem. 1. 1, chap, xxiii., n. 1.;

2 We give the text of this formula as it is found in the Missal published
by Pustet in 1886, and as it is given by nearly all Rubricists. (See Bourbon
n. 480, note.) In the Ceremonial of Bishops, however, in every edition
we have looked into, the formula runs : " Ab illo beuedicaris in cujus
honorem cremaberis." Ifonorem being in place of honore, and Amen being
omitted.

3 Wapelhorst, chap. viii.,n. 81, 3 ; Martinucci, 1. 1, chap, v., n. 2 ; Falise,
Tableaux; De Carpo,foc. cz'£.,n. 135 ; Baldeschi, Part I., chap.vii., n. 5. Though
modern Rubricists seem to be unanimous in directing the celebrant, when
blessing the incense at the altar, to place his left hand on the table of the
altar, it is with great reluctance we adopt their teaching. True, they appeal,
with a certain species of reason, to the Rubrics of the Missal, where this
direction is given : "In aliis benedictionibus qumn est ad altare, efc bene-
dicit oblata vel aliquid aliud ponat sinistram super altare nisi aliter
notetur." (Tit. iii., n. 5; see Martinucci, loc. cit.) But with Janssens
(Tom. ii., Tit. iv., n. 6) we are of opinion that this direction holds only when
the thing blessed is on the altar ; however, the more effectually to secure
uniformity, we recommend the direction now given by nearly all writers.

1 Some of the older writers, as Janssens (Joe. cit., n. 13), contended
that the words should be said while the celebrant is making the sign of
the cross; not while putting ths incense into the censer. The special
Rubric of the Missal favoured this view: "In Missa Solemni Celebrans
benedicit incensum, dicens : Ab illo bene ij< dicaris in cujus honore cremaberis.
Amen" Now the general rule is, that when the sign of the cross is to be
made in pronouncing a blessing, it is to be made while saying the word in
the centre of which the Rubric places the cross. Hence they inferred that
the sign of the cross should be made at the word benedicaris.

This conclusion, though apparently legitimate, could not be reconciled
with the direction given in the general Rubrics of the Missal : " Celebraus
ter incensum ponit in thuribulum, dicens interim; Ab illo benedicaris et
deposit© cochleari producens manu dextrasignum crucis," etc. (Tit. iv.,n. 4.)
Here it is expressly stated that the celebrant is to say the words while

Liturgical Questions. 467

He then joins his hands before his breast until the deacon
presents the censer.

When the censer is presented to him, the celebrant, with
his left hand, grasps the chains near the top, so that the disc
to which they are attached rests on the outside of the thumb
and index-finger ; and with the thumb, index and middle
fingers of the right hand, he takes hold of the lower part of
the chains as close as possible to the cover of the
censer.1 He then turns by his left to the altar, and, if the
Blessed Sacrament is present, placing his left hand on the
altar, he genuflects ; but if the Blessed Sacrament is not
present, he salutes the cross with a profound inclination.
Having made the proper reverence, keeping his left hand on
his breast, he incenses the cross with three double2 swings,

putting incense into the censer ; and that after he has put in the incense
and said the words, he is to make the sign of the cross. The majority of
writers were guided by the plain statement of this Rubric rather than by
the dubious interpretation of the other.

To set matters at rest the S. Congregation was appealed to. "An
in irnpositione thuris," it was asked, " debeant prof erri verba ; ab illo bene-
dicaris quando imponitur incensum in thuribulo, ut videtur insinuari in
Rubrica generali, vel dum efformatur signum crucis ut exequitur in Rubrica
particulari in qua crucis effigies invenitur inserta in verbo Bene >J< dicaris,"
etc. The reply disposed of the opinion founded on the special Rubric :
" Serventur Rubricae generates Missalis." (chap. iv. dc Introitu, n. 4.)

1 Dextera vero easdem catenulas, simul junctas, prope thuribuluin tenet.
.... Teneat dexteram, quo fieri potest proximiorem ipsi thuribulo, ita
ut parvum catenularum spatium emanent inter ipsius manum dexteram et
thuribulum. (Caer. Epis. 1. 1, chap. xxiii.,n. 4.) The chains should be held in
the right hand as close to the censer as possible in every incensation,
whether of the cross, of the altar, or of the oblata. Neither the Cere-
monial nor the Rubricists, says Bourbon, recognise any other manner of
holding the censer. The reason given by Bauldry (par. ii., c. 9, art. 2, n. 5,
apud Bourbon) is : " Ut proprio pondere in tota incensatione nullatenus
moveatur (thuribuluin), ac, praeter rnotum ab ipso celebrante impressum
nullum actum habeat." See Bourbon n. 485 and note ; Cerem. desEveques^
Comm. et Expli. loc. cit. ; Vavasseur, Part ii., sec. ii., chap, ii., n. 3, 5°.

2 Authors generally. The distinction between single and double swings
was formerly rejected by some writers; but was upheld by the great
majority, and was ultimately recognised by the Congregation of Rites.
(March 22, 1862, n. 5318, ad 21.) But what is meant by a double swing ^
and how does it differ from two swings ? To give two swings it is neces-
sary to lower the censer after the first swing, and to raise it again for the
second ; or, if the object incensed is not elevated, the censer must at
least be brought to rest for an appreciable time between the two swings.
To give a double swing, however, the censer is raised only once, and
when at the proper height it is directed towards the person or thing to
be incensed ; first, by a slight and gentle motion ; and then, with but a
momentary delay, by a motion more definite and pronounced. — Bourbon
n. 490; Martinucci 1. 1, chap, i., n. 20.

•468 Liturgical Questions.

all directed towards the same point, and not, as when incens-
ing other objects, one in front, one towards his left, and one
towards his right. He next proceeds to incense the altar.
The parts of the altar incensed are the back, or lower part of
the reredos, the table, the two ends, and the front. These
parts are incensed in the following order and manner : — After
incensing and saluting the cross, the celebrant moves towards
the epistle corner, incensing as he goes the back of the altar on
the epistle side. This he does with three simple or single swings,
directed towards the places where the candles stand or should
stand.1 He holds the censer, meanwhile, but a very little
raised above the table of the altar, directs each swing at
right angles to the plane of the reredos, and at each swing
takes a step towards the epistle corner. Arrived there, he
incenses, with two swings, the epistle end of the altar,
directing the first swing towards the lower, and the
second towards the upper part of the end. He now
turns towards the gospel side, and, while proceeding
to the centre, he incenses, with three swings, the table
of the altar on the epistle side. As before, he takes a
step forward at each swing; but now the swings are not
directed towards the reredos but towards the centre of the
altar, and may be either in straight or in curved lines.2 At
the centre of the altar he makes the proper reverence, and
while going to the gospel corner he incenses the back of the
altar on the gospel side with the same number of swings,
and in precisely the same manner as he has already incensed
the epistle side. The gospel end is also incensed with two
swings, one directed towards the lower, the other towards
the upper part. This done, the celebrant, without changing
his position, incenses the table of the altar on the gospel side
with three swings directed towards the centre of the altar,
and describing straight or curved lines, as has been already
said of the swings with which the table on the epistle side
is incensed. The only part that now remains to be incensed
is the front. Having incensed the table of the altar on the

1 " Ubisuntautsupponuntur tria candelabra." — Wapelhorst n. 82,3.

2 " Non in modum circuli," Wapelhorst, loc. cit. 4. " Comme en trois
demicercles," Vavasseur, Part V., sect, ii., chap, vii., art. 3, n. 122.

Liturgical Questions.

gospel side, the celebrant still standing at the gospel corner,
slightly lowers his hand until the censer is nearly on a level
with the middle of the front, and, taking three steps towards
the centre, he gives at each step a swing of the censer in a
line perpendicular to the plane of the altar. He makes the
proper reverence at the centre, incenses in like manner, and
with an equal number of swings of the censer, the front of
the altar on the epistle side, and hands the censer to the
deacon, himself meanwhile standing on the predella, at the
epistle corner, his left turned towards the altar, until he is
incensed by the deacon, to whose saluations he does not
respond.1

The Deacon, when the incense has been blessed, receives
the spoon from the celebrant, kissing first the celebrant's hand
and then the spoon. With both hands he takes the censer
from the thurifer, catching the chains so that his right hand
is towards the top, his left below ; and, turning towards the
celebrant, he gives, with the usual oscula, the top of the
chains into his left hand, the lower part into his right.
Turning to the altar with the celebrant, and keeping his
hands joined, he genuflects whether the Blessed Sacrament
is in the tabernacle or not. During the incensation he keeps
his right hand on his breast, and with his left raises the back
part of the celebrant's chasuble which he catches about the
shoulder. He genuflects each time during the incensation
that the celebrant either genuflects or inclines to the cross.

The incensation completed, he receives the censer from
the celebrant, taking care to kiss the celebrant's hand and
the chains ; descends immediately in planum, and holding the
censer as the celebrant is directed to hold it, he incenses the
celebrant with three double swings, making a moderate2
inclination before and after.

The Sub-deacon turns to the altar with the celebrant
and deacon, and keeping his hands joined in front of his

1 Falise, Tableaux. Bourbon, n. 381, who says (ib. note), that this is
the common teaching, and quotes in support of this statement a number of
the most eminent liturgical writers, as Gavantus, Bauldry, Vinnitor,
De Conny, etc.

By profound or moderate inclination sine addito we "always mean a
profound or moderate inclination of the body.

470 Liturgical Questions.

breast, he genuflects to the Blessed Sacrament, or to the
cross, if the Blessed Sacrament is not on the altar. Placing
his left hand on his breast, he with his right raises the
celebrant's chasuble, and accompanies him during the incen-
sation as the deacon has been directed to do, taking care to
keep his movements uniform with those of the celebrant and
deacon. When the deacon receives the censer from the
celebrant, the sub-deacon accompanies him down the steps
of the epistle side, and stands on his left while he incenses
the celebrant. He makes with the deacon a moderate
inclination to the celebrant before and after the incensation.1

m

The Master of Ceremonies when the incense has been
blessed genuflects on the predella, descends the steps on the
epistle corner, and stands in piano facing the gospel side.
He genuflects along with the sacred ministers; when the
celebrant has incensed the cross, he mounts the altar, lifts
the missal with its stand from the altar, again descends
in planum, where he stands holding the missal until the
epistle corner has been incensed, when he replaces it on
the altar. When the deacon comes to incense the celebrant
the master of ceremonies stands at his right, but a little in
rere, and accompanies him in saluting the celebrant before
and after the incensation.

The Thurifer descends the altar along with the master
of ceremonies, having first genuflected with him on the
predella,s and stands in piano on his left. He genuflects each
time the sacred ministers genuflect, and salutes the celebrant
before and after he is incensed by the deacon.

D. O'LOAN.

1 Wapelhorst, n. L85, column Subdiaconus 5 ; Vavasseur, Part vii.,
sect, i., chap, i., art. 3, n. 34; De Herdt, Tom. i., n. 308; Martinucci,
1. 1, chap. xii. ; against Falise, loc. cit. and others.

2 Vavasseur, loc. cit. n. 33. Wapelhorst, loc. cit. column Caeremoniarius .
Falise, Tableaux, against others. See Wapelhorst,

[ 471 ]
CORRESPONDENCE.

"VERY REV. AND DEAR SIR,— G M. N. in this month's (April)
RECORD, protests against my * easy assumption,' in tho March issue, * of
the complete barbarism of ante- Christian Ireland ;' and against my
comparing its inhabitants to the unreclaimed New Zealander of the
present day.

** Permit me to take the earliest opportunity of stating that nothing
was farther from my intention than to make the assumption
complained of, and of thus publicly recalling my words, if they
bear it out.

" I do not think, however, they can mean, without being strained,
what G. M. N. supposes.

" Nowhere do I describe ante- Christian Ireland as being in a state
of ' complete barbarism.' On the contrary, I distinctly qualified
the objectionable word, and I used it only because I found it applied
to the country as it was before St. Patrick's time by innumerable
authors, many of whom are of recognized fairness and authority,
My words were : ' Previous to the mission of St. Patrick, the
country was pagan, and (waiving controverted questions) involved
in such barbarity as existed amongst the pagans of that day.' In
another passage, I wrote, that, on the introduction of the monas-
teries (which I had treated as coeval with the introduction of
Christianity) i paganism and whatever barbarism co-existed with it,
vanished from the land.' There is nothing extreme or special in this
application of the word * barbarism,' but quite the contrary ; nor is
there anything in these, or in any other portions of the essay objected
to, to exclude the co-existence of many admirable traits of character.1

"It is true, I omitted to narrate the proofs of pre-Christian
civilization ; but they did not belong to my subject, which was the
Cross and the Shamrock, and much controversy exists about them
which I declared my desire to waive.

" It is not true that my essay would date the origin of the proofs
of pre-Christian civilization which G. M. N. particularizes — viz.,

i The Abbe MacGeoghegan (History of Ireland, chap, iv.) says that
sometimes the most barbarous customs prevailed amongst people, in other
respects very polished; and he tells us that, "notwithstanding many
advantages, it is natural to think that the Milesians, had been, like other
people who were their contemporaries, rude and barbarous in their
manners."

472 Correspondence.

music and legislation, 'from the coming of 'Christianity,' as he
asserts. My allusion to the proficiency of the Irish in music in sub-
sequent times, contains nothing of the kind. A statement found in
the essay would even prove the contrary, for I spoke of the ' bards '
becoming Christians (evidently alluding to St. Patrick's time), and
thus I supposed their pre-existence and importance. Nor would my
reference to the laws that governed the land in Christian times, date
the origin of legislation in Ireland from the coming of Christianity.
Kowhere can I find such an assumption, even implied, in my essay ;
but I find a contrary one in the passage where I wrote of pre-
Christian Ireland. * False gods and idols were worshipped ; natural
proclivities to vice had not the moral and penal obstacles to their
development that Christianity and civilization introduced.'

<k As to the comparison — G. M. N. does me an unintentional in-
justice regarding it. He writes, * It is hard to see the Irishman,
even as he was before the light of Christianity reached him,
placed in the same category as the savage New Zealander, whose
chief music is the whizz of his boomerang, and whose will is his
only law.'

" I don't admit the correctness at all of this description of the un-
reclaimed New Zealander of the present day. It comes from those
who so described him when they wanted to deprive him of his
country and to exterminate him ; but, waiving this question, I
submit my words don't place the pre-Christian Irishman in the same
category with him.

"It is a canon of interpretation that comparisons are not to be
pushed too far, and never beyond their expressed limits. Now, my
words were ' the social condition — not the intellectual or moral
condition — of the ante-Christian Irish may be, perhaps compared,' &c.
When I wrote thus, I believed that like other pagan nations the
ante- Christian Irish were in a state of barbarity necessarily follow-
ing from the worship of false gods and idols. I knew that it is
strongly contended that human sacrifices were offered in their
abominable worship. I knew that slavery existed, that wild beasts
abounded, that villages and towns had not come into existence, that
the characteristic warlike propensities of our race very much pre-
vailed, that lands were untilled, that forests were extensive, and that
marriages1 and funerals were conducted in a most barbarous fashion.

'See Abbe MacGeoghegan's History of Ireland, p. 63, and Sir W.Wilde's
Beauties of the Boyne, p. 151.

Document. 473

I looked around the world for an illustration-— not certainly for a
reproach — and I suggested a comparison. I made it only problema-
tically. I am sorry for having even suggested it, as it has given
offence. I fear I could not find at the present day any pagan people
for an illustration without a similar ground of objection.

" My words as a writer are not of sufficient importance to justify
a controversy as to their meaning which can now be the only issue
between G. M. N. and me. Suffice it for me to say, did they bear
the meaning he attributes to them, I would thank him for his protest
against them, and be the last to defend them.

<( I am, Very Rev. and Dear Sir, respectfully yours,

"JOHN CURRY,"

DOCUMENTS.

How TO ENROL IN THE CONFRATERNITY OF MOUNT
CARMEL.

" I shall be much obliged if you will let me '.know, in the next
number of the I. E, RECORD, how the necessary inscription on the
register of the Confraternity of Mount Carmel of the names of the
associates is to be done ? Can every priest having faculties to receive
members into the confraternities keep a list, or is it necessary that
the names of members be sent to the Superior of the Carmelites ?
Your obedient servant,

" A SUBSCRIBER."

It is necessary to have the names forwarded to a
Carmelite convent for the purpose of having them there
registered. The fact of a priest being empowered to invest
does not thereby entitle him to keep a registry to satisfy the
recent decree. Outside of Carmelite convents it is necessary,
as set forth in the decree, to have a confraternity established
with permission of the General of the Carmelite order.

There is a registry kept at the Carmelite Convent,
Aungier-street, Dublin, specially for the purpose. If the
priests throughout Ireland forward the names to this

474 Document.

convent, they will be duly registered, or to any of the
Carmelite convents in Ireland — Kildare, Moate, Knocktopher,
and Kinsale.

We append Decrees relating to this subject, kindly sent
to us by the Prior of the Carmelite Convent, Aungier-street,
Dublin.

DECREES REFERRING TO THE SCAPULAR OF MOUNT CARMEL.

De inscribendis nominibus eorum qui Sacrum Scapulare B. V. M.
de Monte Carmelo recipiunt, et de revocatione Indulti Gregoriani
30 Aprilis, 1838.

Dubinin: Utrum Indultum a s. ra. Gregorio Papa XVI. con-
cessum die 30 Aprilis, 1838, Confraternitati B. Mariae Virginia de
Monte Carmelo, quo Sacerdotes debita facilitate praediti recipiendi
Christifi deles in praedictam Confraternitatem eximuntur ab onere
inscribendi nomina fidelium in libro Confraternitatis, expediat ex-
tendere etiam ad alias Confraternitates, in quibus Christifideles
scapularia recipiunt ?

E.rai ac R.mi Patres responderunt in Generalibus Comitiis apud
Vaticanum habitiis die 26 Martii, 1887, Negative: imo suppliccwdum
SSino. pro revocatione Gregoriani Indulti concessi sub die 30
Aprilis, 1838, et ad mentem.

Die vero 27 Aprilis, 1887, Sanctissimus Dominus Noster Leo
Papa XIII. in Audientia habita ab infrascripto Secretario sententiam
Patrum Cardinalium ratam habuit, et Gregorianura Indultum revo-
cavit.

An ad validitatem benedictionis (S. Scapularis) sufficiat signum
Crucis manu efformatum super scapulare absque ulla verborum
pronuntiatione, et aquae benedictae aspersion e ? Resp. Negative,
sed benedictio danda est juxta fonnulam praescriptam, ad nor warn
Decretl 18 Augusti, 1868.

Datum Romae ex Secrataria ejusdem S. Congregationis die 27
Aprilis, 1887.

Fr. THOMAS M. Card. ZIGLIARI, Praefectus.
^ ALEXANDER, Episcopus Oensis, Secretarius.

475 ]
NOTICES OF BOOKS.

HENRY VIII. AND THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES. By Rev.
Francis Aidan Gasqnet. Second Edition, Vol. I. London*

1888.

HISTORIA ALIQUOT MARTYRUM ANGLORUM CARTHUSIANORUM.
A. V. Patre Dornno Mauritio Chauncey, Conscripta.
Londini. A.D. 1888.

KING EDWARD THE SIXTH, SUPREME HEAD : AN HISTORICAL
SKETCH. By Frederick G. Lee, D.D. London: Burns
and Oates. 1889.

IN the books named above we have a picture, true to life, of a
sadly interesting period of English history. The history hitherto
popular of the so-called English Reformation is the work of men
" more anxious to maintain a bad cause than to tell the truth." In
it we have handed down long-standing, deep-rooted prejudices — a
mass of falsehoods again and again repeated, and gaining strength
and apparent consistency by the repetition, until the tale became so
firmly established that it was almost hopeless to attempt its refu-
tation. Recently, however, a spirit of research is abroad. The " State
Papers," domestic and foreign, the Record Office, diocesan and paro-
chial registries, are now bearing such witness to the real character of
the first Anglican Pope, and of his instruments, that the old story of
the " English Reformation" must perforce disappear. We have no
hesitation in saying that Father Gasquet's work on Henry VIII. and
the English Monasteries is far and away the best that hns yet
appeared on the subject. It is a work of great labour and research,
executed with scrupulous care and in a calm, judicial spirit which
every candid reader, whatever be his sentiments, must admire. He
does not speculate nor theoriFe. He has no rhetorical flourishing.
In plain, unmistakable language he tells the truth, and nothing but
the truth. He allows the tools of Henry VIII. to tell their own
story and to speak the sentence of their own condemnation. To
Catholic students of the Reformation period, Father Gasquet's book
will be a source of genuine relief. The present writer confesses to a
feeling of considerable uneasiness on reading in Froude's Short
Essays on Great Subjects certain charges against the English

476 Notices of Books.

monasteries of the Reformation period. Here, in original, apparently
trustworthy documents, were grave charges, written by contempo-
raries, and how were they to be met ? Father Gasquet has met them
effectually. He has examined and cross-examined the witnesses. He
has so pilloried them that, to use Cardinal Manning's words, "on
the oaths of such men no just man would take away even the life of
a dog." Cromwell, Henry's vicar-general in matters ecclesiastical.
Archbishops Rice, Ley ton, Leigh, and London, the members of the
Monastic Visitation Commission, are so dissected by Father Gasquet
that we can see at a glance the repulsive wickedness of their charac-
ters and the utter folly of accepting any statement on the authority
of such unprincipled wretches. Father Gasquet gives us also some
information as to the characters of a precious trio who were
the early pillars of Irish Protestantism — Brown and Curwen, of
Dublin, and " the foul-mouthed ruffian Bale," of Ossory. To
attempt in a short notice anything like an analysis of Father
Gasquet's excellent volume would be quite unfair. We merely say
to the reader, and we say it confidently, get the book, and read it
again and again.

The Historia Aliquot Martyrum is a beautiful reprint of Father
M. Chauncey's account of the martyrdom of his brother religious of
the London Charter-house. He has given a graphic and faithful
account of their sufferings, and such an insight into their daily life
as enables us to understand the heroic constancy which they exhi-
bited when the final struggle came on. The writer himself did not
share in the heroic spirit of his brethren. He has given us this
history with all the advantages of an eye-witness, and while record-
ing their glorious martyrdom, he makes no secret of his own unworthi-
ness. The subject matter of the book is, of course, long well known.
The present edition is beautifully brought out, and is illustrated by
some beautiful photographs, taken from ancient paintings and
engravings of the martyrs.

Dr. Lee's book is a very valuable addition to our stock of infor-
mation on the Reformation period. It is not so much a " life" of
the " Boy King" as an account of the doings of the unscrupulous
men in whose hands Edward was merely a puppet. Few men have
done so much as Dr. Lee to expose the real character of the English
Reformers. From authentic records, and generally out of their own
mouths, he judges them, and in delivering his judgment he does not
mince matters in the least. In this way he has done incalculable
service to the cause of truth. But, after all, Dr. Lee and his writings

Notices of Books. 477

are a strange puzzle. He fancies himself a Catholic, and writes as if
he were. But that he should so write, and yet remain a beneficed
minister of the Anglican Establishment is one of the strangest reli-
gious phenomena of our time. Fancy a Protestant parson writing as
follows, referring to the publication of authentic documents of the
Reformation period. He says that they will soon convince men still
more " that the deplorable overthrow of the old faith in the sixteenth
century, at the hands of a minority, was only accomplished by
thieving, perjury, persecution, tyranny, and barbaric cruelty and
injustice" (Ediumd VI., Introduction, p. 2). To the Catholic
student of Reformation history the book is really valuable, but it is
a bitter, cutting satire on the author and on those of his theological
school.

J. M.

LIFE OF ST. TERESA OF JESUS, OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY
OF CARMEL. Written by Herself. Translated from the
Spanish by David Lewis. Second Edition. London :
St. Anselm's Society. 1888.

THIS is a life of a saint by a saint. Written by St. Teresa
herself, at the command of her confessor, it set forth with childlike
simplicity the workings of God's grace within the soul. The preface,
by the translator, gives a brief account of the principal external facts
of the saint's history ; but the book itself deals with the life of her
soul. Here we have visions, revelations, ecstasies, trials, humiliations,
sufferings, dissertations on prayer, on humility, on obedience. An
account of her private devotions — especially of her extraordinary
devotion to St. Joseph — we have in fact as much mystic theology as
could be acquired from many years study of Scaramelli. Father
Dominic Banes, of Valladolid, in his " censure " of the book says : —
"It contains many visions and revelations, matters always to be
afraid of, especially in women, who are very ready to believe of them
that they come from God, and to look on them as proofs of sanctity,
though sanctity does not lie in them." This passage deserves the
notice of a class of writers and speakers who prate about the alleged
facility with which Catholic saints are recognised as such, and the
readiness of Catholics to accept without question any version that is
alleged. This life of St. Teresa, abounding as it is in visions, would
be very salutary reading for even persons of this class.

478 Notices of Books.

RECORDS OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS of 1715. Edited by
John Orlebar Payne, M.A. London. 1889.

THE HAYDOCK PAPERS : A GLIMPSE INTO ENGLISH CATHOLIC
LIFE UNDER THE SHADE OF PERSECUTION, AND IN THE
DAWN OF FREEDOM. By Joseph Gillow. London. 1888.

THE above collections serve to throw a flood of light on the history
and condition of English Catholics of a century ago. The storm of
persecution which had all but swept away the Catholic Church of
England had no doubt abated in its fury, but it could not at any time
be said to have altogether ceased. The lives and property of Catholics
were almost continually at the mercy of the mob, which any evil
designing bigot could, and frequently did, lash into fury. To avoid
the consequences of such outbursts of fanaticism, as well as to evade
bad laws, badly administered, English Catholics were forced to lead
lives of seclusion, such as if active persecution had been the order of
the day. Like the sacred fire concealed by the prophet of old, the
lamp of faith continued to burn unseen — at least by the many — till
the dawning of better times permitted its being trimmed afresh, and
held out to light up once again the path of the searcher after truth, in
the Records of the English Catholics of 1715, we get many an instance
of the hardships to which they were subjected, and of the fidelity
with which they clung to the faith. Mr. Payne is well known among
English Catholics as a careful student, an accurate and conscientious
editor, and the Records fully bear out his reputation in both respects.
The Hay dock Papers consist very largely of the history and
correspondence of the old Catholic family of that name. But there
is a great deal of other interesting and useful matter. They are very
properly called A Glimpse into English Catholic Life under the Shade
of Persecution, and in the Dawn of Freedom, for they enable us to see
how it fared with English Catholics at that period, when bigotry was
for the first time blushing at its own bad deeds. Besides the papers
that bear upon the state of English Catholics at home, we have a
most interesting narrative of the fate and fortunes of the professors
and students of the English Colleges of Douay, and St. Omer under
the French Revolutionary Party. But it cannot be flattering to
Englishmen to be reminded that, whereas the French Government
in 1815, paid an indemnity for the losses caused by the destruction
of the property of the above named colleges, the English Govern-
ment retained the money because it was "Catholic property devoted to
to superstitious uses," and applied it to paying off the debt incurred in
building a Pavilion at Brighton, for " the fourth of the fools and

Notices of Books. 479

oppressors called George." Mr. Gillow's reputation as a student and
editor is fully sustained by this book. Both volumes are in the best
style of the eminent Catholic firm of Messrs. Burns & Gates.

J. M.

MISCELLANIES. By Henry Edward, Cardinal Archbishop of
Westminster. Vol. III. London : Burns & Gates. 1889.

CHARACTERISTICS. From the Writings of Archbishop
Ullathorne, with bibliographical introduction. Arranged
by the Rev. Michael F. Glancey, late of St. Mary's,
Oscott. London. 1889.

ANYTHING from Cardinal Manning's pen is most deservedly
welcome. This third volume of his Miscellanies contains a number of
essays written for various periodicals between 1879 and the present
year. The essays are all on subjects of great interest, written in the
cardinal's usual pure, lucid, and pleasing style, and it is well that
they should be given to us in a permanent shape, and not left to the
risk of oblivion that is incidental to periodical literature. Moreover,
some of the essays were written for American reviews, and may,
unless reproduced, as they now are, be lost to readers in this country,
and it would be a serious loss to lose anything written by Cardinal
Manning on a subject of interest to Catholics. It is amazing how
his Eminence, amidst all his many pressing duties, can find time to
write such essays as those before us. May God give him health and
vigour for many a year to come, to be what he has long been, a
bulwark to our holy religion, and a champion of every good cause.

The Characteristics of Archbishop Ullathorne is a selection very
well and systematically made from his various writings. The
arrangement is alphabetical as regards the subjects, and the extracts
given are in themselves excellent, and show great discrimination on
the part of the compiler, Father Glancey. The recent death of the
archbishop gives a melancholy interest to the volume. For fifty
years he was the champion of Catholic interests in England, and his
part in the reconstruction of the Catholic Church in England entitles
him for all time to the gratitude of his countrymen and co-religionists.
We do not believe in Characteristics. We would much prefer to
study the works of such a writer as a whole. But we are bound to
say that the selection before us is judiciously and creditabl} made,
and that those who believe in such compilations will find in Father
Glancey's volume all that they desire.

480 Notices of Books.

A COMPLETE NOVENA IN PREPARATION FOR THE FESTIVALS OP
THE BLESSED VIRGIN ; TOGETHER WITH A COLLECTION OP
EXTRACTS FROM THE HOLY FATHERS, SUITABLE FOR THE
MONTH OP MARY. By Dom Louis Marie Rouvier. THE
LITTLE BOOK OF OUR LADY. London : Burns & Gates.

THE first of these books is a valuable little treatise well calcu-
lated to promote devotion to the Blessed Virgin, especially in that
now common form of making Novenas in her honour. In it the
devout client of Mary will find much assistance in spending a Novena
with profit.

There is a suitable meditation and some spiritual readings for
each of the nine days. It also contains a number of quotations from
the Fathers which show forth in the clearest light the constant
tradition of the Church on the dignity, power and sanctity of the
Mother of God.

The Little Book of Our Lady contains within the small compass
of forty pages a short but interesting sketch of some of the principal
devotions in honour of the Queen of Heaven. A careful reading of
the little work will repay.' perusal.

A SHORT PRACTICAL MAY DEVOTION. New York and
Cincinnati : Fr. Pustet & Co.

No better book could be chosen for the May devotions than
Fr. Deymann's compilation. The meditations we are told are
translated from a " May Devotion " in general use in Germany.
They consist of a series of reflections on some of the principal truths
of our holy religion and on the virtues so brilliantly practised by the*
Blessed Virgin, These meditations are short, simple, and eminently
practical. We heartily recommend this little book.

M. O'D.

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

JUNE, 1889.

INCONSISTENCY, OR OUR FAITH AND OUR
PRACTICE.

" Absque meditationis exercitio, nullus, secluso miraculo Dei special!,
ad rectissimam religionis christianae normam pertingit." — Gerson.

WHEN we pass in review the various arguments that
exist in proof of the true Church, and consider their
number and their force, we are often puzzled to explain how
it is, that so many apparently earnest men still continue to
resist her claims, and to question her authority.

Yet, however much this thought may exercise our minds
there is another of a far more personal, and (for us at least)
of a far more practical character, which few of us trouble
ourselves about at all ; and that is why we who do believe so
firmly in the stupendous truths of revelation should
nevertheless be so very little affected by them.

That a man who has no belief in a future life should centre
all his happiness and pleasure upon this, and should try to ex-
tract all the enjoyment he can from it, is the most natural thing
in the world ; that he should be always plotting and scheming
to rise in the social scale, to become rich, influential, and of
importance; that he should think of such things during the
day and dream of them at night is all intelligible enough ; but
that we who profess the Catholic faith, who know that we
are pilgrims and sojourners upon earth, who look upon this
life as but a short avenue leading up to an endless eternity ;
that we should take the interest we do in what we know to
VOL. X. 2 H

482 Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice.

be so exceedingly flimsy and fleeting, and should attach so
much importance to what we are perfectly well aware is
empty, vain, and unsatisfying, that I take to be a far more
extraordinary and difficult problem.

We profess belief, and we do in reality believe every
dogma, and yet we seem to be able to reconcile with such a
profession, a line of conduct diametrically opposite. What we
openly affirm with our lips we are perpetually denying by
our actions ; and what we emphatically assert in words to
be of the most vital importance, we declare by almost every
act of our lives to be of no importance at all. However
rational we may be in business, in politics, and in our social
relations, we seem to be wholly devoid of reason so soon as we
begin to deal with the spiritual and the supernatural. Perhaps
some of my readers will begin to object, and will protest that
I am exaggerating and overstating the case, and that we
are really not so inconsistent after all; so suffer me to
illustrate the justice of my contention by one or two
examples. We shall best serve our purpose if we examine
a few points upon which we are all thoroughly agreed. Let
us then pass by all matters of mere opinion, and confine our-
selves entirely to matters of certainty — to truths in fact
which we are, as Catholics, bound to believe. We shall
then see how little correspondence there is between our
conduct and our creed. We shall find that instead of corre-
sponding they are grossly at variance. Thus, e.g., we believe
(a) sin to be the greatest evil in the world ; that no other
evil can for one moment be put on a level with it ; that even
the smallest deliberate venial sin is a more real misfortune
than any loss of health or fortune however great, that neither
in itself nor in its consequences can any merely human
calamity for one instant bear any sort of proportion to it. We
are certain, with a divine certainty, that for no consideration
whatsoever, not even to save our very life, no, nor a hundred
thousand lives, would it be right or permissible to commit
the least deliberate venial sin, even a passing sin of thought.
This is not a pious exaggeration but the literal truth, and a
truth which all confess — in fact to ask if we believe this, is
to ask if we are Catholics, Of course we do,

Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice. 483

But what is our conduct ? Is it consistent ? Does it in
any way harmonise with our creed ? Consider our position
as regards venial sins, imperfections, small offences, lesser
faults. How do we exhibit our horror of them : our sense
of their enormity, baseness, and ingratitude ? Do we for
instance manifest in every day life a decided and unhesitat-
ing preference to suffer every species of calamity, distress,
pain, even death, rather than to allow our souls to be stained
-with the guilt of venial sin ? Do we so guard ourselves from
this pest that years pass away without our having to accuse
ourselves of so much as one venial fault? May we not
rather ask if a month, or a week, or so much as a single day
goes by without our being betrayed into some infringement
of the law of God ? This is what I mean by an habitual
inconsistency. We believe sin to be the greatest of evils, we
act as though it were the least.

Again, to take another instance, we believe (b) divine
Grace to be so inestimable a treasure, that the gaining
of one additional degree of it is not merely more advan-
tageous, but indefinitely and immeasurably more advantageous,
than the doubling of our fortunes, or the multiplying
of all our earthly resources a million times over — that
to advance one step in virtue is inconceivably more
profitable to us, besides being better in itself, and more
pleasing to God, than any advance whatsoever in worldly
prosperity, social position, and political influence ; so that,
e.g., we might, if we possessed them, give up the wisdom of a
Solomon, the riches of a Croesus, the beauty of an Absolom,and
the dignity and influence of a Csesar, for the least particle
of divine Grace, and would even then give an absurdly
inadequate price for it. Do we believe all this in sober
truth ? Do we acknowledge that Grace is a priceless treasure,
without parallel or equal in the whole of creation ? Well, 1
distinguish, with our lips we do, and with our intellects too ;
but only in theory : in practice we do not. Indeed anyone
considering our lives, and studying our aims, aspirations,
ambitions, and desires, would regard us as a set of the most
inveterate liars that ever lived ; and might unhesitatingly
describe us, one and all, as miserable impostors and con-

484 Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice.

temptible hypocrites, who say one thing, but mean exactly
the opposite. For how is it possible (they would argue) that
men can honestly believe Grace to be the treasure they say it
is, while, at the same time, they make no appreciable effort
to retain possession of it, or, if already possessed, to increase
it — while, in fact, they are more ready and eager to labour,
toil, and suffer for anything whatsoever rather than for it.
Indeed, the hope of wealth, or honour, or fame, can stir them
up to far greater enthusiasm, and set their hearts in a far
greater blaze, than the hope of any increase of this
supernatural treasure, of which they are content merely to
utter the praises.

Yet somehow or another we contrive de facto to reconcile
two such opposites. Our Faith is sound : yes ; but, oh ! how
dead, and cold, and wanting in power and influence !

Or, to take yet another instance : We are fully aware that
time is short and fleeting ; that life is not merely brief, but that
it is most uncertain ; and, what is yet far more important, we
are fully aware that (c) on this moment of time — on this
vanishing instant, which we call "Life" — the whole weight of
eternity is ever balancing. Now, a man's life, even when con-
sidered in itself, is but a tiny span ; but when compared with
eternity, it is simply nothing. Yet upon this brief moment
of our earthly existence depends that which no created intellect
can measure, and which no human plummet can fathom. On
it depends, not merely an eternity of happiness or an eternity
of misery, inexpressible and unimagined, but on our use of it
depends likewise the degree of happiness or misery, as the case
may be. Indeed, we may say that God has committed to our
hands the forming and fashioning of our future ; so that it will
be just precisely what we make it, neither better nor worse.
So that, even supposing we are fortunate enough to reach
the kingdom of God, there is still the further question, what
will be our position in that eternal kingdom when we get
there ? If we take the reward of the least among the blessed
for our unit, then, whether our ecstacy of happiness and our
delirium of delgiht is to be represented by ten, or one
hundred, or one thousand, or ten thousand, depends
(within limits) upon ourselves. In other words, we know

Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice. 485

that while breath lasts, we may always keep adding and
adding to the amount of our acquired grace, and, further,
that to every degree of grace there is annexed a corre-
sponding degree of eternal glory, each particle of which
outvalues ten thousand worlds, besides being eternal and
imperishable ; in such wise, that we may say, in sober truth,
that it depends upon ourselves whether, throughout untold
ages, which our mind grows dizzy in imagining, God is to
be better known by us, better loved, and more fully enjoyed.
We know all this, as we know that the oak depends upon
the acorn ; but what is so lamentable is that our knowledge
of the one fact seems to influence us about as little as our
knowledge of the other.

We are not consistent. We neither think, nor speak, nor
act as becomes men who sincerely lay these truths to heart.
Who, indeed, watching our lives and following us as we go
about our daily avocations, would for one instant dream that
we are conscious of the fact — that we are positively hie et
mine laying down the foundations and drawing out the plan
of an interminable future ? Who would imagine — viewing
our conduct — that we are conscious that our actions and
thoughts are all stamping, with an indelible mark, our life
beyond the grave, and helping, in a very real way, to make
<or to mar a career which is simply endless and without
termination. Yet it must be acknowledged that not one of
us has any manner of doubt on the subject, when it is
fairly put before us.

That the future has its root in the present ; that time is
the seed of eternity ; arid that " as a man sows, so he
shall reap" — are truths which no Catholic ever dreams of
disputing.

In a word, inconsistency marks our lives, is the badge of
all our tribe, and extends to almost everything supernatural.
I have touched upon three instances, and I might have
touched upon three thousand ; but let these suffice, for
I must hurry on to our next point. Enough, 1 think, has
been said to show that we are inconsistent ; the next ques-
tion that suggests itself is —

486 Inconsistency ) or our Faith and our Practice.

II.

Whence comes this extraordinary and deplorable con-
trast between our belief on the one hand, and our practice
on the other? Why is it that we act so unreasonably?
How are we to account for it ?

It would seem at the first glance that, as a matter of
fact, we don't really believe ; it seems so impossible that
we can inwardly accept the teaching of the Church, and still
act so diametrically against it. But^yet so it is, for there
can be no doubt as to the sincerity and genuine faith of
many who sin even grievously. We are all bound either
to acknowledge the truths of revelation, or else to cease
calling ourselves Catholics. The plain statement of our posi-
tion is that we do believe ; but we do not realize. This, at once,
goes a long way to explain the anomaly ; for truths affect
us only in so far as they come home to us, and most truths
of faith don't come home to us at all. For the most part it is
like proposing an abstract truth to the undeveloped mind of a
child ; or it is as though we should inform a school-boy
that the nearest fixed star is more than 19,000,000,000,000
of miles off. He will accept the doctrine readily enough ;
but his brain can conjure up no adequate image of such a
distance. He believes ; but he does not really know what it
is he believes. He may have some idea of nineteen miles ;
'but nineteen millions of million of miles confuses and puzzles
him, and produces no definite impression on his brain. Only
after a long habit of comparing and contrasting, can he gain
some faint idea of such a distance. So is it in the spiritual
world ; the great truths of Faith affect us so little because
so little realized. To believe with a mere implicit adhesion
of the mind may be enough for the fulfilment of the precept
of divine Faith ; but that the various dogmas may
influence our life, and spur us on to action, and give
force to our will, and firmness to our resolutions, and
power in temptation, and courage under trial, besides
being believed, they must also be to some extent realized —
they must enter into the mind, and shine out with a
certain brilliancy and lustre of their own, and shed a light
and a warmth in the centre of the heart. Could we only

Inconsistency \ or our Faith and our Practice. 4.87

succeed in mastering the truths of revelation, we would
speedily find ourselves supplied with motives abundant and
powerful enough to convert even the most indifferent of us
into saints and heroes. The motives that exist to induce us to
serve God are not merely exceedingly numerous, but they are
also of an extraordinary and irresistible power, only they are
ordinarily (if I may so express myself) allowed to lie beyond
the field of vivid consciousness. If, however, we were to bestir
ourselves, and to try to draw them within the inner circle of
our mind, they are so excessively cogent and persuasive of
their own nature that, without actually forcing the will, we
may say they would become, in practice, all but irresistible.
We may read this truth in the life of every saint ; and there
are moments and periods in our lives when we may have
perhaps experienced it ourselves.

The more we consider the matter, the more convinced we
shall be that it is not by believing anything fresh — not by
adding to the articles of our creed, or discovering any new
motives — that we shall be moved to change our lives, but
that it can only be by the keener realization of the old truths
familiar from childhood, and which we have known ever since
we first began to know anything.

III.

Let me give an instance of what I mean from the life of
the great St. Francis Borgia, once a gallant courtier and man
of the world, and afterwards a religious, a priest and a saint
Now, his conversion is attributed, not to the discovery of
any new truths, but simply and solely to a circumstance
which brought vividly before his mind, and strongly illu-
minated, what were very old truths indeed : it was the
sight of the dead body of the renowned Isabella, Empress
of Spain.

She died at Toledo, and her remains were conveyed in
a leaden coffin to Granada. On their arrival, Francis and
the magistrates of the city were convened in order to
take an official oath that the remains were really those of
the empress. The coffin was accordingly opened, and the
body exposed to view ; the sight that met his eyes converted

488 Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice.

Francis, and transformed him into a saint. Yet observe, he
learned nothing really new. He needed no one to tell him
that Isabella was mortal ; that her glory must perish and her
beauty fade. Suppose one had asked him, as he gazed upon
his sovereign in the fullness of her health and strength :
" Will those eyes that now glisten so brightly one day grow
fixed and glassy, and those ruddy lips shrink, stiffen and
decay ? Will those small white hands, so delicately and
wondrously wrought from the clay, ever to clay return ? "
Had one asked him : " Will that royal heart — that seat of all
that is noblest and best — one day stop its beating and grow
.still for ever?" He would have replied unhesitatingly:
" Yes ; " undoubtedly, " yes." He believed those truths then
as firmly as now, only not so vividly. This superficial know-
ledge did not act upon his life or spur him on to struggle
for sanctity and a greater detachment from the world ; but
when death at last came, and he actually witnessed the
change it brought — when he, with the bright and beauteous
form of his queen still haunting his memory like a beautiful
dream, lifted the ponderous lid and gazed upon the hideous
and distorted corpse, and smelt the sickening exhalations and
the fetid odour exuding from every pore, pah ! and touched
the cold, clammy clay, now fast resolving into its primor-
dial elements — he learned a lesson not easily forgotten.

When he considered that ghastly heap of mouldering
flesh, as it was but yesterday, clothed with the royal diadem
of state, hung with precious robes, adorned with gold, and
jewels of priceless worth, honoured, praised, courted, and
cared for, the cynosure of all eyes, the observed of all
observers, and then — contrasted it with what it had now
become, he not merely knew, believed, and acknowledged,
but he realized and was made intimately conscious of the
transitory nature of all earthly things, and of the vanity of
beauty, rank, power, wealth, and dominion: truths which
had so long but skimmed over the surface of his soul, as a
mere film, now penetrated into its centre : the lesson sank
deep down into his heart. Up to this it had never been
properly learnt, now it burnt itself, as it were, into his very
being, branding itself on his heart with letters of fire. The

Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice. 489

result was he changed his life, and consecrated himself wholly
and unreservedly to God. Returning to his chamber he
locked himself in, and passed the whole night prostrate in
prayer, shedding many torrents of bitter tears. " Ah ! fool
that I am !" he exclaimed, " What am I struggling for? How
much longer shall I waste my time in pursuit of mere
shadows and unsubstantial nothings ! All is worthless that
passes with time : all is vanity and vexation of spirit but the
love and service of God." He bid an eternal farewell to the
vanities and pleasures of the world : he quitted the court,
and entered upon a new course^ of serving God with the
utmost fervour, and bound himself by oath, should he survive
his consort, to enter a religious state of life. The impression
produced on his mind by what he had seen, continued
strong and undiminished, we are assured by his biographer,
during the three and thirty years he survived, and exercised
its influence to the last.

The special point that I am anxious that my readers
should carry away with them and clearly grasp is that
St. Francis was not converted by learning anything he did
not already know, but merely by vividly realizing a truth
which was familiar from his childhood. He was converted
by an old truth, but an old truth appealing to him in a new
and very striking manner : an old truth illuminated by an
-unusually strong and lurid light.

What follows. Well this; that, if we are to be converted
from a tepid, careless, listless life, we must not merely
believe, but our faith must be lively, bright, clear, and pene-
trating, in a word we must accustom ourselves to think — to
ponder over the invisible truths, and to meditate assiduously.
The reason why pleasures, honour, amusements, wealth, and
other objects by which the world tempt us, have such power
over many — not excluding some of us priests — is that they
/orce themselves upon our notice ; they are so obtrusive, so self-
asserting, so perpetually ringing their changes in our ears ;
whereas the spiritual motives offered to us by God are quite
£he reverse : they are invisible, intangible, beyond the reach
of sense, and only come to those who seek them. We shall
never advance till we acquaint ourselves more thoroughly

490 Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice.

with the truths we profess. The fact is, we are all living in
a sort of dream. We see, speak, arid move among what is
unsubstantial, unreal, and shadowy, and the great spiritual
world which fades not with time is all about us, and we
know it not. Until indeed we consider it worth our while to
devote to the contemplation of eternal things, some of those
long hours which we lavish so readily and so prodigally
upon temporal things we must not, it appears to me, expect-
to make much progress. The invisible can never influence
our conduct nor be a motive of action while it remains invisible.
It must be made visible . . . visible to the eyes of faith
by meditation. The analogy between the body and the soul
in regard to their respective nourishment is very striking.
Food may be in the greatest abundance all around us, but
unless it be eaten, digested, and assimilated into the system,
it will never strengthen or nourish the body ; so is it with
the spiritual food of the soul, which is divine truth : till we
are prepared to digest it, and meditate upon it, and turn it
over in our minds, and familiarize ourselves with it, it will
never spur us on to great deeds. " It is only those," as
Father Faber so beautifully says, " who are ever conversant
with the great things that God has done for them, who will
ever be inspired to do great things for the love of Him."

There is evidently but one conclusion to which we can
come. We must not merely assent coldly to truths proposed >
we must strive to apprehend them and give them an
actuality. They must be as real to us as the daylight and
the sunshine. We must resolve to direct our thoughts in an
especial manner each day, for a certain fixed time, to some
one or another of the great truths. It is the surest, the
simplest, the most direct means of acquiring sanctity here
and eternal glory hereafter. Hence all the saints, without
exception, both practised it themselves and exhorted others
to do the same. Suarez, one of the greatest theologians,
declares it to be morally necessary for all who wish to rise
above mere mediocrity. St. Ignatius makes it the basis and
foundation of the spiritual life of his order. St. Teresa,
that marvellous mistress of the interior life, insists
upon it above and before all things. She declares it

Inconsistency, or our Faith and our Practice. 491

to be impossible for anyone to practise meditation and
at the same time to continue leading a sinful and
tepid life. He must either abandon tepidity or he must
abandon meditation. The two cannot go on together. But
why speak of the saints ? Has not a far higher authority
already spoken in the same sense ? Has not the Holy Spirit
promised immunity from the only evil we need fear if we
only reflect upon the great truths ? " Think of thy last end^
and thou shalt never sin." Nay, more, does He not ('speaking
by the mouth of His prophet) ascribe the widespread sinful-
ness and wickedness of the world to an absence of this prac-
tice, and to nothing else ? " With desolation is the whole
world laid desolate, because there is no man who consider eth
in his heart."

Js any further proof needed? If we are sincerely
anxious to attain to true sanctity, and to enjoy God for all
eternity, we surely cannot neglect so powerful and simple a
means. One thing is, at all events, clear, viz., a person who
cares little about the means, cares little about the end. It is
very easy to delude ourselves in this matter. But it is a
mere piece of self-deception to flatter ourselves that we
really desire to lead holy and innocent lives if we begrudge
even one half hour a day spent in meditation. Let us apply
this test, and if we cannot bring ourselves to undertake, even
though it may be with some inconvenience, daily meditation,
we should, at least, be honest enough to acknowledge that
our desire of perfection is very weak, and only extends to
the length of doing what will cost us little or nothing.

If the Editor will permit, it is my hope to develop this
subject a little more fully in a future paper.

JOHN S. VAUGHAN,

[ 492 J

ENAGHDUNE, CO. GAL WAY.— I.

ABOUT eight miles north of Galway, on the eastern shore
of Lough Corrib, lies a group of ecclesiastical ruins
that bear silent but eloquent testimony to the by-gone
glories of Enaghduue, or, as it is now called, Annadown.
Indeed, though the barony of Clare, in which these ruins lie,
is thickly strewn with monuments of Ireland's former
monastic greatness, and the remains of Cloonfush and
Teampail-Jarlath, Kilcooney, Killursa and Killearny recall
memories of Jarlath, founder and patron of the. diocese of
Tuam; of Cuanna, a great abbot, scholar, and patron of
learning, and brother of St. Carthage of Lismore ; of Fursey,
the great missionary to Saxon and Gaul, whose bones were
laid to rest in the distant land of his adoption ; and of Eany,
whom a great authority, Dr. O'Donovan, has identified with
the celebrated Enda of Arran : yet well may we say that the
mouldering pile of Annadown, with its traditions and
memorials of Brendan and Briga, of Cormac and Columbkille,
is the most interesting object in the entire locality.

It is not, perhaps, so much that a halo of scholastic and
missionary glory hangs over the place, such as causes us
to look back with thrilling yet reverent interest upon the
great centres of missionary and literary life in the early cen-
turies of Ireland's Christianity, but rather that the story of
Annadown is the history, as it were, in miniature, of the
Mother Church ; the varying for tunes, the lights and shadows
of both are practically the same ; the early religious fervour ;
its decadence during the centuries of Danish disturbance ;
the uprise and diffusion of the mendicant and other orders
under Irish and Anglo-Norman patronage ; the age of sup-
pression and penal law ; and the survival of the faith,
vigorous and fruitful as ever : all are here faithfully mirrored
forth.

A French poet has given beautiful expression to the
effect which ruins such as these are calculated to- produce
upon a thoughtful visitor as, with reverent steps, he traverses

Enaghdune, County Galway. 493

the cloisters hallowed by the life-long devotions of fervent
worshippers : —

" Eh ! qui n'a parcouru d'un pas melancolique
Le dome abandonne, la vieille basilique
Ou devant 1'Eternel s'inclinaient ses a'ieux ?
Ces debris eloquents, ce seuil religieux,
Ce seuil ou tant de fois, le front dans la poussiere,
Gemit le repentir, espera la priere ;
Ce long rang de tombeaux, que la mousse a couvert
Ces vases inutiles, et ce comble entr'ouvert,
Du temps et de la mort, tout proclame Tempire :
Frappe de son neant, 1'homme observe et soupire,
L'imagination, a ces murs devastes
Rend leur encens, leur culte et leurs solemnites ;
A travers tout un siecle ecoute le cantiques
Que la religion chantait sous ces portiques.*'

Yes ! imagination bodies forth once more the forms of by-
gone generations; the church once more resounds with
sweet-toned psalmody ; the voice of master is heard in the
school; the cloisters are re-peopled with cowled and sandalled
figures ; the busy fingers of the scribe ply the pen of know-
ledge ; the echoes are awakened by the ringing blows of the
cunning artist, who deftly fashions some beautiful device in
the yielding limestone :- -But, alas I it is all a day-dream —
the place is only peopled by the dead — the reality is an
unbroken solitude ; or if, perchance, any voices do break
upon the ear, they accord with the solemn stillness of the
place, for they are of those who bewail or pray for the
departed faithful !

In connection with the venerable remains of Annadown,
the chief figure to whom interest attaches is, of course, the
original founder, St. Brendan of Clonfert, or, as he is often
called, St. Brendan the Navigator. It may be well to note
briefly a few salient points of his history. Born, as is
generally admitted, in Kerry, probably in the present parish
of Annagh, near Tralee, he received his early religious and
secular training from St. Ere, Bishop of Slane, and from
St. Ita, the Bridget of Munster, as she is sometimes called.
By her advice, while yet a youth, he travelled into Oonnaught
and placed himself under the guidance of St. Jarlath, in the

494 Enaghdune, County Galway.

famous Monastery of Cloonfuish. There, St. Finnian, who
afterwards became notable as founder of the still more
famous monastic school of Clonard, was for a time his fellow-
disciple ; and in this latter place St. Brendan also spent some
time in preparation for his life's work. From Clonard he
proceeded, by St. Ita's advice, as a missionary to Brittany ;
and while there he made his first monastic foundation.
While in the West of Ireland, he had often listened with
deep attention to traditions of a far-off visionary land, and
his heart was fired with zeal to carry to its benighted inhabi-
tants the grand tidings of Christianity. When he was about
sixty years of age his purpose took definite form, and in the
year 545 he embarked upon his perilous enterprise. We can
better imagine than describe the perils he underwent, and
the difficulties he had to surmount during the long and weary
voyage in a small and frail barque, and over treacherous and
unknown seas, until at last, like -ZEneas of old, having toiled
bravely on —

" Per varies casus et tot discrimina rerum,"

he caught sight of the land he sought. At length, " his
vessel, impelled by a miraculous current, reached a shore
where he and his companions found a charming climate and
lovely birds. They walked into the interior for fifteen days ;
but when about to cross a great river, were warned back by
an angel, who said that they had gone far enough, and that
it was reserved for other men and other times to Christianize
the land." Thus the legends run ; which, no doubt, are
founded on fact, so far, at least, as the voyage and its objects
are concerned. Having returned to Ireland, after an absence
of seven years, he settled down to practical work. The first
and chief of his foundations was Clonfert, where he resided.
For this monastery, and others connected with it, he drew
up a " particular rule, which was so highly esteemed as to be
observed for many centuries by his successors, and was
believed to have been written at the dictation of an angel."
We are told that in the monasteries founded by himself he
held spiritual sway, as Abbot of Clonfert, over three thousand
monks. The monastery founded by him at Annadown was

Enaghdune, County Galway. 495

for women ; and over it, as abbess, he placed his own sister,
St. Briga. Some authors say that, towards the end of his
life, he paid a visit to St. Columba in his Scottish home. He
died A.D. 577, in the ninety-third year of his age, at Anna-
down, and a beautiful tradition tells that St. Columba, stand-
ing on the bleak shore of lona, " suddenly saw the heavens
open, and the angelic choirs, whose brilliancy illumined the
world in one instant, descend towards earth to meet his
soul."

That St. Brendan was highly favoured by heaven and
much revered on earth two other remarkable traditions tell.
The first is narrated by O'Clery in the Martyrology of
Donegal — One day, about fourteen years before his death, he
was after Mass and sermon, and still upon the altar, when he
was visited by St. Michael the Archangel, who remained
with him a full day, and charmed the saint by pouring forth
a flood of celestial melody. Having been so regaled, St.
Brendan could never again bear to listen to, much less could
he enjoy, any earthly music. Once only did he relax — upon
an Easter day, when he permitted a youthful musician to
play for him upon the harp ; but the contrast between the
strains of earth and those of heaven was so great that the
sweet music of the harper only grated upon his ear. He
blessed him for his effort and good will ; but ever after he
was wont to stuff his ears so as to shut out all melody of
earth, and would admit only that of heaven.

The second tradition is of earth, and is recorded by
Lynch, After death the remains of St. Brendan were trans-
lated for interment from Annadown, where he died, to his
own monastery of Clonfert — a distance of twenty Irish
miles ; and the concourse of people who gathered from all
sides to do honour to his memory was so great that the head
of the funeral cortege had reached Clonfert before the rear
had left Annadown : " Qui agmen ducebant Clonfertam ante
pervenerunt quam illud claudentes Enaghduna pedem
extulerint." So did the Irish people reverence the relics of
the saints in the early Christian days !

The noble pile of ruins, which, at least indirectly, owes
its origin to St. Brendan, lies north of a small creek on the

496 Enaghdune, County Galway.

eastern shore of Lough Corrib, and consists of two separate
portions — an abbey for men, which is the most striking
object, and, distant from it a few hundred yards to the north-
east, the remains of a convent for women. On the south side
of the creek are some remains of a somewhat later date,
consisting of a well-preserved De Burgo castle and the
crumbled walls of the episcopal palace ; for the ecclesiastical
history of Annadown has a two-fold aspect. With the
monastic remains we are mainly concerned just now. Need-
less to say they are in a wofully dilapidated condition — so
much so, indeed, that an antiquarian of such eminence as
Sir W. Wilde could with difficulty conjecture the plan of
either of the buildings or distinguish the separate parts. A
slight improvement, indeed, has taken place since the date
of his visit, for the Board of Works has spent some money
in clearing away accumulated rubbish, and otherwise in
restoring stones and collecting fragments. But the most
that can be said regarding these once famous and richly
decorated establishments is that they are noble but utterly
dismantled and decayed ruins.

From the Book of Ballymote we learn that Annadown was
conferred on God and St. Brendan by Aodha, son of
Eochy III., king of Connaught ; and other authorities, such
as Ussher and Ware, tells us that St. Brendan founded there
a monastery for women, over which he placed his sister, St.
Briga. When or by whom St. Briga was trained to monastic
life we are not told, and, indeed, what is usually stated
regarding her is very much matter of conjecture. Neither
have we any certain knowledge regarding the rule under
which the nuns of Annadown were placed; but it seems
probable that St. Brendan, having been in early life on
terms of friendship with St. Bridget, would not overlook the
rules and constitutions formed or sanctioned by so great a
saint, and at the time widespread throughout Ireland. How
long St. Briga's convent flourished, or whether in the course
of centuries it escaped the attention of the ruthless Danes,
is also a matter hidden from our knowledge. We know
from the Annals of the Four Masters that the Danes of
Limerick, in the year 927, " took possession of Lough

Enaghdune, County Galway. 497

Orbsen and pillaged its islands," and it can hardly be doubted
that the peaceful retreat of Annadown was invaded in one
of their wild incursions, and that the chant of praise gave
way to the ribald jests and fierce oaths of those pitiless bar-
barians, and mayhap to the death shriek of some of its
innocent occupants. However this may be, it is matter of
certainty that changes of great moment took place in the
lapse of centuries. Sir W. Wilde, whose antiquarian skill
cannot be questioned, and who carefully examined the
existing ruins, assures us that there does not now exist " any
remnant of that peculiar masonry that marked the period
when St. Brendan died here or when St. Meldan was Abbot
or Bishop of Lough Orbsen." He is of opinion that the pre-
sent conventual remains stand on the site of the original
nunnery, and are of a very much later date.

An inquiry of some interest is here suggested. Archdall,
under the heading JEnaghdune, tells us in a rather vague
statement that " an abbey was founded here in a remote age,
for as early as the seventh century we find that St. Meldan
was Abbot or Bishop of Lough Orbsen or Lough Corrib.
His feast is observed on the 7th February. This evidently
has reference to a monastery for men. Now, Ware tells us
that the monastery founded by St. Brendan for his sister was
the first building erected at Annadown. The question then
arises was there also a monastery for men built here by St.
Brendan or anybody else, and presided over by St. Meldan ?
Except in the above obscure passage in Archdall, I can find
no mention of such; and I conceive that he must have been led
astray by the following circumstance : — It is certain that St.
Brendan founded a monastery for men in the Island of
Innisquin, in Lough Corrib, where St. Fursey received his
early religious training and St. Brendan himself passed the
latter years of his life. Regarding this establishment,
Archdall himself has the following definite statement
in the Monasticon : — " St. Brendan erected an abbey in
Inis-mac-hua-Quinn, and made St. Meldau, one of his dis-
ciples, abbot. St. Meldan died some time before the year
626 A.D. His festival is held on the 7th February." Other
authorities, such as O'Flaherty, make similar statements.
VOL. x. 2 I

498 Enaghdune, County Galway.

The monastery, then, over which St. Meldan ruled, was not
at Annadown. but in Innisquin, which is distant about six
miles from Annadown. The only monastery at Annadowu
was St. Briga's. The confusion must have arisen from the
spiritual link that bound the two institutions together, and
from the fact that the district over which St. Meldan ruled
as bishop took its name at one time from Lough Orbsen, arid
at another time from Annadown, whither the episcopal chair
was in course of time removed.

The most definite statement we find connected with this
convent is that in the year 1195 Pope Celestine III., by a
Bull dated February 26th, " did confirm this church, together
with the town of Kilgell, to the nuns of the Order of
Aroacia." This would seem to convey that these nuns were
already in possession. Kilgell, formerly a somewhat impor-
tant place, is now a small village, distant some six miles
from Annadown, having still extant some ecclesiastical
remains of ancient date, used as a burial place for children,
and which may have been connected with the Aroacian
nunnery.

The Order of Aroacia is of French origin, and dates from
the end of the twelfth century. Its founder was Gervais, a
contemporary of St. Bernard, and the rule they followed was
that of St. Augustine. I)e Burgo, in his Hibernia Dominicana
says, that there were thirty-six houses in Ireland of canon esses
of St. Augustine, of which the Convent of Annadown was
probably one. The Order of Aroacia must have spread very
rapidly indeed ; when we find a convent of that order in a
remote part of Ireland within a few years of its foundation.
In the thirteenth century this convent must have been in a
very flourishing condition, for we are told that in the year
1238, a steeple, which some suppose to have been a round
tower, was built in connection with it. There is nothing
whatever about the place to indicate the existence at any
time of a round tower, so that the steeple or belfry must
have taken some other form. For several centuries successive
generations of nuns pursued the even tenor of conventual
life — multiplying and illuminating books, instructing the
ignorant, edifying all by their lives of prayer and self-

Enaghdune, County Galway. 499

restraint, and so making secure their eternal salvation. But
at last the sad epoch of plunder and suppression came ; the
nuns were forced to leave their peaceful home; and the
nunnery of Annadown, together with the monasteries of
Clonthuskert, Aghrim, St. John Baptist, Tuam, Kilcrevaun,
Roserrily, Loughrea, and Kilbought, together with their
belongings, were made over to Richard, Earl of Clanricarde,
subject to the yearly rent of £68 9s. Qd. payable, not to the
rightful owners, but to the Crown. This was in the twenty-
sixth year of the reign of Elizabeth, A.D. 1584.

Co-existent with the Aroacian convent, and dating from
the early years of the thirteenth century, and probably con-
fiscated by the same order, was the noble abbey dedicated
to the Blessed Virgin, under the title of Sancta Maria de
Portu Patrum. The remains of this building form the most
important part of the existing pile. It can hardly be doubted
that this was an abbey for Premonstratensian Canons, an
order founded in France by St. Norbert, before he became
Archbishop of Magdeburg, and solemnly approved by
Pope Honorius II. , A.D. 1126. This order spread with great
rapidity, and had thirty-five houses in the British Isles.
Archdall, on the authority of Ware, distinctly states that
Sancta Maria de Portu Patrum was a house of this order ;
though M'Geoghegan affirms that it was a house of
Augustinian canons, and a branch of the Augustinian Abbey
of Tuam. There certainly was an Augustinian monastery
at Tuam, known as the Priory of St. John the Baptist ; but
there was also the Premonstratensian Abbey of the Holy
Trinity, founded directly from the mother house atPremonstre.
It seems to be certain that the Annadown Abbey was a
branch of Abbey Trinity rather than of St. John's Priory.
However this may be, the difference between the orders was
one more of name than of reality, for they both belonged to
the general class of Augustinian canons.

That the tenor of their existence was not always as even,
and their thoughts and energies centred as completely in
purely ecclesiastical or monastic matters as monks might be
supposed to wish, and that while striving after their eternal
inheritance they did not overlook material interests, is proved

500 Enaglidune, County Galway.

by a contention that took place between themselves and one
of the bishops of Annadown, in the early part of the fourteenth
century. The monks by some means had obtained possession
of a messuage containing twenty acres of arable land, six of
meadow, forty of wood, twenty of moor, and sixty of pasture
in the townland of Shankill, which the bishop conceived to
pertain of right to the cathedral church. Such a quantity of
land was no doubt a matter of great importance to the
bishop on the one hand and to the monks on the other, and
we need not wonder that the contention regarding the right
of ownership was warmly carried on. I find no mention of
the tribunal before which the case was tried. If before the
ecclesiastical tribunal of the Metropolitan, the decision might
be availed of by friend or foe to extol or impeach his impar-
tiality ; for while he was unfriendly to the Bishop of Annadown
on the one hand, on the other he claimed the bishopric as
part of his own diocese, and probably would claim the
cathedral belongings too. So that his sense of justice could
not well be trusted by either side. The temporalities of the
bishopric were at this time in the gift of the Crown, and
probably the case was decided by a lay tribunal. But the
result was favourable to the bishop. In what year and in
what circumstances the abbey was suppressed I do not find
stated ; as I have said above, it probably did not survive the
Aroacian Convent.

Besides the institutions already mentioned the chroniclers
tell of a Franciscan Monastery which was the head of a
custody, and had extensive jurisdiction over the other houses
of Connaught and Ulster. Strange to say there is no trace,
that I can find, of such an establishment; for there are
absolutely no local traditions regarding it. The Franciscan
abbeys of Rosserrily, Clare Galway, Gal way, and Clare Tuam —
each of them distant only a few miles — still exist as majestic
ruins, or their sites at least are well known. These monasteries
too are frequently mentioned in the ordinary authors —
Annadown is not so. It seems strange that Annadown having
been a house of superior jurisdiction, should receive such
scanty notice. But except in Archdall, and what evidently
is copied from him, I can rind nothing definite. He indeed

Enaghdune, County Galway. 501

does state that at a place called Killian Bonaina in Galway,
there was a notable house of the Third Order of Franciscans.
There is a burial place for infants within the precincts of the
present parish, and only a couple of miles from Annadown?
called Killian, and which from its situation the epithet
Bonaina would precisely suit. This may have been the site
of the Franciscan Monastery, though now there are few, if
any, traces of the building. The difficulty of name would be
very slight ; for everyone can understand how the name of a
place of note, such as Annadown, would be substituted for
that of one less well known in its vicinity.

The latest religious establishment was the College of
St. Brendan, which provided maintenance for four priests or
vicars when it was in its hey-day. Presumably these
gentlemen had charge of the spiritual interests of the place
and were the successors of those who in the episcopal times
formed the Cathedral Chaptei*. It is a strange fact that this
institution was overlooked by Queen Elizabeth and her
minions when dealing out their decrees of suppression and
confiscation against the other religious houses of Annadown ;
for otherwise, poor as it undoubtedly was, it would not have
been exempted from the common lot. But its day of grace
was prolonged only for a little and the end approached
slowly but surely. Meanwhile its staff of vicars had, for one
cause or another, fallen off, and when last we hear of it in
the evil days of Elizabeth, Clement Skerrett and Thady
M'InglKs were its sole clerical occupants. The possessions
of the college were at one time considerable for the time
and place. But in the days of the above-mentioned priests
the surroundings were not imposing. We are informed that
then the possessions of the college were a church in ruins, a
small cemetery, a garden and half an acre of land on which
a few labourers' cottages had been erected but which at this
time were untenanted and consequently without value.
There was also immediately attached to the college about
twenty acres of wet pasture land. The college, then, or at
some previous period, had a number of tenants who grazed
their cattle on pastures common to themselves and to the
townsmen — and the scope must have been considerable;

502 Enaghdune, County Galway.

for we learn that twenty-three quarters of tithes belonged to
the college — each quarter being of the value of £3 6s. Oc?.,
Irish currency of that period, and distributed as follows over
even wide-spreading townlands : —

Town and Chapel of Annagh

Cahirmorris

Balrobuck

Kylgyle (Kilgill)

Ballynacowley (Wood village)

Drumgriffin

Clonboo

2 quarters.

4

4 „

4 „
)>
4
4 „

When this college was established, or by whom, I do not
find distinctly recorded. It seems probable, however, that
on the definitive union of the See of Annadown with that of
Tuam the cathedral church of the former was established as
a collegiate church, with its chapter and other belongings,
and so thai a faint resemblance of the glory that had passed
away still clung to it. This conjecture is to some extent
borne out by an official report presumably of the then
archbishop, forwarded to Rome in 1555, before the storm, of
persecution had developed the fulness of its fury. This report
describes Annadown as "a small unfortified town distant
four or five miles from Tuam. It has a small cathedral under
the invocation of St. Brendan, with its dean, archdeacon,
and some canons attached, who, however, do not reside
there. The cathedral is quite abandoned and only one mass
is offered up there on festival days ; there is also a tower
with a cemetery ; and one chalice and one vestment ; the
diocese is very small and is situated among wild and evil
men." At this period the See of Annadown was permanently
annexed to Tuam. Soon the final crash came, the light of
the sanctuary was extinguished for ever, and with it the
flickering flame which betokened but feebly the steady and
brilliant light of former days.

And now standing unroofed and abandoned in the little
cemetery like the spirit of evil in the holy place, — a contrast
to all its surroundings and a monument of oppression and
yet of failure —is a not unpretentious Protestant church
built on the probable site of the old cathedral and of the

The Temporal Power. 503

materials of the more ancient edifices. It testifies unmis-
takably to the barbarous spirit in which the work of
confiscation and destruction was effected — for it has for its
oriel window a magnificently designed and wrought setting,
taken stone by atone from the adjoining abbey. But as if
ominous of the impropriety of the transfer and of the ruin
that was sure to follow, one of its sculptured stones was
falsely set. The hopes of those who raised this building, if
fixed upon a spiritual harvest, were, like those of others
elsewhere, doomed to be quickly blighted. And we may
hope that even still the guardian spirits of Brendan and
Briga, and of the countless hidden saints ot Annadown hover
round the place and keep faithful guard over their once
fair possessions. For at this day there is not, nor has there
been for years, a Protestant in the parish, save the parson
and his immediate family. Let us hope that, if the institu-
tions of Annadown are altogether of the past, their spirit
may survive for ever.

This much have I gleaned with difficulty and set down
crudely regarding those interesting ruins. The crumbling
walls of the bishop's palace remind us of another phase of
Annadown's history which must be kept for another paper.

JOHN MACHALE, C.C.

THE TEMPORAL POWER— II.

Is IT NECESSARY^?

THE answer to this question is contained in the following
words of Pius IX. : " the temporal dominion of the
Popes is of such a nature as in the present order of Providence,
is believed to be necessary and indispensable for the free
exercise of the Catholic Apostolate."1

Before we begin to prove this statement it will be well to
explain our terms. A thing may be necessary in two senses,
either absolutely or relatively. Whatever is absolutely necessary
i Pius IX. protest, 14 Feb. 1849.

504 The Temporal Power.

for the Church is essential to it, so that it cannot exist
without it. It is absolutely necessary, for instance, according
to the divine institution that it be guided by an infallible
or unerring head. If the temporal power were absolutely
necessary the Church should cease to exist with it. This
would be both religiously and historically false ; religiously,
for when Christ instituted his Church he only committed the
supreme spiritual power to Peter ; historically, in as much as
the Church during the first three centuries, and the last
eighteen years has actually existed without it, which would
be impossible if the temporal dominion were absolutely
necessary. When we say therefore that it is necessary, it
must be understood relatively, namely, that under the
existing circumstances of human society, it is necessary for
the free exercise of the apostolic ministry, and for the con-
servation and propagation of the Catholic doctrine. In a
word, the spiritual power of the Pope suffers serious detriment
by his being deprived of the temporal sovereignty. As the
spirit of a man cannot be subdued or broken in by binding
him in chains, though he suffer serious detriment therefrom,
so the spiritual power of the Vicar of Christ remains essentially
intact, even when separated from that temporal sovereignty
which is necessary for its free exercise. But he who
represents the greatest moral power on earth, on whose
subjects the sun never sets, and whose ministry is absolutely
necessary for the salvation of men, cannot without serious
injury to the spiritual interests of those whom he governs, be
subject to any human authority. He who was commanded
by Christ to confirm his brethren in faith, cannot exist in a
state of subjection to men, who are too often swayed by
passion, self interest, and false policy, to war against justice
and religion.

Perhaps one of the most cogent arguments to prove this
can be deduced from the very nature of human societies.
Every society has a special end in view, which in general
terms, is some common good to be obtained for the
individuals who compose it. Since the nature of the society
depends on that end, it follows that the superiority of one
society over another depends on the superiority of its end,

The Temporal Power. 505

The end of one society may be superior to that of another in
two ways. Intrinsically, in itself, when it is more excellent
and necessary, or extrinsically in its operation, when it
extends to a greater number of individuals who are enabled
to participate in it. Thus, for instance, a State is intrinsically
superior to a commercial society, because the former aims at
procuring all vthat conduces to the temporal happiness of a
people, whilst the latter has for its scope the good only that
proceeds from an increase of opulence. The State is also
extrinsically superior, because it has for its end the good of
all the individuals in it, whilst the commercial society is
limited to some. Since, therefore, the State is superior, and
the commercial society inferior, it follows,, that if they exist-
together, or if the same individuals are subjects of both
societies, the inferior must be subordinated to the superior
society, in all that is necessary for the carrying out of its end.
Now let us apply this principle to the Church in its
relation to the civil power. Of all the societies that exist, or
have ever existed amongst men, there is none whose end is
so excellent and necessary, or whose operation extends to
so many individuals, as that of the Roman Catholic Church.
The end for which Jesus Christ instituted it — the glory of
God in the salvation of men — is supreme, supernatural, and
absolutely necessary, it is superior to the ends of all other
societies, as the spiritual, is superior to the material, as the
infinite surpasses the finite, as eternal is superior to temporal
happiness. Hence as the various ends to which a man tends
must be subordinated according to this relative necessity, so
the various societies to which he may belong must, as we
have seen, be likewise subordinated, so that the first and
most independent, because the most necessary, must be that
which tends to the eternal welfare of man. Therefore because
of the intrinsic superiority of its end, the Church should be
independent of all other societies, and the latter should be
subordinated to it in everything that affects the accomplish-
ment of the end for which it was instituted. Its operation
also extends to a greater number of individuals, for it was
instituted for the benefit of the whole human race. Hence the
Roman Catholic Church, as a society, is in every sense superior

606 The Temporal Power.

to allother societies existingin the world,and musttherefore be
independent of them, otherwise we should have the strange
incongruity of a superior society existing in a state of sub-
jection to an inferior. That independence of the Church
must be real, not apparent,' which implies that it must be
possessed of a temporal sovereignty.

The force of this argument will appear still clearer, if we
consider that the Pope must be either an independent king,
or an Italian, a Frenchman, an Austrian, etc. That very title
of nationality takes from him his character of universal
Pontiff. His position as common father of all the Catholics
throughout the world, claims for him that he should be free
from all restraint, and independent of all local influences. A
Pope subject to Napoleon, would not have been respected by
any of the powers that opposed him, nor would a pontiff
subject to the house of Austria be obeyed either on the
banks of the Vistula or of the Seine.

Suppose for a moment the Pope were a Frenchman, and
subject to that government, his decrees or commands would
no longer have the same force. In other nations, especially
if not acceptable, they would be interpreted as the result of
French diplomacy, exercised with a view to giving offence.
The Pope would be represented as the instrument of the
French government, and his instructions would be received
with diffidence, especially by the enemies of the king, who
claimed the Pope for his subject. Malignant persons would
find injurious interpretations for every act of the Supreme
Pontiff, to represent him as the dupe of the civil power ; and
all this would tend to lessen his authority, to open the field
for rebellion amongst his subjects, and to foment discord
between nation and nation. There is no prejudice so strong
as that which springs from nationality, and in our hypothesis
the strongest national prejudices would be brought to play
against every Papal act.

In case of war, if the French government saw, as no
doubt it would, that the immense moral influence of the Pope
could be politically useful to them, they would leave no
stone unturned to obtain it, or at least to prevent any other
power profiting by it. The Pope would be completely at

The Temporal Power. 507

their mercy, and they would not fail to make him feel it. Is
it not, therefore, in the interests of every Christian nation to
place him in a position of independence ? Is not such a
position necessary for him for the full and free exercise of
that mission that he has received from God ?

The temporal dominion is also necessary from a political
point of view. One of the most appropriate and important
duties that have, from time to time, devolved on the Supreme
Pontiff is that of acting as arbitrator between hostile nations.
If he were in a state of subjection to any of the powers that
would be impossible. A pope subject to Charles V. would
not have been accepted as arbitrator by Francis I, nor would
a Spanish subject have been selected by Bismarck to arbitrate
in the question of the Caroline Islands. To treat such
questions it is necessary that the various governments be
represented diplomatically at the Vatican. How could this
be possible if the Pope had no power to protect the ambas-
sadors to the Holy See? If the nation were at war, the
ambassadors should retire, and that is the time, of all others,
when they are most needed.

What is more necessary in Europe at present than some
sovereign power to arbitrate, when necessary, between
hostile nations? Never were such vast preparations and
armaments made by all the nations of Europe. Never were
governments watching each others' movements with such
jealous anxiety as at present. A breach between two nations
would cause a terrible European war, and a trifle might
cause that. This state of things is increased by the fact that
there is no power to appeal to for arbitration, as all the civil
powers are compromised on one side or the other. Oftentimes
a trifling interference can establish peace in a manner satis-
factory for all parties, when war would otherwise have
unquestionably resulted. Is it not in the interest of all
Christian princes to have some security against being dragged
into a fearful and unnecessary war? If so, what greater
security could they have than an independent Pope, in
unrestrained possession of that legitimate throne which Provi-
dence has given him, and of which he held undisputed pos-
session for over a thousand years ? His religious and sacred

508 The Temporal Power:

character, his immense moral power, and the age and noble
qualities required to befit him for the Pontificate, are suffic-
ient guarantees of justice and equity. An ; independent
Pontiff alone could afford such security to society. His
decision could and should be accepted by all, because unin-
terested except in the cause of justice. The fact that he
has children in all the nations of the world, ensures impar-
tiality and paternal solicitude for all. The dignity of his
sacred character, and the high interests of the Church of
which he is head, makes it an imperative necessity on him
that his decision should not be other than what the whole
world could declare most just. On the other hand, the
decision of self-interested secular politicians, might well be
feared.

I have no doubt people are not wanting who would say,
"this is only a Papist's version." No assertion could be
further from the truth. Amongst the many who cannot be
suspected of partiality for Papists or the Papacy, perhaps
one of the most remarkable who has spoken in favour of this
idea is Voltaire. In }\\& Essay on General History, chapter lx.,
he says : " The interests of the human race require a check
to restrain sovereigns, which would protect the lives of
the people ; this check, by a universal convention, might be
in the hands of the Popes. The Pontiffs, not interfering in
temporal questions except as peace-makers, to teach kings
and peoples their duties, would be considered as the images
of God on earth." We have seen that even from a political
point of view the temporal power is necessary for the Pope
to fit him for those high duties that society requires of him.
This alone would procure for all human societies that order
and unity which is the principal source of perfection. As in
every perfect piece of machinery there are many component
parts that are united with, and depend on, some first moving
principle, like the main-spring in a watch, so it should be
with the various societies that form the component parts of
the great moral machinery of mankind. They should be
united in some one authority, from which they all derive
their unity and order. That one authority cannot be
centred in a person whose jurisdiction is limited by place.

The Temporal Power. 509

It must be one who has interests to defend, and whose
authority is acknowledged, in every country of the world.
The Pope alone has such a universal jurisdiction. Hence the
only true remedy against tyranny, and all other social dis-
orders, is to be found in placing the Supreme Pontiff in that
position which his office naturally claims. This alone can
give human society that high perfection of unity that will
make it to resemble the Divinity itself, in which, because of
its infinite perfection, there must be absolute unity both of
substance and attributes.

Another proof of the necessity of the temporal dominion
may be found in a comparison between the Roman Catholic
and schismatical churches. In fact, while the former
has always existed full of youthful vigour, and faithful to
the orthodox usages of the earliest times, schismatical
denominations have invariably been reduced to a state of
utter servility the moment they separated from the one true
Church. The cause of the former may be traced to the civil
independence of the Popes ; and of the latter, to subjection
to the State. The Patriarchs of Constantinople were all but
independent of the civil power of the emperors as long as
they were in union with the Church, and they were respected
there as the Popes were respected in Rome. Their influence
and power rose to such pre-eminence, that they became for
the East what the Popes were for the West. But when
they allowed their pride to get the upper hand, broke off
their allegiance to the Holy See, and used the power of the
emperors to establish their would-be independence, they
became at once degraded court creatures, wholly dependant
on the civil power, and lost all the glory and prestige they
had acquired. What was it that reduced them to be mere
instruments of the imperial power the moment they separated
from Rome ? It was because their civil independence had
come from the Pope, in whose power they participated
indirectly ; and, when they separated from him, they
remained completely in the hands of the emperors. The
same has been the fate of the Russian schismatical church,
and of the German Protestants. Perhaps a more striking
example is to be found nearer home in the English church,

510 The Temporal Power.

which, in spite of all that has been done by a people, who
retain more religious principles than any of their schismatical
confreres to maintain for it a certain independence, has been
gradually sinking to the level of a mere national formality,
maintained by the government.

If the Catholic Church were thus subjected to the State,
it would suffer serious detriment, not indeed in its essence,
which is unchangeable, nor in its existence, for it must last
to the end of time ; but, as a human society, it can be perse-
cuted, buffeted and restricted in many ways, that would
impede its necessary apostolate, and limit the spiritual power
of its Supreme Head.

Even when the Roman Pontiffs were temporal kings,
they met with very great opposition, on the part of
sovereigns, in the exercise of their spiritual power. What
would it be if the Pope were subject to one of those hostile
temporal kings ? How often they have opposed the convoc-
ation of General Councils, and tried to tamper with their
acts when assembled, even when the Popes were independent?
If they were dependant, the obstacles and opposition they
could oppose would be multiplied, and they could seriously
impede the execution of decrees that might be adverse to
their passions or private interests. When Pius IX. defined
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, though it was
received with joy and exultation throughout the whole
Catholic world, Spain, a nation eminently Catholic, and ruled
by a Catholic sovereign, opposed and deferred the promulg-
ation of the Bull Ine/abilis Deus. This occurred although
the Spanish law prescribes the free promulgation of all
dogmatic Bulls throughout the kingdom. It is true that
neither the queen nor the Catholic people were responsible
for that act. It was to be attributed only to the political
faction that held the reins of government. Nevertheless,
when such opposition is possible, even in an eminently
Catholic country, we can easily understand how possible it
would be to see the Pope himself impeded, in this primary
of all his sacred duties, if he were obliged to live subject to
a temporal prince. If the latter were hostile to the definition
of some dogma which the Pope considered it necessary in

The Temporal Power. 511

the interests of religion to define, it is not likely he would be
allowed to do so without molestation. Is it not contrary to
reason that the chief of the Christian religion should be left
at the mercy of men, to interfere and impede him, as their
passions or self-interest dictate, in the exercise of his
spiritual ministry ?

Again, the management of the whole Catholic hierarchy
is in the hands of the Pope. He has to appoint bishops all
over the world, to communicate with them, and since the
religious administration often affects civil matters very
materially, he must keep up relations with Governments
to treat about whatever concerns the interests of religion.
If he were subject to some king, his action in this
respect could be very seriously if not altogether
impeded. He could only treat with the friends of the
sovereign under whose protection he lived. In time of war
all communication with the enemies of that prince would be
impossible, and any attempted communication would be
tampered with. Even in time of peace, what would prevent
the civil authorities from finding some pretext to seize on
documents, or persons either, to vex the Supreme Pontiff or
those with whom he communicated? Past experience shows
that such things were possible when the popes were inde-
pendent.

Moreover, the Supreme Pontiff has to guard the doctrines
of the Church against error and ceremonies against innova-
tions. Consequently he has to condemn doctrines contrary
to religion or morality, to decide theological questions, to
approve and watch over religious communities, and to regul-
ate their relations with the secular clergy, to approve
public prayers and devotions, receive appeals and com-
plaints, and to send missionaries to teach and baptise all
nations.

Since all these duties are not confined to any one
country, but extend over the whole world, it is clear the
amount of work entailed is immense. This gives rise to the
necessity of having under the immediate control of the
Pope several Congregations of very learned and prudent
ecclesiastics, whose business it is to investigate the various

512 The Temporal Power.

questions, and refer the result of their investigation to the
Pope. Hence, under the Supreme Congregation of the Holy
Office, presided over by the Pope himself, there are several
others, such as that of the Council for the interpretation of
the Decrees of the Council of Trent, of the Bishops and
Regulars, the Propaganda Fide, the Index, Rites, Ceremon-
ies, Indulgences, and Holy Relics, etc., each having a
special class of subjects to deal with. All these have to be
maintained and directed by the Pope, who nominates the
cardinal-prefects and the various officials, and appoints a
council of cardinals for each. If he were not an indepen-
dent king, how could the work of all these congregations be
carried on without danger, and even certainty of their being
often harassed and molested by the Government. Past
experience gives us no reason to hope for anything else. It
is but a few years since the Italian Government, in defiance
of the existing law and without a shadow of legal right,
seized on the property of the Propaganda that had been
contributed by the generosity of the faithful throughout the
world for the propagation of the faith ; and this is but one
of the many sacrilegious acts, by which they have tried
to improve their bankrupt finances. Was not that an
injury to Christianity and an insult to those millions of
men who acknowledge the Pope for their spiritual head?
Nevertheless it was done by the representatives of a nation
which has for the first article of its statute " that the
Catholic religion be the religion of the State." What they
did yesterday they could continue to-day with all the Con-
gregations in Rome. There is no power to prevent them
If they do not so, it is not through any particular love
for religion, the Pope, or the Congregations. We have
said sufficient on this point to show clearly that if the Pope
is to exercise his spiritual authority without restriction or
hindrance, he must necessarily be an independent king.

During the various ages the Church has existed she has
been continually struggling to resist the interference of
secular princes in ecclesiastical matters. They have tried to
obtain the power to nominate bishops and other dignitaries,
and, not succeeding in that, they have endeavoured to

The Temporal Power. 513

obtain as much influence as possible in regulating such
nominations, They have endeavoured to make the bishops
more subject to the State than to the Pope ; they have
laboured to influence the nomination of cardinals, with a
view to secure the election of future popes; they have
seized the goods of the Church, sold benefices, and in num-
berless other ways have endeavoured to make the Church
subject to their authority. If the Pope, instead of being in
a position to resist them as he was then, were obliged to
live in a state of subjection to one of those temporal princes,
what could he expect ? Certainly nothing better than what
has been the fate of those schismatical churches that have
become totally dependent on the State.

When a Pope dies the College of Cardinals assemble to
elect his successor. This election would be of the greatest
importance for the rulers of the nation, in which the Pope
resided. They would naturally be most anxious to have a
weak, submissive prelate elected, from whom they could fear
no opposition. Is it possible they would not make use of
every stratagem to obtain this ? They would have the
cardinals completely at their mercy, and undoubtedly would
leave no stone unturned to obtain the election of a State
favourite. This would give rise to doubts in the Church
whether or not the Pope had been canonically elected.
Consequently it would open the way for schism and rebellion
against his authority. The effect, therefore, of destroying
the Pope's temporal power would be to paralyse his spiritual
authority. In fact, that is the principal object the Free-
masons, whose evil influences permeate almost every class of
society in Italy, have in view in depriving the Supreme
Pastor of his temporal power. <' Let us bind him hand and
foot, and then let him do what he can." That is their prin-
ciple, for they know well that when deprived of his temporal
independence, he is a less formidable opponent. The Church
has a double power over its subjects, external and internal.
For the exercise of the former external independence is
necessary. That civil independence is precisely what the
Freemasons are sworn to destroy, for they well know that it
is the great bulwark of morality, and that if they demolish
VOL. X. 2 K

514 The Temporal Power.

it, they have fettered the most determined enemy of their
illegal action. That illegal action is directed against all
kingly power and social order, and hence those who profess
to be supporters of one or other of these should be first the
supporters of the Pope's temporal power.

It would be a tedious labour to read through the volumes
of solemn protests that have been made by the bishops all
over the world against the occupation of Rome. Those
bishops represent the Catholics in their various dioceses, and
their unanimous protest shows that the Church, all over the
world, has felt severely the injury done to its venerable
chief, and that the universal persuasion is that the temporal
power is necessary for the Pope. What better proof can
there be of its actual necessity ? The opinion of one or two
prudent persons is valuable. What must we think of the
unanimous opinion of those men who for their sanctity,
learning, and prudence have been selected to rule over the
various dioceses throughout the world ? Their united voice
represents the voice of the Church, and when united with
the Supreme Pastor, their voice is infallible in moral ques-
tions. The present question is one that, though not
included, borders on the domain of morality. At all events,
it is a question of vital interest to the Church, and
no good Catholic will believe that the whole Church,
united with the Vicar of Christ, can have a mistaken
persuasion regarding the necessity of the temporal
power.

This is not all. One hundred and sixty-seven Pontiffs,
from Leo ILL to Leo XIII., have always laboured to
preserve intact that dominion that Providence had given
them, and to hand it down to their successors as a necessary
patrimony for the Church. Whenever, during that long
term, incursions were made on the Papal States, a universal
protest showed that the Catholic world regarded the
temporal power as necessary.

This fact alone that the whole Catholic world is, and
always has been persuaded that the temporal power is
relatively necessary for the Church, is in itself sufficient to
satisfy an impartial mind. What persons are more fitted to

The Temporal Power. 515

know that which is necessary for a society, than the rulers and
members of that same society? The voice of the Catholic
world has ever been unanimous in declaring.that the Pope must
be a sovereign ; that he whose dignity isgenerically superior
to the dignity of any secular prince, cannot in any way be
subject to other men. The riches of all the banks in England
would not compensate a king for his crown, which represents
the highest dignity, the greatest honour and independence,
that a man can have. Neither would they compensate the
Pope for the loss of his temporal dominion, nor could he
accept such a compensation. He is superior in dignity to all
secular princes and hence cannot be subject to any of them.
If such were the case he would be the subject of his
inferior. Let us suppose for a moment that it were so.
The prince to whose authority the Pope would be subject
would be either a Catholic or not. In the latter case the
impropriety is evident. Suppose he were a Catholic : then
he would be subject to the spiritual authority of the Pope
which oftentimes affects indirectly temporal matters, and
bound to obey him. On the other hand as temporal king he
would be superior to the Pope and could not be subject to
him. Thus both the Pope and king would be at the same
time subject and superior of the same person which is clearly
absurd and would lead to continual discord.

Nor can it be said, that if the Church existed eight
centuries without the temporal power, there was no reason
why it should begin after such a long period to hold the
civil government. It does not follow that because the
Church did not actually possess a kingdom in the first
centuries, that such was not necessary for it. That would
be true if we were speaking of absolute but not of relative
necessity. History represents things as they were, not as
they could or should have been. The Church was not
instituted by Christ to be persecuted. Nevertheless the
three first centuries of its existence was a long period of
inhuman persecution. Those persecutions though turned to
its advantage by an all-wise Providence, were essentially
evil, and materially noxious to the Church, and hence while
they lasted, she existed in an abnormal state. It cannot be

516 The Temporal Power.

inferred, that because God allowed that to go on for three
centuries, it must therefore continue to the end of time.
Neither can it be inferred that because she continued eight
centuries without a temporal sovereignty, that should go on
for ever. Besides as we have already shown the temporal
sovereignty began, at least essentially from the cessation of
persecution, and went on steadily though almost impercept-
ibly increasing with the consent both of princes and people
till it became perfect in the eighth century. The Church from
the beginning has held either the palm or the sceptre. The
palm when in an abnormal state, fighting against injustice.
The sceptre when in peaceful possession of her own, per-
forming the work that was appointed for her. Not only does
the one show nothing that excludes the necessity of the
other, but the former proves that when the Church does not
hold the sceptre she must exist in a state that is unnatural
for her, a state of persecution.

It is clear from what we have said that the Pope could
not cede his tight to the temporal dominion. The latter
belongs not to him, but to Christ and the Church. The Pope
is but the administrator pro tempore. That kingdom there-
fore has a sacred character, for it belongs to One from whom
no human power can take it. In this the dominion of the
Pope differs from that of every other sovereign. The latter
hold their kingdoms in their own name or that of inferiors,
and for the good only of those who are under their dominion.
The Pope holds it for Christ, his superior, and for the neces-
sary independence of the whole Church. Hence, though the
condition of the society or state over which he rules may, in
peculiar circumstances, make it imperative on another king to
renounce his right to the crown, for the good of society, this
can never happen to the Pope, for he has not power to cede
what he holds not for himself, nor for an inferior, but for
Christ, and not for the good only of the individuals in hi?
temporal state, but for the necessary independence of the
whole Church. He cannot cede anything that is necessary
for the exercise of his spiritual power, and we have seen that
the temporal dominion is necessary for that.

The Church has defended her rights in this respect in the

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 517

past, against terrible opposition, and came out victorious.
There is no reason to believe that in her present conflict with
injustice she shall not be equally so. She may be bound
down and restricted for a time, but only to show some day
than an unseen hand protects her, and that the dark clouds
of conflict are ever destined to give place to a bright and
glorious sunshine.

M. HOWLETT.

DIOCESE OF DUBLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

VI.

THE OLD CHAPELS OP DUBLIN.— (CONTINUED).

SS. MICHAEL AND JOHN — A local writer in 1623, tells UP,
" that the Council of Ireland, having intelligence how many
Jesuits, fryers and Popish priests had come from beyond the
seas and from England into this kingdom, private search was
made, and a schedule came into the Council of these whose
names ensue, who were then succoured in Dublin : — William
Malone, a Jesuit ; James Comfore, a fryer ; Bartholomew
Hamlin, a priest ; James Hamilton, a Scotch fryer ; one (Luke)
Rochford, a priest ; Thomas Coyle, alias Cooley, a priest ;
one Hamlin, brother to the aforesaid Hamlin, a fryer ; Patrick
Brangan, a priest ; one O'Donogh, a priest ; Laurence
Cheevers, fryer; John Netterville, a Jesuit ; Francis Fade, a
Jesuit ; one James Talbot, then vicar-general. At this time
the rumour was how these and others met in great numbers at
Alderman Fyan's house and at Sir James Carroll's, Alderman
[in Cook-street], and at Alexander Ussher's, where they were
quarrelling several times about the disposing of titular
bishoprics and other benefices ; upon this discovery, proclam-
ation, upon Saturday, being the 24th of January, 1623,
issued out, and was proclaimed at Dublin, for the banishing
of Jesuits, fryers and Popish priests out of Ireland within
forty days after the date thereof."1

1 See Gilbert's City of Dublin, vol. i., p. 298. For the Proclamation,
consult Carew Papers, 1603-1624, p. 432, where it bears the date of
January 21st, 1623.

518 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

This was at least the third edict of the kind issued since
James I. came to the throne, and proved no more successful
than any of its predecessors in ridding the country of the
obnoxious Popish priest. This extract, however, is other-
wise valuable, furnishing as it does, the best available and
most complete list of the clergy of the period, many of
whom we can fortunately locate. Thomas Coyle here men-
tioned, can be no other than the Thomas Coyle referred to
in the letter of Father Browne, Parish Priest of St. Michan's
in 1631, as " formerly Rector of St. Michael's."1

It will be remembered from the last paper that with
Christopher Moore and Edward Ellis, Rectors of St. Michael's
and St. John's respectively, in 1560, the record of Catholic
worship in these two parochial churches was brought to a
close ; but we are not to infer that all care of Catholic souls
in these and the adjacent parishes terminated as well. On
the contrary, Adam Loftus, Queen Elizabeth's primate, bit-
terly complains in 1565, just five years after the passing of
the Act of Uniformity, that the chief gentlemen and nobility
had admitted on oath that " the most part of them had con-
tinually, since the last parliament, frequented Mass and other
service and ceremonies inhibited by your majesty's laws and
injunctions, and that very few of them ever received Holy
Communion, or used such kind of public prayer and service
as is presently established by law." If this could be said of
the nobility and gentry, we need have no difficulty in
answering for the multitude. The year previous, the Com-
missioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, Sir James Worth and
Sir Nicholas Arnold, stated that they " were devising how the
prebenders [canons of St. Patrick's and Christ Church] that
ivill not be conformable, may be by law compelled"* So that up
to this date, at all events, 1564, few even of the well-ben eficed
prebendaries had conformed. The commissioners were not
slow to " devise " some strong coercive measure that might
be counted on to procure the much-desired conformity more
speedily ; and thenceforward the faithful clergy of Dublin,

1 See Appendix F, to, Irish Franciscan Monasteries, by Rev. C. P.
Meehan.

2 See Shirley's Original Letters,

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 519

driven from their prebends and benefices, and acting under
the directions of David Wolfe, S. J., Commissary Apostolic,
or his deputy, Father Thaddaeus Newman, had to seek in
secluded lanes and alleys, in back-rooms and stables, the
necessary shelter and accommodation for their religious
exercises, and there imbibe that practical zeal and spirit of
self-denial which was the backbone of the stubborn and suc-
cessful resistance which they and their flocks were enabled
to offer to their persecutors. It is on record, and the
quotations I have just made still further attest it, that the
immense majority of the Dublin clergy remained faithful to
their charge, and that according as death, or exile, or im-
prisonment thinned their ranks, volunteers were found ready
to come forward, and at great risk and great expense, to
betake themselves to the seminaries on the Continent, and
thence, after the necessary preparatory studies and reception
of Holy Orders, come back to do battle with the foes of the
national faith.3

3 It may be interesting to give the following document, copied from
the original in the Vatican archives, as a specimen of the exceptional
privileges which it was found necessary to give to Irish ecclesiastics at this
period. It also furnishes additional testimony that at this date, 1577, there
was no Catholic bishop in Dublin : —

" Dilecto filio Leonardo Fitzimons clerico Dublinensi Bacchalaureo in

Theologia.
" GREGORIUS, PAPA XIII.

" Dilecte fili salutem, etc. Nobilitas generis, litterarum scientia, vitae
ac morum honestas aliaque laudabilia probitatis et virtutum merita supor
quibus apud nos fide digno commendaris testimonio, nos inducunt ut te
specialibus favoribus et gratiis prosequamur. Hinc est quod nos, te qui
Magister in artibus, et ut asseris, ex nobilibus atque honestissimis utpote
equestri ordine illustribus parentibus natus existis et devotionis fervore
accensus ad omnes minores etiam sacros et presbyteratus ordines promo-
veri absque dimissorialibus litteris tui Episcopi, qui Catholicus non existit,
et sine titulo beneficii aut patrimonii desideras premissorum meritorum
tuorum intuitu speciali favore prosequi volentes et a quibusvis excommuni-
cationis, etc., censentes tuis hac in parte supplicationibus inclinati tibi ut
absque litteris dimissorialibus et titulo beneficii seu patrimonii hujusmodi,
attentis premissis a Venerabili fratre Archiepiscopo Cameracensi extra
Romanain Curiam, te ad omnes minores necnon sacros etiam presbyteratus
ordines temporibus a jure statutis promoveri facere et promotus in illis,
etiam in altaris ministerio ministrare, libere et licite valeas licentiam et
facultatem apostolica auctoritate tenore presentium concedimus. Non
obstantibus constitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis ceterisque con-
trariis quibuscumque. Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petruni die L'3 Junii,
1577. anno, 6. " C. GLORIERUS.

*' Ut Signature registrata

"Lib. 2, secretorum, fol. 131."

520 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

But, as already stated, it does not appear that any regular
parochial organisation could be attempted before the advent
of Archbishop Matthews, and subsequent to the Synod of
Kilkenny, presided over by him in 1614, where laws were
framed for the re-erection and delimitation of parishes.1
Utilising, therefore, the Council list of 1623, we can safely
register, as first parish priest of the newly-defined Parish of
St. Michael, comprising the several adjacent parishes
enumerated in the last paper, Father Thomas Coyle.

All that has been transmitted to us concerning him is the
mention of his name in the two documents already quoted
of 1623 and of 1631. Of the exact locality of his parish
chapel we know even less. When proclamations of banish-
ment could be issued out so plentifully and enforced so
rigidly, as we know to have been the case at this period,
the Catholic chapel must have been of a rather nomadic
character, wandering from back room to back room, accord-
ing as a sense of security or the reverse dictated. Of the
others mentioned in the Council list, Bartholomew Hamlin
might have been one of his curates, as his name appears in
the Book of Claims (1700) as witness to a will bequeathing
three houses in Cook-street and St. Michael' s-lane, and bearing
date the 24th of July, 1626. Cormac Higgins, not given
in this list, was another curate and professor in " Collegio
St. Audoeni." Patrick Brangan we meet later on. Luke
Rochford was Parish Priest of St. Audeon's and Arch-
deacon of Dublin; while O'Donogh was Parish Priest of
St. Catherine's and St. James's. The Vicar-General, James
Talbot, is mentioned so far back as 1616, as proceeding to
Rome to solicit certain privileges for the new college
founded for Irish ecclesiastics at Seville. But 1 am unable
to allocate him as pastor to any of the city parishes.
Possibly he was not encumbered with any parochial benefice,
to be all the freer to attend to the important office of Vicar-
General, which he discharged not only for Dublin but for
Kildare also. It was a sufficiently onerous position, especially

1 Father Cogan, in his Diocese ofMeath, mentions indeed the accidental
discovery of the grave of Rev. Robert Forde, who died in 1609, and who
is described on the gravestone as " parish priest,"

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 521

at this time when the archbishop was absent in Rome, and
not unattended with danger as the martyrdom of his three
immediate predecessors amply testify.1

About the year 1615, the Franciscans stole back to
Dublin, and established themselves in a house situated in
that small portion of Cook -street which was included in
St. Michael's Parish; where after sundry vicissitudes, lasting
now through nigh three centuries, they are still to be found,
helping in the great work of the salvation of souls. Here
the great Father Mooney planted them amidst a deluge of
persecution. Here in those dark days Fathers Flan Gray
and Thomas Strong lectured in Philosophy and Theology.
Here Michael Clery, the chief of the Four Masters passed
some time in transcribing "every old material which he
found concerning the Saints of Erin, observing obedience to
each Provincial that was in Erin successively." Here too,
during his long Episcopate of over thirty years, (except the
six or seven closing years) lived as an humble Franciscan^
Dr. Fleming, Archbishop of Dublin, and brother of the
Baron of Slane.

Dr. Fleming arrived, as Archbishop, in Dublin, about the
spring of 1625, succeeding Dr. Matthews, who had died in
Rome on September 1st, 1623, and who was buried in San
Pietro in Montorio, alongside his kinsman the great Earl of
Tyrone. Father Coyle must have died before Dr. Fleming's
arrival, for, in a letter written to Luke Wadding in 1629, and
referring to Coyle's successor, the Archbishop seemingly
complains of his having been "placed by my Vicar-General in
the best parish of Dublin called St. Michael's."

1 After Thaddaeus Newman, appointed Vicar-General by the Commis-
sary Apostolic, David Wolfe, S.J., in 1563, we meet with a collation of
similar faculties from Rome to Dr. Edmund Tanner, Bishop of Cork and
Cloyne, for the diocese of Dublin, in 1575. Just thirteen years later Cardinal
Moran fixes the appointment of Donald M'Conghaill as Archbishop, an
appointment, however, which had no practical result, as he died in 1589,
before he could take possession. Towards the end of the century John
Walsh is mentioned as Vicar-General. "Joannes Valesius Presbyter et
Vicarius-Generalis in diocesi Dublinensi in Angliam casu appulsus, examinatus
in fide et ob constantiam conjectus in carcerem in urbe Cestriensi, orthodoxae
confessionis agonem in vinculis adimplevit, anno circiter 1600." (Roth's
Analecta, p. 388.)

Apropos of this Pr. Walsh we have another interesting document

522 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

This successor was the Rev. Patrick Cahill, a native of
the diocese of Meath, and destined to be a thorn in the
side of Archbishop Fleming. He was inducted into the
parish by Father Rochford, Parish Priest, St. Audeon's, who
pronounced a discourse on the occasion. In the beginning
the appointment gave every satisfaction. He was a man of

also from the Vatican Archives, and for a copy of which I am indebted to
the kindness of Father Costello, O.P., St. Clement's, Rome. It goes to
prove the unbroken succession of the Catholic Deans in St. Patrick's
Chapter. Dr. Leverous, as we know, was deprived of the deanery by
Elizabeth for non-conformity, but he could not be deprived irithis summary
fashion of his right and title to it, which he held from ecclesiastical
authority and retained till his death in 1577. The Vatican document that
I now give is a surrender into the Pope's hands of the Deanery of
St. Patrick's, made in 1598, by Dr. Nicholas Fagan, the then Dean, and in
favour of our Vicar-General, Dr. John Walsh. Dr. Fagan was a native of
Dublin diocese, but spent most of his time in Spain, in connection with
some of the various Irish colleges established in these countries. We
may assume that he was dean next in succession to Leverous, as the date of
his resignation is but little more than twenty years after the death of
Dr. Leverous. At the time of his resignation he was in Rome, where he
had just been appointed Bishop of Waterford, a see, however, of which he
does not appear to have taken possession. In this curious document he
proceeds as if he had been in undisturbed possession of the temporalities
of the Deanery, and stipulating for a pension, carefully exhausts all the
forms of the Curia to protect and safeguard his rights.

" E libra Consensuum, A.D. 1598, f. 273. Die secunda mensis Aprilis
MDLXXXXVIII. R. D. Nicolaus Faganus, in Sacra Theologia Magister, praesens,
sponte omnibus, etc., resignalioni decanatus Ecc. Dubliniensis. qui inibi dignitas
post Pontificalem major existit, cuique cura imminet animarum, quern obtinet, in
FSmi D. N. Papae (manihus) et favorem Dni Joannis Walshe, Presbyter,
Dabl. dioc. cui de illo provideri conceditur, qui D. Joannes reservation^ etc.,
pensionis annuae ab omni decima, quarto, media, et quavis alia fructuum parte,
necnon subsidio etiam cJiaritativo, etc., etc., liberae immmis et exemptae,
ducentarum marcharum sterlingarum argenti, [about £133] super dicti
Decanatus fructibus, juribuft, etc., universis, quorum ttrtiam partem pensio ipsa
non exce:Ht eodem D. Nicolao quoad vixerit, vel procuratori suo legitimo, per
dictum D. Joannem et successores suos dictum decanatum pro tempore quo-
modolibet obthientes annis sincjulis in loco ubi dictum D. Nicolaum pro tempore
morari contigerit, pro una, in B. J. Rap. et altera medietatibus pensionis annuae
hujusmodi in D. N. «/. C. nativ. festivitatibus sub sententiis, censuris, et poenis
in similibus apponi solitis et consuetis, integre persolvendae, necnon concessione et
indulto quod dicto D. Joanne seu aliquo ex successor ibus pracdictis in solutions
dictae pensionis annuae modo et forma praemissis facienda in toto vel parte
cessante vel deftciente, aut illam ad minorem summam reducere annuUari vel
invalidari petente velprocurante, aut pensionem ipsam ex quavis causa nullam et
invalidam seu male aut nulliter assignatam esse dicente, vel alligante, liceat eidem
D. Nicolao ad dictum Decanatum liberos Tiabere regressum, accessum, et
ingressum, illiusque corporalem possessionem per se vel alium, seu alios ejus
nomine, propria auctoritate libere appreliendere et quoad vixerit tarn sui prioris
tituli quam litterarum sub praesentibus conjiciendarum v'gore absque alia desuper

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century. 523

no ordinary intelligence, and had much zeal. The accession
of Charles the First almost synchronized with his appoint-
ment, and at the same time raised the hopes of the despairing
and persecuted Catholics of Dublin. They plucked up courage
to emerge gradually from their back rooms and hiding places,
and to erect public chapels, in back lanes no doubt, but stiU

de novo facienda provisione et per omnia perinde~ac si resignationem hujusmodi
non fecisset, et alias juxta formam supplicationis desuper signati, sub datum
Romae' apud S. Petrum, 7 Kal. Apr. an. 7° Registrata lib. 2do. f. 215,
litterarum expeditioni consenserunt, jurarunt super quibus etc. . . . Act-urn
Romae in officio meo et praesentibus, etc., etc., testilms. Missae 28 Martii B.
pro-Dat."

Except for the purpose of preserving undoubted rights if they ever
should revive, this ultra-legal document sounds like so much stage thunder.
At all events neither party lived long to derive any benefit from it.
Dr. Fagan seems to have died almost immediately, probably in Rome ; and
Dean Walsh as we have seen ended his life in Chester gaol about 1600.

The list of Deans of St. Patrick's from the establishment of the
deanery in 1219 down to Queen Mary, may be found in Mason's History of
the Cathedral, or in Cotton's Fasti, though in both lists there are some
omissions; but it may be interesting here to give the Catholic succession
from Mary's time down to our own day.

Catholic Deans of St. Patrick's since Queen Mary : —

1555 — Dr. Leverous, Bishop of Kildare, died 1577.

1577-1598— Dr. Nicholas Fagan, resigned 1598.

1598— Dr. John Walsh, died 1600.

1600— 1601— Dr. Bernard Moriarty (See Brady's Episc. Succession,
vol. iii.)

1601-162— Dr. William Barry (See Dr. Moran's Archbishops, p. 287).

163— Dr. Edward Tyrrell, died 1668.

1668 — The name of John Spensfeld occurs in a Propaganda Document
as Dean of Dublin early in 1669, but as he was an agent of
Taaffe, and probably named Dean by him, he cannot be
included in the list. Who was the immediate successor of
Tyrrell I have not yet been able to ascertain. In all pro-
bability it was Dr. Patrick Russell, subsequently Archbishop.

1687— Rev. James Russell, P.P., St. Michael's, died 1727.

1727— Rev. Denis Byrne, C.C., St. Michan's.

1745— Rev. Dr. P. Fitzsimons (Archbishop 1763).

1763— Rev. James Dowdall, P.P., St. Michan's.

1774— Rev. Dr. Sherlock, P.P., St. Catherine's.

1807— Rev. Dr. Hugh Hamill, P.P., St. Nicholas.

1823^-Revi Dr. A. Lube, P.P., St. James'.

1832— Rev. Dr. M, Blake, P.P.. St. Andrew's.

1833— Rev. Dr. Coleman, P.P.,' St. Michan's.

1838— Rev. Dr. Meyler, P.P., St. Andrew's.

1864— Rev. Dr. O'Connell, P.P., Irishtown.

1878— Rev. Dr. Meagher, P.P., Rathmines.

1882— Right Rev. Monsignor W. Lee, P.P., Bray, Quern Deus diu
incolumem servet.

To Dr. Walsh succeeded as Vicar- General, Dr. Bernard Moriarty,

524 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

open to the roadway, and without any elaborate attempt at
concealment. We may assume, therefore, that during the
early years of Father CahuTs administration was opened the
first public chapel of St. Michael, described in Bulkeley's report
of 1530, as situated " in the back of Mr. George Taylor's house;
it is partly in St. Michael's parish and partly in St. Nicholas

appointed in 1600. He was at the Franciscan Convent in Multifarnham
when it was attacked by the soldiery, and being wounded was brought
prisoner to Dublin, where he died of his wound. Then came Richard
Lalor, who in 1606 added another name to the Martyrology of Dublin.
James Talbot we presume came next in succession. He sat in the Synod
of Kilkenny in 1614, as Vicar-General of Kildare, and in 1629 he helped
to endow the Irish College in Antwerp. The next Vicar-General we meet
is Dr. Edmund O'Reilly, appointed in 1641, who had such a troubled
career both as Vicar-General and, from 1654, as Primate of Armagh. On
the strength of a forged letter provided by the too notorious friar, Peter
Walsh, he was relieved of the Vicar- Generalship in ]647, and Laurence
Archbold. P.P., Maynooth, a follower of Walsh, appointed in his stead.
But Dr. Fleming having discovered the imposture in 1650, deposed
Archbold and reinstated O'Reilly. Dr. Dempsey was Vicar-Apostolic
from 1657 to 1667. Then ensued a period of confusion which lasted until
Peter Talbot's appointment as Archbishop in 1869. In Propaganda
papers we meet the names of Nicholas Eustace, as Vicar-Apostolic,
and Richard Butler and Richard Quin as Vicars-General during his period.
John Murphy was V.G. in 1668. Also we find a " brevis relatio," concerning
Dublin, which, though not dated, must refer to 1667 or 1668. It runs thus : —
*' In Metropolitana Dubl. def. ab altero circiter anno D. Jacobo Dempsey, qui
ibidem erat Vic. Apost. potior ac sanior (ut videturj Capituli et Cleri pars
decreverunt in Vicarium nominare D. Joan. Murphy, quern ad hoc munus
maxime idoneum judicarunt ; verum alii adhaerentes fratri Petro Valesio fde
quo supra ) guberniifavorefreti, hoc rejecto, substituunt D. Laur. Archbold,
quo schismate grave scandalum passa est Ecclesia, cui omnine occurrere expedit."
(Irlanda. vol. i., p. 405). This John Murphy is also recommended by the
Internunzio at Brussels, and described as " Decano Rurale ; " whilst in an
inventory of Swords Chapel taken in 1766, when Richard Talbot com-
menced pastor there, I found a silver chalice listed with an inscription
stating that it was presented by Rev. John Murphy in 1665. From all
this I infer that he was Parish Priest of Swords and Vic. For. for the
Deanery. The Internunzio urged the appointment of an archbishop, and
suggested as suitable John Murphy, Richard Butler (a relative of Ormond),
Nicholas Eustace, Rector of Irish College, Antwerp, or James Cusack, of
Irish College, Rome. Dr. N. French, the exiled Bishop of Ferns, re-
commended Peter Talbot (forty-seven years) ; or Nugent, Rector, Irish
College, Madrid (fifty-two years); or Edward Tyrrell (seventy years), Dean
of Dublin, Rector of Irish College, Paris, and Canon of St. Quentin; or
Dr. Richard Fottrell, Chancellor of Dublin (seventy-four years), ambo
excusandi provecti aetate; or Nicholas Eustace, of Antwerp ; or James Phelan,
aged forty-nine, and afterwards appointed to Ossory. Before anything could
be done however, James Taaffe, another unworthy Franciscan friar and
dupe of Walsh, for the purpose of sustaining the latter's "Loyal Remon-
strance," actually forged a Papal Bull appointing himself Vicar Apostoh'o

The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century 525

Within the Walls ; the recusants of that parish and of the
parishes adjoining, resort thither commonly." The boundary
line between the parishes of St. Michael's and St. Nicholas
crosses Angel-court and M'Cullagh's-lane (now closed) about
midway. These narrow passages led from High-street to
Back-lane, and the chapel was between them. In all proba-
bility it was nothing more than a large store or roomy stable
belonging to the said George Taylor, and adapted, as far as
feasible, to its new and sacred purpose. A friendly turn done
to the Bishop of Kilmore1-— Hugh O'Reilly— got Father Cahill
a term of imprisonment, and it was whilst undergoing this
penalty (1628) that the storm burst which was to cost him
his parish, and cause no little scandal to both clergy and
laity in Dublin. For a full account of this untoward event
see Dr. Moran's Archbishops of Dublin, Dr. Renehan's Collec-
tions, Gilbert's City of Dublin, and Appendix Y to Irish

of all Ireland, with power to exact tribute from, and depose bishops,
vicars, and parish priests, as he thought proper. So clever was the forgery
that amongst others he imposed upon were the Bishop of Dromore and
Dr. Plunkett, Bishop of Meath. He was finally detected and unmasked
by Primate O'Reilly, and forced to fly the kingdom. During his usurpa-
tion he made John Spensfield his agent or vicar-general for Dublin, who
early in 1669 signs himself Dean of Dublin. This worthy vicar and dean
whilst in power excommunicated Angel Goulding, Parish Priest of
St. Audeon's, George Plunkett, Luke Eustace, and Pat Begley, priests, by
a decree of June 20th, 1668 ; but the value of this act is best estimated by
the fact that Archbishop Talbot nominated Goulding his vicar-general as
appears in the preface to his refutation of the Blakloanae Haeresis
(published in the year 1775, p. 19). Goulding appears to have died in 1676
or 1677, as in the later year, we find Patrick Everard signing decrees as
Vicar-General (See Constitutioms Procinciales, 1770).

On the death of Dr. Talbot, Dr. P. Russell was elected Vicar-Capitular.
During his tenure of this office a Rev. Gerard Teeling, a young man, was
tentatively appointed by Rome as Vicar Apostolic, but not being well
received by the clergy on account of his youth and inexperience, he
prudently resigned the office, and his resignation was accepted. In 1383
Dr. Russell was consecrated archbishop. He had for vicar-general the
celebrated Dr. Michael Moor, Parish Priest of St. Catherine's (and not of
St. Nicholas, as I had previously conjectured), Provost of Trinity College
under James II., and subsequently Rector of the University of Paris.
The vicar-general under Dr. Creagh was either Dr. Dempsey or Dr. Murphy,
Parish Priest of St. Audeon's. This closes the succession for the
seventeenth century.

1 He had seals made for the Bishop of Kilmore. one of which is now in
the Royal Irish Academy.

526 The Diocese of Dublin in the Eighteenth Century.

Franciscan Monasteries, by Rev. C. P. Meehan. Here we
must be content with a passing reference. An English priest,
by name Paul Harris, was the prime mover of the disturb-
ance. He denounced the friars, and by implication the
archbishop himself, assumed to be too partial to his own
religious brethren, and unfortunately he found a too willing
and too active ally in the pastor of St. Michael's. It went
so far that Dr. Fleming was compelled to suspend both
Harris and Cahill, and to command the latter to quit Dublin
within fifteen days. Cahill appealed and went to Rome, and
the authorities there appointed a commission of four bishops to
investigate the case. The Episcopal Commission condemned
the pamphlet in which he embodied his charges against the
Franciscans, but what immediate result this condemnation
had on Father Cahill's pastoral position is not very clear.
Even though after a few years, peace was restored, Cardinal
Moran is of opinion that Father Cahill was not reinstated.
Documents of a later date represent him as claiming the
title of pastor, but they do not establish his right thereto, no
more than the supposed Bull of Innocent X., found amongst the
archives of Christ Church, prove him to have been dean of that
cathedral. On Father Cahill's removal the parish was given
to Patrick Brangan. He was a native of the diocese, and is
mentioned in the list of 1623. In Bulkeley's report of 1630
he is also recorded as pastor. But, very shortly after, by
order of the Viceroy, he was arrested and detained several
months in prison. This fact would render very probable the
surmise that the chapel " belonging to secular priests " seized
upon at the same time with the religious houses confiscated
after Bulkley's campaign in Cook-street, was none other than
St. Michael's. It was in dangerous proximity to the hand-
some chapel opened by the Jesuits in Back-lane, which
formed such a tempting plum to Bulkeley, and the author of
the Plot and Progress of the Irish Rebellion, tells us that " Sir
George RadclifFe stormed very much against the church-
warden of St. Warbre's Church in Dublin for presenting a
Mass-house that was newly erected (1638) within four or five
houses of the Castle gate, in which Masse was frequently
said." From this we may infer that the old chapel at the

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 527

back of High-street had been either closed up or seized upon
by the Government, and a new one erected some years later
in a more central position.

<% N. DONNELLY.
(To be continued.)

SHRINES OF OUR LADY IN BELGIUM.
II. — OUR LADY OF HAL.

ABOUT ten miles to the south of Brussels is the little town
of Hal, Hallce Deiparce ; of which the chief ornament is
the magnificent church dedicated to Our Lady, St. Martin,
St. Catherine the Martyr, and St. Gertrude, the Canoness
Regular. This church, which stands on the site of an older
one, was commenced in 1341 and consecrated in 1409. It is
now undergoing the process of restoration, the present dean
being anxious to undo the work of the sans-culottes and
of others who, from more pious motives, have helped to
destroy its beauty. It was never a collegiate church,1 but
was served by twelve provosts, living under a rule, who
daily sang the Divine Office and the Mass of Our Lady.
Among the provosts was the parish priest, and another
called the parson : the latter sat in the first place in choir,
and shared the right of collation to vacant prebends, includ-
ing that to which the care of souls was attached. From
1621 till the French Revolution the church was served by
Jesuits, who did much to advance the spiritual welfare of
Hal. One of them Father Claud Maillard, wrote a history of
the ancient statue of Our Blessed Lady to which the church
and the town itself, owes its fame.2

1 The parish priest of Hal, as of many other places in Belgium, bears
the title of Dean; only, however, because he is rural dean and president of
the conference.

2 To the edition of the work published in 1866 the present writer
must express his indebtedness ; as well as to kindness of the Dean, the
Rev. J. B. Karselaers, who most courteously gave him valuable inform-
ation both by letter and by word of mouth.

523 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

The name of St. Elizabeth of Hungary will ever be con-
nected, in the minds of the Catholic inhabitants of Brabant,
with the town of Hal, and the neighbouring village
of Alsemberg. Our concern is not now with the miraculous
events connected with the foundation of the church in the
latter place, nor with the history of the miraculous image it
contains ; so we will proceed to show the connection between,
the town of Hal and St. Elizabeth. When the holy Duchess
of Thuringia died in 1231 she left a son and three daughters
who, but four short years later, were to be rejoiced by the
raising of their mother to the altar. The eldest daughter,
Sophia, afterwards wife of Henry II., Duke of Brabant, re-
ceived from her mother four statues of Our Lady, the origin
of which is unknown. Some are of opinion that they were
brought from the Holy Land ; some that they were given to
St. Elizabeth by her aunt, St. Hedwige,1 whose devotion to
statues and holy relics is too well known to need more than
a passing allusion.

Be the origin what it may they were held in great
veneration by the Duchess Sophia, who gave one of
them to a Beguinage2 she founded near Vilvorde.
and the other three to her sister-in-law, Matilda, Countess
of Holland, who retained them till her death ; after
which, in accordance with her will, one was given to the
Church of Haarlem ; one to Gravesande, where it is still

1 St. Hedwige was daughter of the Duke of Meran, and wife of Henry
ot Poland. Her sister, Gertrude, married Andrew II., King of Hungary
(ob. 1233), by whom she had four children. The eldest, Bela, succeeded
his father as king, and by Mary of Constantinople he had issue Blessed
Margaret, a Dominican nun ; Coloman the second became king of Galicia,and
married Blessed Solome of Poland ; the third, Andrew, died without issue ;
the fourth was St. Elizabeth, who married Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia.
St. Elizabeth had four children, Herman, who succeeded his father, but died
without issue ; two daughters, each named Sophia, and a third daughter
named Gertrude, who entered religion. The elder, Sophia, married Henry
of Brabant by whom she is the ancestress of the Hesse family.

2 The Beguines moved into the town at a later date, and eventually
transferred their buildings, and with them the image, to a community of
Carmelite nuns. The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Consolation, now
famous throughout Belgium, is still in the Church of the Carmelites of
Vilvorde. In this little town, which lies about half way between Brussels
and Mechlin, there are two other miraculous statues, one of Our Lady of
Good Hope, the other of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 529

venerated ; and the third to Hal, the capital of the County
of Hainault, whose sovereign had married her daughter Alix.
The statue, which was placed in the Church of Hal in 1267,
is still in a perfect state of preservation, and is con-
sidered to be very beautiful. Our Lady is represented
sitting, and feeding her Divine Son at her breast; though
the embroidered robe, the work of the twelfth or thirteenth
century, prevents this from being remarked.

The capital of Hainault soon became the scene of wond-
rous miracles, and a devotion to our Lady of Hal spread
throughout Belgium. Many towns were consecrated to the
Mother of God under this invocation, and among them some
of the chief places of Belgium : as. for example, Brussels,
Ghent, Tournay, Namur, Mons and Courtrai ; and some others
now in France, as Lille and Valenciennes. For a long period,
it was the custom for the confraternities of our Lady of Hal,
established in twelve towns or villages,1 to send deputations
to the Shrine annually, on the first Sunday in September,
the feast of the dedication. These deputations were met
by the clergy and magistrates of Hal, and conducted to the
church, where, on the part of each confraternity a robe was
offered to our Lady. The concourse of the faithful was very
great on this day ; on one occasion, in 1651, Father Maillard
tells us there were about forty thousand pilgrims, of whom
ten thousand received Holy Communion at the Shrine.

The pilgrims were not, however, drawn from Belgium
alone ; they came from far and wide, and included some of
the great ones of the earth. Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, Louis XI. of France, Henry VJII. of England,
Charles V. of Germany, Philip II. of Spain, and John Casimir
of Poland, all visited the Shrine of Hal ; as did the Cardinal
Archduke Albert, before laying aside the Roman purple to
marry Isabel, daughter of Philip II. of Spain, and assume
the rule of the Netherlands. Nor must the names of St. John
Berchmans, and of Juste Lipse, the celebrated humanist and

1 The towns were Ath, Pom-nay, Brussels, Valenciennes, Cond£, and
Namur ; the villages Lembeck, Quievrain, Crespin, Braine-le-Chateau,
Ghyssignies, and Saintes.

VOL. X. 2 L

530 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

historian of the Shrine, be omitted from the list of illustrious
persons devoted to our Lady of Hal.

Like the three kings from the East, the royal visitors to
Hal brought gifts in their hands. The Treasury was en-
riched by precious offerings from Margaret of Constantinople,
Countess of Hainault and Flanders; from the Emperors
Maximilian and Charles V. ; from Philip II. ; from Albert
and Isabel ; from Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who
always visited the Shrine before commencing any war-
like expedition ; and from Henry VIII. of England, to
mention but a few names out of many. The wretched king
of England, who had been taught to love our Lady of Hal
by the Emperor Charles V. was with his queen, Catherine of
of Aragon, enrolled in the confraternity, and gave a silver
monstrance in the form of a Gothic tower which was
formerly carried by two priests, in dalmatics, during the
procession on the feasts of Corpus Domini and its octave day,
the Dedication of the Church and its Octave, and the Nativity
of our Lady. This monstrance is still preserved in the
treasury.1 Those of lower degree have not been behindhand
in making offerings. Juste Lipse, in gratitude for a cure,
presented his silver pen with a dedicatory poem ; and, as
specimens of other gifts may be mentioned the silver image
of our Lady from a member of the Montmorency family, and
a pair of silver vases presented in 1647 by a Lady Morgan.

The Vicars of Christ have not failed to heap favours on
the Sanctuary of Hal. Eugenius IV. approved the confra-
ternity erected there, and enriched it with indulgences :
Nicholas V., Clement VIII., Urban VIII., Innocent X., and
Pius VI. granted indulgences to all who should visit the
church on certain occasions ; S. Pius V. granted an indul-
gence to all who should wear the medals of our Lady of
Hal which he had blessed at the request of Margaret of
Parma. Julius II. presented a silver lamp ; and Pius IX. of

1 When the writer visited Hal in November last he was unable to see
this, as it had been lent to the Exhibition of Brussels. In doing so the
worthy dean showed more confidence in the officials than did the Augustinian
nuns of the old hospital of Damme, who would not lend their antique
processional cross !

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 531

blessed memory, a chalice which he had himself consecrated.
The last-named Pontiff showed his regard for our Lady of
Hal when he authorised the solemn coronation of the statue ;
this took place in 1874, Cardinal Deschamps, the late
Archbishop of Mechlin, crowning the statue as on a previous
occasion he had crowned the statue of our Lady of Montaigu,
and a few years later was to crown that of our Lady of
Hanswyck.

It is time to relate some of the prodigies wrought through
the intercession of our Lady of Hal. First and foremost among
the favours of Mary, the pious inhabitants place the constant
preservation of their town from successful assault. The
first instance shall be one in which English soldiers were the
besiegers. Jacqueline of Bavaria, daughter and heiress of
William, Count of Hainault, and widow of the Dauphin of
France, married John, Duke of Brabant. She took an aver-
sion to her husband, and fled to England, where, in 1422,
she entered into an illicit connection with Humphrey, Duke
of Gloucester, brother to Henry V. Jacqueline asked Pope
Martin V. to declare her marriage with the Duke of Brabant
null and void. The Pope being unable to do this, she made
a similar application to the anti-pope Benedict, who did as
she wished ; after which, Jacqueline and the Duke of Glou-
cester left En gland for Hainault, from which they unsuccess-
fully tried to oust the Duke of Brabant. Amongst other
failures was, as has been intimated, a siege of Hal.

During the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, Belgium
was devastated by civil war : on the one side were the
Flemings and the Braban^ons, under Philip, Duke of Cleves ;
on the other, the inhabitants of Hainault and the other
provinces. In the year 1491, Philip made two attempts to
take the Town of Hal, which was not a fortress, and could
hardly be said to be fortified. Both attempts proved signal
failures; but the second repulse was the more remarkable.
The Duke of Cleves advanced at the head of 6,000 men
writes Fr. Maillard; he conducted his operations with so
much secrecy, that one day he was able to capture 120 men
of the garrison who were foraging, and so to reduce the
defenders of Hal to 250 men. The town was then bom-

532 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium*

barded, and a large breach was made in the walls, through
which the enemy were preparing to enter when the inhabi-
tants went to the church to invoke the aid of their Protectress.
This done, confident of success, the women set themselves
to extinguish the fire caused by the grenades ; whilst the
handful of men hurled themselves against the troops of the
Duke, who was compelled to retire.

He determined to renew the assault the next day ;
but, in the meantime, news was received by the besieged
that in three days' time Charles de Croy, Prince of
Chimay, would arrive with reinforcements. So delighted
were they that all the bells were set ringing, which
made the Duke of Cleves think that large reinforce-
ments had already arrived. Fearing another onslaught he
gave the order for retreat ; and so precipitous was his
flight, that he left behind him not only his wounded, but his
guns. To this day some of the stone bullets used by the
besiegers on this occasion are kept in the Church of Hal.1

Another signal escape was from the Orange faction at
the end of the sixteenth century. There is no space to give
details of it, but one circumstance is too striking to be passed
over in silence. An impious soldier in the army of the
Prince of Orange, said he would cut off the nose of the
femmelette of Hal — his own was carried away by a musket
ball. In thanksgiving for, and in commemoration of, the
escape of Hal from the Prince of Orange, an annual festival
was instituted, on which High Mass was sung and the Blessed
Sacrament was carried in procession round the walls of the
town. So many were the escapes of the Town of Hal, that

1 It is much to be deplored that English-speaking Catholics, travelling
abroad, should be so dependent on Baedeker and Murray. The former, in
his Guide to Belgium, writes thus : " Hal ... is celebrated as a resort of
pilgrims on account of the miracle-working image of the Virgin in the
church ... [a] chapel contains thirty-three cannon balls caught and
rendered harmless by the robes of the wonder-working image during a
siege of the town ;" which is not only offensive in tone, but incorrect as to
facts. The cannon balls are not in a chapel, but behind some bars in an
opening in the wall near the west door. The writers of the majority of
English guide books would seem to be ignorant of the existence of
English-speaking Catholics— would that the latter could be ignorant of
the guides !

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 533

the words usque Hollas passed into a proverb ; but we must
pass on to events affecting individuals only.

To begin with the most remarkable we will give some
instances of the dead being restored to life : the first three
cases being authenticated by Mgr. William de Bergher,
Archbishop of Cambray. A young boy was drowned, and
an hour was spent in fruitlessly endeavouring to bring him
back to life ; after which his father consecrated his child to
our Lady of Hal, and prayed her to restore him to life,
which she immediately did.

In the year 1419 there was living at Binche, in
Hainault, a poor woman who one day having to go out
to work left her child in the cradle. A neighbour went
into the house and found that the infant had been
strangled by the list used to fasten it. The poor mother was
in agony when she saw what had come to pass: but she
invoked the powerful aid of our Lady of Hal, and hardly
had she done so when the infant, who for three hours had
been regarded as dead, breathed and moved. A few days
after the woman made a pilgrimage to Hal, where she
dedicated her child to Our Lady.

The next case is that of a child still-born at Seneffe,
near Hal. Before the mother was told of what had
happened the little body was buried. The following night
she believed that she saw a beautiful woman who promised
to help her on condition that she should make a vow
to Our Lady of Hal. Full of confidence she next day
insisted on the exhumation of her child. This was
done, and as the mother looked at it, colour slowly tinged
its cheeks, its arms moved and it cried : it was taken
to the church, and when the parish priest had satisfied
himself that this infant, which had been three days buried,
was really alive, he baptized it ; after which the little
Christian was taken back to its mother, to die a few hours
later. A record of this, duly attested, was entered in the
archives of the church, and a piece of tapestry marking the
date of the event was placed in the treasury of the church
of Hal

A somewhat similar case, but not authenticated bv

534 Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium.

Monsignor de Bergher, occurred on October 17th, 1643. A
still-born child was prepared for burial, when its father
vowed its weight in wax if it were restored to life : the
mother that she would go barefoot to Hal. The child
received its life and was immediately baptised : the parish
priest having been called, ordered it to be taken to the
church that he might supply the ceremonies. This parish
priest made a declaration on oath before the Echevins of
Nivelles, and a record of it was preserved in the office of the
town clerk.

Two or three instances of cures and deliverances must
be given, though it is a matter of no small difficulty to select
from the many given by Fr. Mai Hard. The first shall be
the case of a child afflicted with blindness and paralysis,
the cure of which proved to be beyond the skill of its
doctor. A vow was made to Our Lady of Hal, the child
was cured, and a massive silver statue presented to the
shrine. The second occurred in the course of the war
between England and France during the reign of Henry VI.
A man named William Mostier, a native of Picardy, was
obliged to go to Poitou on business ; he was arrested and
confined for eight months in a dungeon, being unable to
pay the ransom demanded. He one day implored our Lady
of Hal to help him, and as soon as he had done so fell
asleep. When he awoke he found himself freed from his
chains, and at a distance of three leagues from his prison.
Some English horsemen approached, and one of them, a
Captain named Turnbull, asked for an explanation. Mostier
told him of his prayer and its result. The English soldiers
were so moved that they not only made no effort to detain
him, but gave him a passport with an authentication of the
miracle, which the escaped prisoner took to Hal. These two
cases are authenticated by the Archbishop of Cambray,
already alluded to.

Our last instance shall be that of an Irish soldier named
Denis Garan, who when eighteen years of age left Ireland
to join the Swedish army. He lived as a good Catholic,
and after a time left the service of the King of
Sweden to enter that of the Emperor. Seven years after

Shrines of Our Lady in Belgium. 535

leaving Ireland his legs became so swollen that he could
not move without crutches, for which reason he was taken
to the hospital of St. John in Brussels ; he expressed so
great an anxiety to make a pilgrimage to Hal that he was
carried there in a cart. He got down at the gates of the
town and with the greatest difficulty dragged himself to the
church, where he remained the whole day. The following
morning he was much worse, but on the third day feeling
somewhat better, he again went to the church and prayed,
after which, feeling some slight relief he returned to Brussels,
but was far from being cured. Two months later he made
another pilgrimage ; and after another six months a third.
This time he left one of his crutches. He then made a
pilgrimage to Montaigu, where he left his other crutch.
Finally, on May 8th, 1614, he went to Hal to thank Our Lady,
to whom he attributed his cure.

The ex-votos in the church testify that the Help of
Christians still rewards those who with faith invoke Her
as Our Lady of Hal. A large number of pilgrims, mostly
Braba^on, every year visit the Shrine, especially during the
month of May. In 1878 it was recorded that the numbers
amounted to more than 60,000. On Christmas Eve two
bodies of pilgrims, chiefly drawn from the nobility of
Brabant, visit the sanctuary : one body headed by a Capu-
chin Friar comes from Enghien, a place some ten or twelve
miles from Hal, the other from Brussels. No matter what the
weather may be the whole journey is made on foot. The pilgrims
reach the church in time for the midnight Mass, during
which they all receive Holy Communion. It will be a fitting
conclusion to note that Pius VI. to encourage pilgrimage to
Hal granted in perpetuity a plenary indulgence on the ordi-
nary conditions to all who should visit the church on the
seven principal feasts of Our Lady ; during the Octave
commencing on the first Sunday of September ; and finally,
on any one day in the year at choice.

E. W. BECK.

.536 ]

BRUNOLATRY: WHAT IT MEANS.

" Quell'uomo non ebbe alcum merito ne come cittadino, ne come
letterato, ne come filosofo " (from the protest of the Societa Primaria
Itomana).

THE world has always had firebrands enough to lead a row,
and fools enough to follow them. When therefore a
few revolutionary orators gathered a crowd around them in
the Campo dei fiori in Rome and vowed a monument to
Giordano Bruno on the spot which, according to anti-
Catholic imaginations, was consecrated by his martyrdom,
the newspapers fought over it for a few days, and there
seemed to be an end of it. It was thought that the project
would die out when the sudden gush of fierce zeal created
by the evening's speech-making would cool. At any rate it
was hoped that the municipality would not countenance it,
and that Rome would be spared so much shame. But the
revolutionists have had their way so far, and the municipal
council have not only yielded to them but have even been
represented in a deputation to secure the presence of Signor
Crispi at the inauguration of the memorial. The Italian
prime minister was equal to himself, and to the occasion.
He said that as minister of the Crown he could not be pre-
sent ; but he assured them that he would be with them in
spirit. He said that their victory was a glorious one, and
that their coming demonstration needed no officialism to
solemnize it. Signor Crispi has, it appears, one conscience
for private and another for public use ; one of principle, the
other of expediency.- The prime minister could not identify
himself with the project, but Signor Crispi could and would I
But the organisers of the Bruno memorial have been
more successful still. They have succeeded in getting an
international committee ; so that at the formal inauguration
of the memorial on the 9th June, at which ii-religion and
anarchy must necessarily be preached if the panegyrists of
the occasion duly honour their hero, the civilization of the old
world and of the new will be represented. America is
represented by H. E. Wright, Colonel R. Ingersoll,
D. Thompson, &c. ; England by Herbert Spencer, Max Miiller,

Brunolairy : What it Means. 537

J. Stansfield, A. Swinburne, and Charles Bradlaugh; Germany
by E. Haeckel, L. Biichner, K. Fischer, &c. ; France by
E. Renan, Th. Ribot, A. Espinas, &c.

Reading the names of these men suggested many things.
Such a committee is no doubt the most natural place for
some of them, at least the most fitting that their antecedents
and character could consistently assign them. Some of them
are, in more than one respect, honoured names ; and we
cannot help doubting whether they took the trouble to
realise the meaning of what they have lent themselves to.
It is not easy to understand how men who have a reputation
to lose could help in pulling Giordano Bruno out of the
oblivion of three centuries, and placing him on a pedestal of
immortality, if they had taken the trouble to inquire what
there is in his life or works that is worthy of remembrance or
honour. And yet, if they are acquainted with him and his
works, the difficulty of understanding their action becomes
greater still. It is to be presumed that the motive of
honouring science in his person is common to them all,
for fools and philosophers are crazed by the bare name
of "science" in these days; and we shall see what kind
of science Bruno taught. We shall see also that neither
American, nor English, nor French, nor German, have much
reason to be grateful to their representatives for honouring a
man whose conduct made every country to which he fled too
hot for him to stay there, and who repaid hospitality by
travestying the national peculiarities of those who received
him, by his extravagant flattery of persons in power to whom
he looked for patronage, and by his extravagant mockery of
the common people from whom he had nothing to get.

If they meant to honour liberty of thought in honouring him,
'their purpose shows an amazing ignorance of their hero ; for
liberty of thought with Bruno meant precisely what it means
in practice with most freethinkers, that is, liberty for them-
selves to think and say and do as they like, and liberty to
revile and howl down everyone who dares to think or speak
or do otherwise. When we consider that the memory of
this newly-unearthed hero had nearly died out before his own
generation, that few records of his time have preserved his

538 Brunolatry : What it Means.

name, that literary or scientific writers since then rarely
mention him, and only with dishonour, natural curiosity bids
us to ask what can it be that has in our generation awakened
his name into honour and life. The answer is revealed in
the religious and moral condition of the dominant element in
Italy to-day. The work of the Piedmontese intruders has
been going on regularly for over eighteen years, and the
monument to Bruno is their latest inspiration. Their purpose
is not so much to honour Bruno as to insult the Pope;
for we shall presently see how little there is to honour in
Bruno. It is not admiration for his depraved philosophy
that inspires them, but hatred for religion. Probably most
of them know little and care less about what doctrines he
taught; but his hatred for all religious belief, which he
deserted, is well known to them all, and they honour him
just for his apostacy.

Let us first see the ostensible reason of this international
Brunolatry ; and then turning from the professions and
pretensions of the admirers of Bruno we shall look at the
reality in Bruno himself as he was in the flesh, and as he
thought, and acted, and impressed his generation.

In the circular issued by the acting committee in 1885
we find the following : —

" In the monument which we propose to erect to Bruno there
ought to be before all things a high moral meaning — gratitude to the
hero of thought, to the herald of the new philosophy which permits
us to think and speak freely, and a high civil meaning, to carry out
that purpose as becomes men who desire the glory of a nation redeemed
by great sacrifices. And we will find a response amongst every
civilised people, because Bruno preached the gospel of the new civilisa-
tion in Switzerland, France, Germany, England, &c. This monument
is a great reparation, a tardy tribute of gratitude and admiration. It
cannot and ought not to be an instrument of religious passions or
burning politics. The erection of a monument to Bruno, who was a
martyr to liberty of conscience, is a sign that that liberty should be
acknowledged everywhere, and respected in all. No Italian who
desires a Home worthy of the new Italy, and of the new civilisation,
can refuse to co-operate ; no person who feels that he is a son of
liberty of thought can deny a tribute of recognition to the great
philosopher who was a heroic martyr to it."

If these statements were true, if these professions were

Brunolatry : What it Means. 539

sincere, Bruno undoubtedly deserves the honours of the
piazza, and the promoters of the memorial are the proper
persons to solemnize his canonization. But we shall presently
see that the statements are falsehoods, and that the profes-
sions cover an hypocrisy which is betrayed by the indiscreet
zeal and belied by the daily acts of the promoters them-
selves.

Giordano Bruno was born in the year 1548 in Nola, in
Campania, one of the oldest towns in the Kingdom of Naples-
His father was neither rich nor noble, as Giordano used to
pretend. He was a Neapolitan soldier, and the Neapolitan
army at that time was, both as to pay and as to men, very
much like our present militia. The family inhabited a
modest dwelling at the foot of the Cicalian hills, in a paese
renowned for its exquisite wine and for the richness of its
soil. Giordano received his early education in his native
town, and at the age of twelve was taken by his uncle to
Naples for a course of higher studies. We know from him-
self that this consisted in what was known in mediaeval
schools as the Trivium and Quadrimum — Arithmetic, geometry,
music, logic, poetry, physics, metaphysics, &c. Not a very
limited course, under the shadow of the Inquisition! In
Naples he had the advantage of studying under two men
remarkable for their learning and piety ; yet it is probably at
this time he began to inhale the noxious vapour of heresy
and unbelief of which he became in after life so fierce an
apostle. If it be asked how, we may, perhaps, attribute it to
certain reunions held by some of the students, which, in order
to allow more freedom of discussion, enjoyed privileges that
kept them more or less independent of the Inquisition.
Before Bruno's time they were much in vogue, but they were
condemned by Paul III., in 1542, owing to propositions being
defended in them which savoured of the tendency of the
time. Yet, although as an institution these clubs ceased,
some ardent spirits, no doubt, upheld them privately, of
whom Bruno by all accounts was one.

Drawn away by two opposing currents, both exercised
an influence over him. The restless spirit fostered at the
reunions turned him with the current of error that was

540 Brunolatry : Wliat It Means*

beginning to flow through Europe; the old faith which he
brought with him, rich as the soil of his native Campania,
and informed by the Christian science of his teachers, led
him to seek shelter from disaster in the cloisters of San
Domenico Maggiore.

This was in 1563, three years after he went to Naples.
The name he received at baptism was Philip. It was when
he entered religion that he took the name Giordano, after
St. Dominick's successor in the government of the order.
He went through the course of novitiate and studies, and
was ordained priest in 1572. He was then sent to a convent
of the order in Campagna, where the beauty of the scenery
should have helped the solitude and peace of his cloister to
preserve in his soul an abiding feeling of God's presence.
But Bruno was restless, and was soon sent elsewhere, and
again to another convent and to another. In one place he
was unhappy with his companions, in another with his
superiors, in another he was dissatisfied with the food or
with the air. It was the first spring of the current rippling
through the fissures of his soul, and it only required self-
neglect and time to make its way down the mountain rocks
of remorse in an irresistible flood.

For three years this restlessness tried the patience and
prudence of his superiors, and in 1576 he was ordered to
return to San Domenico, where he had spent his novitiate.
This significant exercise of power by his superiors made him
feel more sensibly the repressive influence of authority. For
that reason living under rule came to be doubly difficult to
him. The reckless passion that was fermenting in his will
soon made way for itself into overt insubordination. The
process of destruction had evidently been going on in him for
some time, for he soon showed a decided leaning to
Arianism, and did not care to conceal his doubts about the
mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation. Indeed, as
transpires from the work itself, he was at this time thinking
out the plan of a disgraceful comedy called the Candelajo,
which he wrote and published some years after. As there
was little hope for better things, the prudence of his
superiors that had made them deal with him mildly up to

Brunolatry : What it Means. 541

this now bade them to take stronger measures, and they
denounced him before the Inquisition. Through fear of the
consequences he fled from Naples and went to Rome, where
he was received in the Convent of the Minerva. A letter
followed him to Rome, making known to the superiors of the
Minerva the cause of his flight. Finding danger closing
round him here again, he fled from the Minerva, and, casting
away his religious habit, made his way to Genoa. He
taught grammar at Noli ; met Paolo Sarpi in Venice —
arcades ambo, — visited Turin, got hospitality from the
Dominican Fathers at Chambery, and arrived in Geneva
towards the close of the year 1576.

In Geneva he found two opposing religious factions — the
native Calvinists and a colony of Italian Waldenses. When
he left his baptismal faith he had leaped over the only
barrier that could stand for an instant between his
erratic spirit and I universal unbelief, and he was not
likely to bow to either of the two newly-made creeds he
found there before him, confident as he undoubtedly was that
he himself could make one a great deal better. He did not,
therefore, fraternise with the Calvinists or the Waldenses ;
he despised them both, and in turn received a welcome from
neither. From Geneva he went to Lyons, and thence to
Toulouse, where he arrived in the early part of 1577. In
Geneva and Lyons he eked out a livelihood by correcting
proof sheets ; but in Toulouse he parted company with the
printer's devil, and is pictured by his panegyrists, to the
gaping admiration of his worshippers, as seated in a chair of
philosophy, expounding to thirsting intellects the method of
Raymund Lullo, and refuting the peripatetics. He won his
professor's chair by public concursus, so his worshippers say ;
and he wrote a book. It was a treatise on the soul, we are
told ; but it has not reached us unfortunately, and so the
Brunolators are left to mourn a valuable item in their
liturgy. In 1579 he went to Paris, and gave a course of
lectures at the Sorbonne by permission of the rector. In
these he propounded doctrines subversive of Christianity 5
and, of course, had at once to desist. During his stay in
Paris he published four books, one of which he dedicated to

542 Brunolatry: What it Means.

Henry III. in language of slavish adulation, which is enough
to cover with mockery the homage now sought for him in
the name of liberty by our self-commissioned apostles of
light.

After four years' stay in Paris he crossed over to England,
and through the influence of the French ambassador
obtained permission to deliver a course of lectures at
Oxford. In his lectures he played the philosopher by exhib-
iting for the instruction of his audience a clumsy modifica-
cation of the metempsychosis of the ancients. He shocked
the faculty by his doctrines, and in a controversy that
ensued in consequence he used language that should be less
expected in the debating hall of a university than amongst
the philosophers of a fishmarket. As we shall have to return
later on to his sayings and doings in England, we will at
once follow him back again to France, where he arrived in
1585. Evidently the light of his philosophy shone more
dimly in the eyes of the doctors of the Sorbonne than it did
before, for he passed into Germany without delay. He spent
a few days at Mayence, invoked the genius of Luther at
Wittenburg, visited Prague, Helmstadt, and Frankfort, and
arrived again in Venice after ten years of capricious
wandering.

It appears that he came to Venice at the instigation of
Mocenigo, a Venetian politician, who had heard a great deal
about him. He was undeceived before long. He found that
he had mistaken an irreligious charlatan for a philosopher.
He was shocked by the doctrines of Bruno, and denounced
him before the Inquisition on May 23rd, 1592, for such speci-
mens of wisdom as the following : — He taught that the Real
Presence is blasphemy ; that the Mass is an imposture ; that
all religions are false ; that Christ was an impostor and the
inventor of impostures ; that the Trinity would be an imper-
fection in God ; that the world is eternal, and that the
number of worlds is infinite ; that there is no punishment for
sin ; that the soul is a product of nature, and not a creation
of God ; that the soul passes from one animal into another
and is the same in man as in beast, etc.

His panegyrists to-day are never tired of setting forth his

Brunolatry : What it Means. 543

courage. No meeting of his worshippers is complete unless
some orator flourish, as if in the teeth of Christians, the
heroic answer he is alleged to have made to the Roman
inquisitors at his condemnation — " Maggiore timore provate
voi nel pronunziar la sentenza contro di me che non io nel
riceverla." Perhaps he said so ; but if he did he must have
made amazing progress in courage since his trial before the
Inquisitors of Venice. The following are the words of this
martyr to conviction, as found in the records of his trial : —

" Possibly, during this long course of time, I have erred more,
and wandered away from Holy Church in other ways besides those
already exposed. But, if so, I do not remember. I have confessed,
and do willingly confess, my errors. I am here in your hands to
receive a remedy for my salvation. I cannot tell you how great is
my sorrow for my misdeeds. I humbly ask pardon of God and of
you for all my errors, and I am here ready to do whatever you in
your prudence may ordain and think best for my soul. I would
prefer a punishment vather severe in itself than a public one, lest any
dishonour may fall thereby on the religious habit that I have worn.
And if, by the mercy of God and you, I be allowed to live, I pro-
mise to make a notable reformation in my life, which may counteract
the scandal I have given."

There could be no more fervent protestation of sorrow
and submission than this, and he made other protestations
equally humble. But it must have been either insin-
cere at the time it was made, or, if it was sincere, it was
only a temporary cessation of the storm that was raging in
his soul, for it broke out again more fiercely, and made him
recalcitrant once more. If it were otherwise, he would never
have been brought before the Roman inquisition; there
would have been no meaning in it. But he was taken to
Rome, and was tried there. Everything that patience and
prudence suggested was done to wean him from insubordin-
ation and error. His sentence was held over for seven
years in the hope of his final submission. But in vain ; for
on January 20th, 1600, the following official report was
made in reference to him : — " Dixit quod non debet nee vult
resipiscere, et non habet quid resipiscat, nee habet materiam
resipiscendi ; et nescit super quo debet resipiscere." if we
are to believe himself he had many things to retract eight

544 Brunolatry : What it Means.

years before, and he most humbly retracted them. Now he
has nothing to be sorry for ; he has no reason and does not
wish to repent. There is not very much heroism in all this,
and there is less truthfulness and consistency.

On February 8th, 1600, he received his final sentence of
condemnation. The process of degradation from the eccles-
iastical state was gone through, and he was handed over
to the secular power.

A good deal of fire and fury has been let loose on the
Church on account of the burning of Bruno by those who
have been seized with this sudden mania for immortalizing
him. They take it for granted that he was burnt ; they even
point out the exact spot. It is not to our purpose now to sift
the truth of it, and I would be very far from going the length
of denying it. At the same time it is well to remember that
the burning of Bruno is not at all so certain as his disciples
would ask the world to believe. Balan, the learned con-
tinuator of Rohrbacher's Ecclesiastical History, gives some
reasons that throw a good deal of discredit on it. Again, it
is not the scope of this article to defend the action of the
Church in condemning Bruno to death. But admitting that
Bruno was not only sentenced, but also that the sentence was
executed; admitting also alleged facts of a similar nature about
which a certain class have been howling at the Church for
the last three centuries, the admission of such facts would
not at all justify such denunciation. Ignorance, bigotry, and
hatred, have always played an important part in this matter,
in fact they have had nearly all to do with it. Two things
have to be kept distinct for the right understanding of it,
namely, the action of the Inquisition and the action of the State,
The Inquisition declared a man a heretic or a blasphemer, the
secular power then took and dealt with his crime in its own
way and according to its own laws. The Inquisition was
established really to guide and curb the excessive laws
made by the State for the extirpation of heresy. And in
making such laws the State was not aggressive but defensive.
The Albigensian heresy, for instance, was not merely a
movement of religious error; the doctrines embodied in it
were anti-social as well. In fact they directly went to

Brunolatry : What it Means. 545

undermine all morality, for it was nothing more than a mixture
of manicheism and the errors of pagan origin. And if the
errors of the Reformation have not come to be equally
subversive of civil authority, it is not because the germs are
not contained in them, but because the reformers were not
logical. The experience of statesmen taught them to consider
religious error as tending to destroy the power which it was
their office to sustain, and they could not be expected in those
days to make distinctions between one heresy and another,
or to make allowances for the possible inconsistency of
those who chose to embrace religious error without following
it on to its natural consequences. Again, wherever the
Roman Inquisition had influence very few cases of capital
punishment for heresy or blasphemy can be proved. In
Spain it was otherwise, and against the repeated disapproval
of the Pope. Neither is it fair to look back with disapproval
on the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisitors without remember-
ing that what we abhor now as cruel was looked upon then
as a matter of course and a matter of necessity, and without
remembering also that in this respect the executioner had a
more busy time of it in Protestant England than in Catholic
Spain. And this appears all the more abnormal and ridiculous
when we reflect that in Protestant countries men were sent
to the block precisely for using the religious liberty which
Protestantism pretended to give, because forsooth they dared
to differ from the teaching of a church that could not even dare
to assure them that they were wrong. In Spain it was quite
the reverse ; if men were executed they were assured of being
in error because their doctrines were condemned by a Church
that was held to be infallibly right. In this self-willed
generation we are shocked at the thought of any one having
to suffer for heresy or blasphemy. And if we are asked why,
we appeal to public opinion as the standard of morality ; and
we are proud of our ethics. But with all our cleverness and
love of liberty we are either too stupid or too wilful to see
that three hundred years ago " public opinion" called for the
punishment of blasphemy just as in our " wise " generation it
says to us " why may not a man blaspheme if he like ? That
is his own business/' Let us see a little more how inconsistent
VOL. X. 2 M

546 Brunolatry : What it Means.

we are. A man is sent to the gallows or the guillotine for
treason felony and we say that he richly deserved it, whilst
we gape with horror because three centuries ago the same
end awaited a man who blasphemed God; as if the crime of
laesae majestatis were an unpardonable enormity and the crime
of laesae Divinitatis only a trifle. Murder is also becoming a
trifle with us, and capital punishment for any crime is
gradually disappearing ; so that some of us may live to
witness " our barbarity " abhorred by a new generation as
heartily as we damn the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisitors.

But this is rather wandering from our subject. Our
purpose is to see whether Giordano Bruno deserves a monu-
ment ; and if not, whether its promoters go on with it
because they admire Bruno, or because they hate the Church.
This rapid sketch of Bruno's life has been given in order to
prepare us for the opinions which were entertained of him by
his contemporaries, by men of succeeding generations up to
the present, and by the present generation also, save of
course the promoters oi his memorial, who, forsooth, are
too enlightened to acknowledge Christ and yet are slavish
enough to worship the philosopher of Nola. We have no
means of knowing him unless from his works or from the
testimony of his contemporaries ; and neither in the one nor
in the other do we find the slightest evidence of his greatness.
Of the writers of the sixteenth century only four or five
mention him at all. All they say about him could be re-
printed in a quarto page, and indeed his character would not
gain much by the publication. Let us see what subsequent
writers thought of him. Tiraboschi says : —

" A lover of order, of precision, of clearness, will look for them in
vain in the works of Bruno. Verbose, confused, obscure, it is
difficult to know what he means in many places. Brucker has given
us a compendium of his philosophy, but I defy the most acute mind to
penetrate the system or the patience of man to read it through.
Everything is enveloped in darkness and in mysterious expressions of
which he himself probably did not understand the meaning." (Storia
della letteratura Italiana, vol. vii.)

Andres calls his philosophy " extravagant and unintelli-
gible." (Origine d'ogni letteratura, vol. v.)

Bruno latry : What it Means. 547

Bayle, who would certainly not fall out with him for his

infidelity, says that : —

*' His principal doctrines are a thousand times more obscure than
the most incomprehensible things ever written by the disciples of
Aquinas or Scotus. He had the ridiculous notion that what he
taught was a new departure from the hypothesis of the peripatetics,
whilst the contrary appears from his works. In fact he borrowed
much that is to be found in his works from Aristotle and Plato. He
owes everything to one or another ancient philosopher, and nothing
or very little to himself." (Dictionnaire historique et critique, Ant.
Bruno, vol. i.).

To the mind of Bayle the philosophy of Bruno must have
been inexpressibly foolish, inasmuch as he thought it a
thousand times more unintelligible than that of the
Schoolmen; for everybody knows how truly contemptible
indeed they would be if they really were what Bayle
represented them to be. He says elsewhere : —

" The hypothesis of Bruno is at bottom that of Spinoza. Both
were extravagant pantheists. Between those two atheists the only
difference is one of method ; the method of Bruno is that of the
rhetorician, the method of Spinoza that of the geometrician. Bruno
did not trouble himself about precision ; he used a figurative lan-
guage which often hinders clearness. The hypothesis of both
surpasses the aggregate of all imaginable extravagances. It is the
most monstrous that man could imagine, the most absurd, the most
directly opposed to all the most evident ideas of our intelligence."

Carlo Botta calls him " a visionary, the propounder of
silly opinions and of atrocious blasphemies.'' Cousin says that
" in his speculations he was not guided by analysis ; he
stumbled over principles which he had not studied, and fell
into the abyss of an absolute unity that was bereft of the
intellectual and moral character of a divinity."

Such was the philosopher. What was thought of his
literature ? Mafiei calls the Candelajo " an infamous and
wicked comedy." What was thought of it by the Italians as a
people may be judged from the fact that Wagner deeply
offended them by saying that the personages of the Candelajo
were representative of the Italians of the sixteenth century.
But if the promoters of the memorial could be considered a
representative body we should conclude that the Italians of
the present day have undergone an entire change in their

548 Brunolatry : What it Means.

ideas of propriety. Fortunately, however, for the Italian
character they are more representative of the historic Three
of Too ley-street than of the Roman people. Terenzio
Mamiani says that it is "without grace and purity of
language ;" and yet, with strange inconsistency, his name
appears on the committee list of 1885.

Having seen what others thought of Bruno, it will be
instructive now to see what Bruno thought of himself.
From the rapid glance we have taken of his chequered life
we should be inclined to think that his was a spirit played
upon by varying and discordant feelings. And so it was.
In some parts of his works, the internal war between
conscience and passion reveals itself in expressions of angry
melancholy ; in other places he exalts himself to the pinnacle
of intellectual greatness, and from his tripod treats all gain-
say ers with disgusting contempt expressed in appropriately
disgusting language. In the introduction to the Candelajo
he describes himself as —

" Quarrelsome angry, capricious, satisfied with nothing, fitful as
an old man of eighty, uneasy as a dog bitten in a thousand places, fed
on onions. If you knew him you would say be bas a bewildering
appearance. He appears as if he were always meditating on the
pains of hell. He is like one who laughs merely in order to do as
others do."

In the dedicatory letter of one of his works to the
Professors of Oxford, he speaks of himself as—

" Doctor of an exquisite theology and professor of a philosophy
purer and more innocent than that which^is usually taught; the awakener
of the sleeping; the conqueror of presumptuous ignorance and
obstinacy; neither Italian nor Briton, male or female, bishop or laic,
but a citizen of the world, a child of the sun his father and of the
earth his mother."

Comparing himself with Columbus and other historic
personages, he asks if they are so extolled —

" What is to be said of him [i.e. Bruno himself] who has found a
way of penetrating up into the heavens, of running along the
circumference of the stars, &c. ?"

Again :

" Bruno has set free the human mind and the knowledge that
enclosed in the elevated prison of an agitated atmosphere from which

Brunolatry : What it Means. 549

through a few portholes he was just able to observe the most distant
stars, and his wings were clipped to prevent him from flying aloft
to remove the veil of the clouds and pry into what is really to be
found there, and to free himself from the chimeras of those who,
having come out from the mire and caverns of the earth like
Mercuries and Apollos descended from heaven, by many impostures
have filled the whole world with an infinity of silly notions, divinities
and doctrines, extinguishing that light which made the intellects of
our ancient fathers divine and heroic, approving and fostering the
midnight darkness of sophists and asses."

The unintelligible character of these words will natu-
rally be attributed by the reader to a defective English
rendering of the original. The translation could, no doubt,
be better ; but at best much sense cannot be expected
in the translation of what is incoherent nonsense in the
original. It seems that he meant to proclaim himself
as the liberator of the human mind kept in prison before his
time, as the morning-star casting the first ray of the light of
ancient philosophy over the world after it had been extin-
guished by " sophists and asses," who under the guise of
heaven-sent teachers had debased mankind. He elsewhere
speaks of his " divine " doctrines, and says they found favour
with all intelligent persons on whom exalted teaching is not
lost. Such persons, he says, are worthy of being able to
understand him ; others prefer to grope in darkness.

" One alone (he says) can by himself conquer and shall
triumph over the general ignorance that prevails ; for no number of
eye-balls can equal one eye that sees, and no number of fools can
cope with one wise man." (La cena de le ceneri.)

When he felt dissatisfied with the expressions of admira-
tion that greeted him in England, he accounted for it by
saying that they were not great enough to appreciate him.

" If this land (he says) instead of giving forth a thousand
grim giants were to produce as many Alexanders, you would see
more than five-hundred of them coming to pay court to this
Diogenes." (La cena de le ceneri.)

The unchecked germs of vanity and conceit had been
growing apace in him since his boyhood, and he became
contemptuous of serious study, and was above learning from
others. That begat ignorance ; and pride and ignorance

550 Brunolatry : What it Means.

combined to stupify him into the senseless rubbish we have
quoted. It seems hard to account for it otherwise.

Turning back again to the circular issued by the
promoters of the memorial, we recollect him as the " hero of
thought," the " herald of the new philosophy," the " martyr
to liberty of conscience."

It is to be presumed that Bruno knew his own mind and
feelings better than those who seek to canonize him to-day.
Let him speak for himself. The following expressions from
the works of this herald of liberty are not very becoming
quotations to appear in print, but their purpose must be
our apology. They bring out before us not a philosopher
or a liberal thinker but an intolerant trifler whose highest
aim seems to have been to heap mockery on everything,
and to play the buffoon regardless of self-respect or the
criticisms of others. Of one who happened to be of a
different way of thinking from his own he says : —

" I should not be surprised if he were nephew of the ass that
was kept in Noah's ark to preserve the species."

Summing up a mixture of argument and defiance against
another, he says : —

" Hence the ravens croak, the wolves howl, the pigs grunt, the
sheep bleat, the cows bellow, the horses neigh, the asses bray."

Elsewhere he expresses a wish that some brother free-
thinkers who did not agree with him, would be " despatched
by fire or by the halter." He thought

" It would be a sacrifice most acceptable to the gods and a benefit
to the world to persecute and clear heretics off the face of the
earth ;"

for he says,

" They are worse than locusts and harpies ; the pest of the world,
they should be chased from heaven and earth ; they are less worthy
of mercy than wolves, bears, and serpents."

Again he says —

" It would be a small punishment to drive them away from the
society of men. It is only right that after death they should take up
their abode in swine, these being the most stupid animals on the
earth."

Brunolatry : What it Means. 551

If those specimens indicate the spirit of liberty that
inspired Bruno, the world of common sense may well wish
his disciples joy with their inheritance,

It may be interesting and instructive to the English
members of the Memorial Committee to know what Bruno
thought of the English people. I do not refer to those in
power, from whom the itinerant philosopher might expect
patronage or favour ; for on such persons he lavished words of
flattery too extravagant to be sincere. But quite otherwise
does he speak of the people. He calls them "low, uncivilized,
rough, boorish, ill-bred," &c. He compares them to a "sewer,"
and says that " if they were not kept down by others
[meaning those in power] they would send up such stuff and
stench as would cover the entire people." It would be well
worth the while of those four Englishmen who think him
worthy of the honour of a pedestal and the piazza, to observe
these select expressions of this literary hero, and the vile
metaphor they are used by him to express. Let us have
another specimen. When an Englishman, he says, "sees a
foreigner he appears like a wolf or a bear ; he looks at him
with a surly countenance such as a pig puts on when
obstructed at its food." He says again, " they are an
ignoble lot of artisans and shopkeepers, who sneer at you
once they know you are a stranger, hiss at you in derision,
call you a dog, a traitor, a foreigner." If these specimens
of propriety be a key to the character of Bruno, his
English hosts never more truly called a spade a spade than
when they called such a man " a dog, a traitor, a foreigner.''
When the Professors of Oxford took exception to the
doctrines he propounded there he called them " bifolchi,''
which may be fairly translated by the word " clod."

A little more of his views on Oxford. He says —

" There reigns there a constellation of pedantic obstinate ignorance
and presumption, with a rustic uncouthness that would overcome the
patience of Job."

And then he goes on with sneers and sarcasms to describe
its professors as —

" Select men, men with long robes, dressed in Velvet, with caps of
velvet, wearing chains about their neck instead of which a halter

552 Brunolatry ; What it Means.

would become them much better; they are brainless, insensate,
stupid and most ignorant; they are not capable of understanding
what Nola teaches."

He repaid German hospitality in a similar fashion.' He
says that in Germany " gluttony is extolled, magnified, and
glorified amongst the heroic virtues, and drunkenness is
numbered as one of the divine attributes." The following I
give in the original ; it defies translation, or, at least, would
be spoilt by it : —

" Col trink e retrink, bibe e rebibe, ructa e reructa, cespita
necespita, vomt revomi usque ad egurgitationem utriusque juris i.e.
del brodo, butargo, minestra, oervello, anima e salzicchia, videbitur
porcus porcorum in gloria Ciacchi. Vadasene con quello 1'ebrietade,
la qual non vedete la in abito Tedesco con un paio di bragoni tanto
grandi che paiono le bigonce del mendicante abbate di Sant' Antonio,
e con quel braghettone che dal mezzo del'uno e 1'altro si discopre, di
sorte che por che voglia arietare il paradise ?" (Spaccio della bestia
trionfante.}

After all this which we have just been told about
Bruno, both by himself and by those who ought to have
known him better than his worshippers of to-day, nobody
will question the fairness of the following summary of his
character made by one of the greatest historians of our
time. Cesare Cantu says of him : —

" Intolerant, sarcastic, he exalts himself as much as he depre-
ciates others. He lays down dogmatically what is more than ques-
tionable. He trifles with the most serious problems, repeating
unseemly jokes about sacred things." (GFEretici in Italia, vol. iii.)

At the outset it was the purpose of the writer to give a
short analysis of the philosophy of Bruno, and of the tumble-
down edifice of religion and ethics that he built upon it ;
but this article has already grown beyond its intended
limits. Enough, however, and more than is good for one,
can be known of them from the summary already given of
the charges on which he was tried by the Inquisitors of
Venice, and from the incidental references contained in the
extracts given in the course of the article. Indeed, it is a
mistake to think that he had a system of philosophy at all ;
much less true would it be to say that he had a system of

Brunolatry ; What it Means. 553

religion and morals. If we were asked to state in one sen-
tence what Bruno's philosophy was, perhaps the most com-
prehensive answer would be that it was Pantheism, with all
the circumstantial excrescences that could grow on it in the
mind of one who did not understand clearly what Pantheism
is. As to his religion and ethics they ran parallel to his life,
wandering about in ceaseless change from post to pillar.
The religious theories he held to-day were not the same that
he held to-morrow, and he was just as ready for another
change the day after. Doctrines floated about in his brain,
shading and shifting one another aside like the dissolving
views of a magic lantern, the number of changes being
limited only by the creative power of his imagination,
inspired by passion. But we have seen evidence of his into-
lerant spirit. We have seen him as painted by himself, and
a despicable picture it is. We have looked out for him,
neglected and unhonoured by his own contemporaries. We
have seen his character criticised and his name despised
since then by Catholics and Protestants, by historians and
philosophers, by faithful and infidel. All this is enough to
enable us to judge whether his memory is worth preserving,
and whether to take part in erecting a monument to him is
worthy of philosophers or of fools. And if there be one
thing more than another that can emphasise the conclusion
to which common sense must lead us in this regard, it is the
irrational rant that is being impudently proclaimed during
these weeks from the dead walls of Rome, and backed by
the names of those on the international committee already
referred to, some of whom, at least, have a reputation to
lose.

" The monument (says the proclamation) is a symbol of mutual
toleration in the liberty of thought, of religion, and of worship. Here
the Pope can pontificate freely in the face of the State which guards
the right of sovereignty ; the friars can threaten believers with the
terrors of death in presence of the Athenaeum, which guards the
rights of life and the laws of nature."

This manifesto has one merit at any rate ; it sets forth the
disciples of Bruno as worthy worshippers of their hero. The
synthesis of Bruno's life was, that he prated perpetually

554 Brunolatry : What it Means.

about liberty, and as we have seen never practised it towards
others ; the synthesis of the aims and actions of his disciples
is, that they want liberty to do what they like, and liberty
into the bargain to crush anyone else who wants to do likewise.
" The Pope can pontificate freely in the face of the State,"
say the apostles of liberty; just so, and as a token of
truthfulness, the new penal code has been shaped to muzzle
the bishops of Italy. " The friars can threaten believers
with the terrors of death," continue the virtuous worthies ;
and a petard is exploded in the Church of San Carlo to
emphasise their insults to Padre Agostino. Our Divine Lord
once said that " the children of this world are wiser in their
generation than the children of light." Those who initiated
the project of placing Bruno on a pedestal know well what
they are about. To serve their purpose is enough to make a
hero ; to afford them an occasion to abuse the Church and to
blaspheme God is the tessera of a philosopher. Hence does
Bruno find favour in their sight. In 1789 the firebrands of
the French Revolution enthroned a wretched woman in the
Cathedral of Notre Dame and called her the Goddess of Reason.
Rome to-day has its Montagnards also, and they have their
God of Reason in the statue of Bruno, whom they have
suddenly dragged out of the oblivion of three centuries, and
declare the " herald of the new philosophy." If all goes well
then, we shall have a significant centenary celebration on the
9th of June. Perhaps it is that in Bruno Mr. Herbert
Spencer, " our great philosopher," as Darwin called him, has
at last found his " Great Unknown ;" and if so he can thank
heaven at any rate that he kneels down with a blessed con-
gregation to worship him.

M. O'RlORDAN.

t 555 ]

THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS.
I— FASTING DAYS OUTSIDE OF LENT.

'• Would the Editor kindly inform his readers as to the regulations
for ordinary fasting days out of Lent, viz., about the quality of food
allowed. Thanks to the clear exposition by his Grace of Dublin we
now know what allowances are made for aetas, valetudo, &c., in Lent.
But do the Indults relaxing the law apply and extend to all the
other fast days outside the Lent, or do they leave them to the tender
mercies of the Common Law of fasting ?

" INQUIRER/'

In order to reply fully to this question it is necessary to
inquire, 1°, in a general way what kind of food is allowed on
extra-lenten fasting days? 2°, What kind of food therefore
may be taken on those days by persons who are bound to
abstain, but are not bound to fast ? 3 , What kind of food
may be taken by those who are bound to fast ? And 4°, do
the L eaten indults extend to fast days outside of Lent ?

1.

What kind of food is allowed on extra-lenten fast days ?
The general law of the Church forbids the use of meat only
on fast days outside of Lent. This is the common teaching
of theologians (St. Lig., n. 1009.) Eggs, milk, butter, &c.,
are therefore not forbidden by the common law of the Church
on extra-lenten fasting days ; and wherever they are for-
bidden the law is purely local.

2.

What kind of food therefore may be taken on those days
by persons who are not bound to fast : e.g. persons under
twenty-one years ?

They are ex hypotliesi exempt or excused from the law of
fasting ; they are of course bound not to exceed the limits of
temperance ; but they are not restricted by ecclesiastical law
in the number of their meals, nor in the quantity of food
which they may take. And as extra-lenten abstinence, which
regulates the kind of food that may be taken, forbids only the

556 Theological Questions.

use of meat, such persons may take eggs, milk, butter, &c.,
at their different meals during the day. Extra-lenten fast
days are therefore the same as ordinary Fridays for persons
who are not bound to fast, but are bound to abstain.

I must notice one exception to this rule. In this country
when the Vigils of SS. Peter and Paul, the Assumption,
All Saints, and the Nativity, fall on Friday, eggs are not
allowed.

3.

What kind of food may be taken on those days by persons
who are bound to fast I

We must distinguish between the principal meal and the
collation. At the principal meal, as meat alone is forbidden,
they may take eggs and lacticinia — of course eggs are for-
bidden on the Vigils already enumerated. May they take
eggs and lacticinia at the collation ? Why may they not ? Is
it not the law of abstinence that determines the quality of food
which may be taken, and does not extra-lenten abstinence
confine its prohibition to the use of meat alone ? But, as the
RECORD has often explained, the law of fasting, too, exercises
a control over the kind of food that may be taken at the
collation by persons who are bound to fast. The law of
fasting in its ancient rigour allowed only one meal in the day ;
outside this one meal it forbade every kind of food— bread,
meat, eggs, lacticinia, &c. Custom, however, has consider-
ably modified the rigour of fasting ; and now the law of
fasting forbids every kind of food outside the principal meal
which is not sanctioned by custom. It is custom therefore
which shall determine the quality of food that may be taken
at the collation, and likewise its quantity and time. In this
country custom does not allow eggs at the collation, there-
fore they may not be taken. Custom allows the use of milk
in tea. The use of butter at the collation was discussed in
the March number of the RECORD.

4.

The Lenten indults relaxing the law of abstinence do not
affect fasting days outside the Lenten time.

Theological Questions. 557

II.— AN UN-ANNOTATED ENGLISH VERSION OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT.— THE JURISDICTION OF CURATES.

REV. SIR, — Would you be good enough to give, in the next issue
of the RECORD, your opinion of an edition of the New Testament
which I think is pretty generally scattered through the country. It
has neither note nor comment, and is called u Douay Testament."
It bears a recommendation of Dr. Troy, and an extract from a
Rescript of Pius VII. to the Vicars Apostolic of Great Britain. It
bears the name of Richard Coyne, of Capel-street, as printer ; but
though it has all these signs of orthodoxy, I greatly fear it is not
Catholic nor the sort that Catholics should read.

"2° Have curates in this country jurisdiction to hear the con-
fessions of their own parishioners outside their own diocese, as parish
priests have.

" Please answer the above in the RECORD and oblige

" VlCARIUS."

1° It is not lawful to read the edition of the New Testa-
ment which is described by our correspondent. " Scripturae
et libri controversiarum in lingua vernacula leginon possunt,
nisi approbati fuerint a S. Sede; vel editi cum notis desump-
tis ex sanctis Ecclesiae Patribus, vel doctis Catholicisquo
viris" (Gury, Ed., Ball, p. ii., n. 984, 3.)

2° Curates cannot hear the confessions of their own
parishioners outside their own diocese as parish priests can."
They cannot hear confessions outside their own diocese
without the approbation of the bishop of the place where the
confessions are heard.

D. COGHLAN.

[ 558 ]

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

THE CEREMONIES OF SOME ECCLESIASTICAL FUNCTIONS.

SOLEMN MASS.
CHAPTER VI. — FROM THE INCENSATION TO THE GOSPEL.

SECTION I.— THE INTROIT AND " KYRIE."

The Celebrant as soon as the deacon has incensed him
turns by his left to the Missal and reads the Introit, signing
himself as at Low Mass ; and, without moving from the
epistle corner, he recites the Kyrie alternately with the
sacred ministers. Having recited the Kyrie he may go with
the sacred ministers to the bench, or he may remain standing
at the epistle corner, or he may go to the centre of the altar
until the choir has finished singing the Kyrie.

The Deacon and Sub-deacon immediately after the incens-
ing of the celebrant take their places at the altar, make the
sign of the cross with the celebrant at the first words of the
Introit, and say the Kyrie alternately with him. The deacon's
place is on the highest step of the altar, behind the
celebrant, but a little to his right towards the epistle corner ;
the sub-deacons on the lowest step, or in piano ^ behind, and
to the right of the deacon.1 When the celebrant has recited
the Kyrie the sacred ministers remain in their places if the
celebrant does not move from the epistle corner. They
accompany him if he goes to the centre of the altar or to
the bench. If they go with the celebrant to the centre they
turn by the left until their right is towards the altar, and
walk to the centre, each on that step of the altar on which
he stood during the Introit. Arrived at the centre, they
turn towards the altar, and remain in a line behind the
celebrant. If the celebrant goes to the bench, the sacred
ministers go before him, the deacon on the left, the sub-
deacon on the right, or both in a line, the sub-deacon in

1 Authors generally.

Liturgical Questions. 559

front. Having reached the bench they turn face to face,
leaving space for the celebrant to pass between them, and
when the celebrant is sitting down they raise the chasuble,
that it may not get crushed. The deacon then hands the
celebrant his cap with the usual quasi-oscula, and holding
their own caps, the sacred ministers salute the celebrant
with a moderate inclination, and each other with an inclina-
tion of the head, and then take their seats beside the
celebrant, the deacon on his right the sub-deacon on his
left. While sitting they keep their hands resting on their
knees either under or over the dalmatics.

The Master of Ceremonies receives the censer from the
deacon, hands it to the thurifer, and takes his place at the
missal on the celebrant's right. He points out the Introit,
signs himself at the first words, and along with the deacon
and sub-deacon says the Kyrie alternately with the celebrant.
If the sacred ministers are to sit, he gives them the sign to
go to the bench, accompanies them thither, and raises the
dalmatic when the deacon is seating himself; then crossing
his hands modestly on his breast he remains standing at the
deacon's right until the choir begins to sing the last Kyrie.

The Acolytes remain standing beside the credence until
the sacred ministers come to the bench, when the first
acolyte moves towards the bench, that he may be at hand
to raise the tunic when the sub-deacon is taking his seat.
When the sacred ministers are seated, they, too, seat them-
selves on the bench provided for them. Should the sacred
ministers not sit, the acolytes must remain standing.

The Thurifer carries the censer to the sacristy, and
returns without delay to the sanctuary, where he takes his
place between the acolytes. He salutes the choir both when
going to the sacristy and on returning from it.

The Choir stands during the recitation of the Introit and
Kyrie. The clergy sign themselves with the celebrant at
the first words of the Introit. When the celebrant has
finished the recitation of the Kyrie^ the choir may sit,
whether the sacred ministers sit or not. If the sacred
ministers sit, the choir remains standing until the deacon
and sub-deacon have sat down.

560 Liturgical Questions.

SECTION II. — THE " GLORIA IN EXCELSIS."
The Celebrant at a sign from the master of ceremonies
takes off his biretta, hands it to the deacon, and rising,
follows the sacred ministers per longiorem to the altar,
saluting the choir on the way. He genuflects at the centre
of the altar, on the first step, goes up to the altar, and, when
the singing has entirely ceased, intones the Gloria in excelsis
Deo, and recites in the middle tone of voice the remainder
of the hymn. He remains at the centre of the altar until
the choir has sung the Gratias agimus, when he may go to
the bench, having previously saluted the altar with the
proper reverence.

The Deacon and Sub-deacon while the choir is singing the
last Kyrie, at a sign from the master of ceremonies uncover,
rise, and salute the celebrant with a moderate inclination.
The deacon receives the celebrant's cap with quasi-oscula
and places it with his own on the bench. The sub-deacon
places his cap on the bench also, and goes to the centre
of the altar per longiorem, followed by the deacon and
celebrant. With them he salutes the choir on the way.
Arrived at the foot of the altar, with the celebrant
between them, the deacon and sub-deacon genuflect on
the first step, raise the celebrant's alb, and accompany
him up the steps of the altar. They do not, however, go
upon the predella, but each one steps into his own place
behind the celebrant, the deacon on the highest step, the
sub-deacon on the lowest step, or in piano.

When the celebrant has intoned the Gloria they genuflect,
and go up to the predella, the deacon to the right, the sub-
deacon to the left of the celebrant. They recite the Gloria
with the celebrant in a subdued tone, and make a profound
inclination of the head at the words at which the celebrant
makes this reverence. When the celebrant at the end of
the hymn salutes the altar, they also salute it with a genu-
flection, whether the Blessed Sacrament is present or not,
and immediately proceed in front of the celebrant to the
bench, on which they take their seat in the manner already
described. They uncover and incline during the singing of
the Gloria when the master of ceremonies gives them the
signal

Liturgical Questions. 561

The Master of Ceremonies invites the sacred ministers to
rise and go to the altar when the choir begins to sing the
last Kyrie> he himself meanwhile going to the Epistle corner
and standing there in piano his face towards the altar.
When the choir has sung Gr alias agimus, he invites the
sacred ministers to return to the bench, as after the Kyrie.
When they are seated he stands at the deacon's right, and
gives the signal to the sacred ministers to uncover while the
choir is singing the words in the Gloria which require this
reverence.

The Acolytes and Thurifer rise with the sacred ministers
and remain standing, turned towards the altar, until the
sacred ministers have resumed their seats, when they also sit.
They genuflect and incline along with the sacred ministers.

The Choir rises as soon as the master of ceremonies gives
the signal to the sacred ministers to rise, and immediately
turns towards the altar. The clergy return the salute of the
sacred ministers, and when the celebrant has intoned the
Gloria they turn in chorum, that is, each side of the choir
turns towards the other. They incline at the Adoramus te}
and at the Gratias agimus, when sung by the chanters, and
make the sign of the cross at the cum Sancto Spiritu when
said by the celebrant, and resume the sitting position as
soon as the deacon and sub-deacon have taken their seats,
but not until then. They uncover and incline while the
words of the Gloria at which this reverence is made are
being sung.

SECTION III. — THE COLLECTS AND EPISTLE.

The Celebrant rises while the choir sings the cum Sancto
Spiritu at the end of the Gloria, and proceeds to the centre
of the altar in the same manner, and with the same saluta-
tions as when going to say the Gloria. He genuflects on
the first step,1 goes up to the altar, which he kisses, and,
turning round by his left he sings the Dominus vobiscum.
He then proceeds to the missal and inclining towards the
cross he sings Oremus ; and after this, being turned towards

1 If the Blessed Sacrament is in the tabernacle: if the Blessed-'
Sacrament is not present he inclines profoundly.

VOL. X. 2 N

362 Liturgical Questions.

the missal and having his hands extended, he sings the
collects, appending, as in a Low Mass, the proper conclusion
to the first and last, and prefacing the second as well as the
first with Oremus. The conclusions of the prayers and the
Or emus are sung in the same tone as the prayers themselves,
and if the sacred name occurs in the conclusion the celebrant
inclines to the cross. When the choir has answered Amen
after the last prayer the celebrant recites in a subdued tone
the Epistle, Gradual, &c., arid before going to the centre of
the altar to say the Munda cor meurn, he turns by his right,
places his left hand on the altar, and his right on the book,
held by the sub-deacon. When the sub-deacon has kissed
his hand he makes over him the sign of the cross without
any form of words, and proceeds to the centre of the altar.

The Deacon at the signal from the master of ceremonies
rises, salutes the celebrant, places his own and the celebrant's
cap on the bench, and precedes the celebrant to the altar
saluting the choir on the way, as already directed. At the
altar he genuflects on the lowest step at the right of the
celebrant, raises the celebrant's alb as he ascends the altar,
and takes his own place on the highest step behind the
celebrant. When the Uominus vobiscum has been sung he
goes to the Epistle corner along with the celebrant, and
standing on the highest step, right behind the celebrant, he
inclines with him to the cross at the Oremus and at the
conclusion of the prayers. At the name of the saint whose
feast is celebrating, or who is commemorated in the office,
and at the name of the reigning Pontiff, should it occur, he
inclines his head, not towards the cross, but towards the
missal. When the celebrant begins to sing the last prayer,
the deacon, at a sign from the master of ceremonies, goes to
the celebrant's right, where he remains, pointing out the
place in the missal, until the celebrant has read the Gradual,
&c., which follow the Epistle. At the end of the Epistle he
ays Deo gratias.

The Sub-deacon at the end of the Gloria rises when the
master of ceremonies gives the signal, and goes to the altar
as already directed. He genuflects on the lowest step at
the celebrant's left, raises his alb, and takes his place behind
the deacon in piano, or on. the lowest step*

Liturgical Questions. 563

The Dominus vobiscum having been sung, the sub-deacon
marches with the celebrant and deacon to the epistle corner,
taking care to keep in line with the deacon. At the epistle
corner he stands right behind the deacon, either in piano, or on
the first step, and inclines towards the cross at the Oremus and
the sacred name, when it occurs ; but towards the missal at
the name of the Blessed Virgin, of the saint whose feast is
celebrating, or who is commemorated in the feast of the day,
and at the name of the reigning Pope.

During the singing of the last prayer, he turns by his
right to receive the missal from the master of ceremonies,
whom he salutes with an inclination of the head when he
approaches, and again when he has received the missal from
him. The sub-deacon keeps the opening of the missal
towards his left, lets the upper edge rest against his breast,
and holds the lower edge in both hands. Having received
the missal, he turns again towards the altar and remains in
his place until the celebrant reaches the conclusion of the
last prayer, when he proceeds to the centre of the altar,
genuflects on the first step,1 and, turning by his left, salutes
the choir, first on the gospel, and then on the epistle side.2
He returns to his place beside the celebrant, and when the
choir has sung Amen, he sings the Epistle. During the
singing of the Epistle he inclines his head towards the cross
at the Sacred Name ; but towards the missal at any other
name requiring an inclination. At the words In nomine Jesu
omni genu flectatur, he genuflects in his place.

Having sung the Epistle, he closes the book, holding it
as already directed, proceeds again to the centre of the
altar, genuflects on the first step, and salutes the choir as he
did before the Epistle. He then goes to the epistle side of
the altar, mounts the lateral steps, and, kneeling on the

1 De Herdt, Tom. i., n. 317 : "Ita autem ad medium altaris accedere
debit, ut genuflectat, si fieri possit, dum celebrans in ultimae orationis con-
clusione dicit Jesum Christum." Some writers, as Baldeschi, Vavasseur, etc.,
direct the sub-deacon to remain at the epistle corner until the celebrant
has said Jesum Christum in the conclusion of the last prayer, to incline
towards the cross at this Sacred Name, and then to proceed to the centre of
the altar. We prefer De Herdt?s opinion.

2 Bourbon, n. 372 ; Vavasseur, Part vii., sec. i., chap, i., art. 3, n. 40 1
Baldeschi, Bauldry, De Conny, etc.

561 Liturgical Questions.

predella, or on the highest step, he advances the upper part
of the missal a little towards the celebrant, whose hand,
placed on the missal, he kisses, and, having received the
celebrant's blessing, he descends and hands the missal to the
master of ceremonies, whom he salutes before presenting the
missal, and after he has received it.*

The Master of Ceremonies, as soon as the choir reaches cum
Sancto Spiritu of the Gloria, invites the sacred ministers to
go to the altar, he himself going to the epistle corner to point
out the prayers, and to turn the leaves of the missal for the
celebrant.

Having pointed out the last prayer, he makes a sign to
the deacon to take his place at the missal, and goes to the
credence for the book of epistles. Taking the book, so that
the opening is at his right, he carries it to the sub-deacon,
whom he salutes before and after handing the book to him.
He then goes to the left of the sub-deacon, where he stands
until the celebrant reaches the conclusion of the last prayer,
when he goes with the sub-deacon to the centre of the altar,
genuflects with him on the lowest step, and together with
him salutes the choir on the gospel side and on the epistle
side. He returns with the sub- deacon to his place behind
the celebrant, and stands at his left, but a little behind him,
during the singing of the Epistle. If the sub-deacon inclines
or genuflects at any words in the Epistle, the master of cere-
monies makes, at the same time, a similar reverence. The
Epistle having been sung, the master of ceremonies again
accompanies the sub-deacon to the centre of the altar, genu-
flects with him on the lowest step, salutes the choir together
with him, and goes with him to the epistle corner. When
the sub-deacon, after receiving the celebrant's blessing,
descends in planum, the master of ceremonies salutes him,
receives the book from him, again salutes him, and immediately,
with like salutations, presents the book to the deacon.

The Acolytes, towards the end of the Gloria, rise along
with the sacred ministers, and stand in their places turned

1 When the sub -deacon uses a folded chasuble, he puts it off during
the singing of the last prayer before he receives the missal, and resumes it
again when ke has returned the missal to the master of the ceremonies.

Liturgical Questions. 565

towards- the altar, inclining and genuflecting with the
celebrant and sacred ministers.

The Thurifer rises with the acolytes, and comports himself
as they do until towards the end of the last prayer, when he
goes to the sacristy to prepare the censer. He genuflects at
the centre of the altar with the sub-deacon and master of
ceremonies, and with them also salutes the choir. Returning
from the sacristy, he again salutes the choir, genuflects to
the altar, and, when the celebrant has read the Gospel, he
goes up to the altar to get incense in the censer.

The Choir rises as soon as the master of ceremonies invites
the sacred ministers to rise, turns towards the altar, and
returns the salute of the sacred ministers. The choir is
turned towards the altar during the singing of the
prayers, and the clergy make along with the celebrant the
proper inclinations. When Amen, at the end of all the
prayer, has been sung, the choir resumes the sitting position.
During the singing of the Epistle, the clergy uncover at the
sacred name, etc.

(To be continued).

NUMBER OF WAX CANDLES AT BENEDICTION.

" In the next issue of the RECORD state the law of the Church in
general and in particular as in force in Ireland regarding the number
of wax candles required for the Benediction of the Most Holy
Sacrament. "P., DUBLIN."

We beg to refer our correspondent to the RECORD for
June, 1888, p. 540, for the answer to his question. We may
remark that, as far as we can discover, there is no special
legislation for Ireland regarding the number or quality of the
candles to be lighted during Benediction.

QUESTIONS REGARDING REQUIEM MASSES.

" 1. I am attached to a charitable institution where a certain
number of Masses have to be celebrated monthly for the welfare of
the benefactors, alive and dead. Would I discharge this obligation
by saying the Missa de Requie on semidoubles, or is it necessary
under the circumstances always to say the Mass of the day or its
votive Mass, making commemoration of living benefactors at the

566 Liturgical Questions.

memento of the living, and praying for the deceased benefactors at
the memento for the dead ?

" 2. T would also feel obliged if you would say whether when
asked to celebrate Mass for deceased persons, there is any obligation
on the priest to say a Requiem Mass if the day upon which he is
about to offer the Mass happens to be a semidouble, or simple, or a
feria? Of course it is supposed that no promise to say a* black'
Mass has been given, and that there is no question of an anniversary
or other recurring day. " SACERDOS."

We have not seen our correspondent's first question
anywhere discussed. Still we have no hesitation in saying
that he will fully discharge his obligation by celebrating
Requiem Masses on the days on which such Masses are per-
mitted. For, in the first place, by celebrating a Requiem
Mass for the benefactors, living and dead, he does no injury
to the living; they derive as much profit from a Requiem
Mass as from the Mass of a feast. This follows from the
apparently certain doctrine that even where the Mass is for
living persons only a priest discharges his obligation by
celebrating a Requiem Mass.1 There is, therefore, on the
part of the living benefactors nothing to hinder our corre-
pondent from celebrating Requiem Masses for the benefactors
in general. Again, though the substantial fruit of every
Mass is the same — the victim and priest being the same in
all — yet by reason of the prayers a Requiem Mass produces
an accidental or extrinsic fruit for the deceased, which
another Mass does not. Consequently, the deceased bene-
factors in our correspondent's case will derive more profit
from the Requiem Masses than from the Masses of Feasts,
etc. And as we have already shown that the living
benefactors profit as much by the former as by the latter,
it would appear that, not only would our correspondent
fully satisfy his obligation by celebrating Requiem Masses
when the Rubrics permit, but that it would be even advis-
able for him in the circumstances to celebrate such Masses.
This view will appear still better supported when we
recollect that the deceased benefactors of an institution
some time in existence must far out number the living.

\ Vi& Lehmkuhl, vol. ii., n. 201. De Herdt,, vol. i.} n, 67,

Document. 567

Hitherto we have made no reference to the case in which
a priest circumstanced as is our correspondent has a privi-
leged altar either local or personal. In such a case there
can be no doubt at all that he should always, when possible,
say a Requiem Mass for the benefactors. For as everyone
knows the indulgence of a privileged altar is not gained on
days on which a Requiem Mass can be said, by saying any
other than a Requiem Mass. If then on such a day a
Requiem Mass is not said, the deceased benefactors are
deprived of the indulgence, and the living receive no
compensating advantage.

2. In the hypothesis made in the second question, it is
quite certain there is no obligation on the priest to celebrate
a Requiem Mass. De Herdt's words on this point are
" Satisfacit etiam in diebus, quibus missae privatae de
Requiem permittuntur, nisi missa celebranda sit in altari
privilegiato, aut nisi testator aut dans stipendium expresse
rogaverit dici missam de Requiem." This opinion is confirmed
by a decree of the S. C. Tndulg., April Uth, 1840. " Utrum
Sacerdos " it was asked " satisf aciat obligationi celebrandi
missam pro defuncto, servando ritum feriae, vel cujuscumque
sancti, etiamsi non sit semiduplex aut duplex ?" And the
reply was, Affirmative.

From what has been said in answer to the preceding
question, however, it follows that, unless there are some
reasons to prevent him, a priest should, when the Rubrics
permit, celebrate Requiem Masses for deceased persons for
whom he is obliged to offer Mass.

D. O'LOAN,

DOCUMENT.

S. CONGREGATION "DE PROPAGANDA FIDE.'*

SUMMARY,

Instruction regarding the causes which justify the granting of
Matrimonial Dispensations, and the mode of making the application.

Cum dispensatio sit juris communis relaxatio cum cau?ae cogni-
tione, ab eo facta qui habet potestatem, exploratum omnibus est

568 JJocument.

clispensationes ab impediments matrimonialibus non esse indulgendas,
nisi legitima et gravis causa interveniat. Quin imo facile quisque
intelligit, tan to graviorem causam requiri, quanto gravius est impedi-
mentum, quod nuptiis celebrandis opponitur. Verum baud raro ad
S. Sedem perveniunt supplices literae pro impetranda aliqua bujusmodi
dispensatione, quae nulla canonica ratione fulciuntur. Accidit etiam
quandoque, ut in hujusmodi supplicationibus ea omittantur, quae
necessario exprimi debent, ne dispensatio nullitatis vitio laboret»
Idcirco opportunum visum est in praesenti instructione paucis per-
stringere praecipuas illas causas, quae ad matrimoniales dispensationes
ob tin en das juxta canonicas sanctiones, et prudens ecclesiasticae
provisionis arbitrium, pro sufficientibus haberi consueverunt ; deinde
ea indicare, quae in ipsa dispensatione petenda exprimere oportet,

Atque ut causis dispensationum exordium ducatur, operi pretium
erit imprimis animadvertere, unam aliquando causam seorsim acceptam
insufficientem esse, sed alteri adjunctam sufficientem existimari, nam
quae non prosunt siiigula, multa juvant, arg. 1. 5, C. de prolat.
Hujusmodi autem causae sunt quae sequuntur ;

1. Angustia loci sive absoluta sive relativa (ratione tantum
Oratricis), cum scilicet in loco originis vel etiam domicilii cognatio
foeminae ita sit propagata, ut alium paris conditionis, cui nubat»
invenire nequeat, nisi consanguineum vel affinem, patriam vero
(Jeserere sit ei durum.

2. Aetas foeminae superadulta, si scilicet 24U aetatis annum jam
egressa hactenus virum paris conditionis, cui nubere possit, Don
invenit. Haec vero causa baud suffragatur viduae, quae ad alias
nuptias convolare cupiat.

3. Deficientia aut tncompetentia dotts, si nempe foemina non habeat
actu tantum dotem ut extraneo aequalis conditionis, qui neque con-
sanguineus neque affinis sit, nubere possit in proprio loco, in quo
commoratur. Quae causa magis urget, si mulier penitus indotata
existat et consanguineus vel affinis earn in uxorem ducere, aut etiam
convenienter ex integro dotare paratus sit.

4. Lites super successione bonorum jam exortae, vel earumdem grave
aut imminent perioulum. Si mulier gravem litem super successione
bonorum magni momenti sustineat, neque adest alius, qui litem hujus-
modi in se suscipiat,rpropriisque expensis prosequatur, praeter ilium
qui ipsam in uxorem ducere cupit, dispensatio concedi solet; interest
enim Reipublicae, ut lites extinguantur. Hnic proxime accedit alia
causa, scilicet Dos litibus involuta, cum nimirum mulier alio es
desituta viro, cujus ope bona sua recuperare valeat. Yerum hujus
modi causa nonnisi pro remotioribus gradibus sufficit.

Document. 569

5. Paupertas viduae, quae numerosa prole sit onerata, et vir earn
alere polliceatur. Sed quandoque remedio dispensationis succurritur
viduae ea tantum de causa, quod junior sit, atqiie in periculo incon-
tinentiae versatur.

0. Bonum pads, quo nomine veniunt nedum foedera interregna,
et Principes, sed etiam extinctio gravium inimicitiarum, rixarum, et
odiorum civilium. Haec causa adduodtur vel ad extinguendas graves
inimicitias, quae inter contrahentium consanguineos vel affines ortae
eint, quaeque matrimonii celebratione omnino componerentur ; vel
quando inter contrahentium consanguineos et affines inimicitiae graves
viguerint, et, licet pax inter ipsos inita jam sit, celebratio tamen
matrimonii ad ipsius pacis confirmationem maxime conduceret.

7. Nimia, suspocta, periculosa familiaritas, nee non cohabitatio sub
eodem tecto, quae facile impediri non possit.

8. Copula cum consanguinea vel affini vel alia persona impedi-
mento laborante praehabita, et praegnantia, ideoque legitimatio prolis,
ut nempe consulatur bono prolis ipsius, et honori mulieris, quae secua
innuptia maneret. Haec profecto una ex urgentioribus causis, ob
quam etiam plebeis dari solet dispensatio, dummodo copula patrata
non f uerit sub spe facilioris dispensationis ; quae circumstantia in
supplicatione foret exprimenda.

9. Infamia mulieris, ex suspicione orta, quod ilia suo consanguineo
aut affini nimis familiaris, cognita sit ab eodem, licet suspicio sit falsa,
cum nempe nisi matrimonium contrahatur, mulier graviter diffamata
vel innupta remaneret, vel disparis conditionis viro nubere deberet
aut gravia damna orirentur.

1 0. Revalidatio matrimonii, quod bona fide et [ publice, servata
Tridentini forma, contractum est : quia ejus dissolutio vix fieri potest
sine publico scandalo, et gravi damno, praesertim foeminae, c. 7,
de consanguin. At si mala fide sponsi nuptias inierunt, gratiam dis-
pensationis minime merentur, sic disponente Cone, Trid. Sess. XXIV>
cap. V.' Reform, matrim.

11. Periculum matrimonii mixti vel coram acatholico ministro cele-
brandi. Quando periculum adest, quod volentes matrimonium in
aliquo etiam ex majoribus gradibus contrahere, ex denegatione dispen-
sationis ad Ministrum acatholicum accedant pro nuptiis celebrandis
spreta Ecclesiae auctoritate, justa invenitur dispensandi causa, quia
adest non modo gravissimum fidelium scandalum, sed etiam timor
perversionis. et defectionis a fide taliter agentium, et matrimonii
impedimenta contemnentium, maxime in regionibus, ubi haereses
impune grassantur. Id docuit haec S. Congregatio in instructione die

570 Document.

17 Apr. 1820 ad Archiepiscopum Quebeccnsem data. Pariter cum
Vicarius Apostolicus Bosniae postulasset, utrum dispensationem
elargiri posset iis Gatholicis qui nullnm aliud praetexunt motivum,
quara vesanum amorem, et simul praevidetur, dispensatione denegata,
cos coram judice infideli conjugium fore inituros, S. Congregatio S.
Officii in Fer. IV, 14 Aug. 1822, decrevit : " respondendum Oratoriy
quod in exposito casu utatur facultatibus sibi in Form. II. commissis,
prout in Domino expedire judicaverit." Tantum dicendum de
periculo, quod pars catholica cum acatholico Matrimonium celebrare
audeat.

19. Periculum incestuod concubinatus. Ex superius memorata
instructione an. 1829 elucet, disperisationis remedram, ne quis in
concubinatu insordescat cum publico scandalo, atque evident! aeternae
salutis discrimine, adhibendum esse.

13. Periculum matrimonii civilis. Ex dictis consequitur, probabile
periculum quod illi, qui dispensationem petunt, ea non obtenta,
matrimonium dumtaxat civile, ut aiunt, celebraturi sint, esse legitimam
dispensandi causam.

14. Eemotio gravium scandalorum.

15. Cessatio publici concubinatus.

16 Excellentia meritorum, cum aliquis aut contra fidei catholicae
hostes dimicatione aut liberalitate erga Ecclesiam, aut doctrina, virtu te,
aliove modo de Religione sit optime meritus.

Hae siict communiores, potioresque causae, quae ad matrimoniales
dispensationes impetrandas adduci solent : de qnibus copiose agunt
theologi, ac sacrorum canonum interpretes.

Sed jam se convertit Instructio ad ea, quae prae causas in literiB
supplicibus pro dispensatione obtinenda, de jure vel consuetudine, aut
stylo Curiae exprinaenda sunt, ita ut si etiam ignoranter taceatur
veritas, aut narretur falsitas, dispensatio nulla efficiatur. Haec autem
sunt : ,

1. Nomen et cognomen Oratorum utrumque distincte, ac nitide ac
sine ulla litterarum abbreviatione scribendum.

2. Dioecesis originis vel actualis dumicilii. Quando oratores habent
domicilium extra dioecesim originis, possunt, si velint, petere, ut dis-
pensatio mittatur ad Ordinafium dioecesis, in qua mine habitant.

3. Species etiam infirma impedimenti, an sit consanguinitas, vel
affinitas, orta ex copula licita' vel illicita ; publica honestas originem
ducens ex sponsalibus, vel matrimonio rato ; in impedimento criminis,
utrum provenerit ex conjugicidio cum promissione matrimonii, aut
ex conjugicidio cum adulterio, vel ex solo adulterio cum promissione

Document. 571

matrimonii : in cognatione spiritual!, utrum sit inter levantem et
levatum, vel inter levantem et levati parentem.

4. Gradus consanguinitatis vel affinitatis aut honestatis ex matri-
monio rato, et an sit simplex, vel mixtus, non tantum remotior, sed
etiam propinquior, uti et linea, an sit recta et transversa ; item an
Oratores sint conjunct! ex duplici vinculo consanguinitatis, tarn ex
parte patris, quam ex parte matris.

5. Numerus impedimentorum, e. gr. si ndsit duplex aut multiplex
consanguinitas vel affinitas, vel si praeter cognationem adsit etiam
affinitas, aut aliud quodcumque impedimentum sive dirimens, sive
impediens.

6. Variae circumstantiae, scilicet an matrimonium sit contrahen-
dum, vel contractum ; si jam contractum, aperiri debet, an bona fide
saltern ex parte unius, vel cum scientia impediment!; idem an
praemissis denuntiationibus, et juxta formam Tridentini ; vel an spe
facilius dispensationem obtinendi ; demum an sit consummatum, si
mala fide, saltern unius partis, seu cum scientia impediment!.

7. Copula mcestuosa habita inter sponsos ante dispensationis
executionem, sive ante, sive post ejus impetrationem, sive intentione
facilius dispensationem obtinendi, sive etiam seclusa tali intentione,
et sive copula publice nota sit, sive etiam occulta. Si haec reticean-
tur, subrepticias esse et nullibi ac nullo modo valere dispensationes
super quibuscumque gradibus prohibitis consanguinitatis, affinitatis,
cognationis spiritualis, et legalis, necnon et publicae honestatis
declaravit S. Congregatio S. Officii, fer. IV., 1 Augusti 1860. In
petenda vero dispensatione super impedimento affinitatis primi vel
secundi gradus lineae collateralis, si impedimentum nedum ex
matrimouio consummato cum defuncto conjuge Oratoris vel Oratricis,
sed etiam ex copula antematrimoniali seu fornicaria cum eodem
defuncto ante initum cum ipso matrimonium patrata oriatur,
necesse non est, ut mentio fiat hujusmodi illicitae copulae, quemad-
modum patet ex responso S. Poenitentiariae diei 20 Martii 1845,
probante s.m. Greg. XVI ad Episcopum Namurcensem, quod,
generale esse, idem Tribunal literis diei 10 Decembris, 1874, edixit.

Haec prae oculis habere debent non modo qui ad S, Sed em pro
obtinenda aliqua matrimoniali dispensatione recurrunt, sed etiam qui
ex pontificia delegatioae dispensare per se ipsi valent, ut facultatibus,
quibus pollent, rite, ut par est, utantur.

Datum ex ^Edibus S. C. de Prop, Fide die 9 Matt. }8S7,

. [ 572 ]

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

GOD, KNOWABLE AND KNOWN. Beoziger Brothers.

UNDER this title Father Ronayne, S.J., gives us a clear and
very readable work upon natural theology ; to use his own
words — " he has attempted to draw out, in English, arguments that
bear upon the existence and knowableness of God." In proving his
thesis he does not pretend to originality; his aim indeed, as he
states in his preface, is to show that in the war with infidelity old
arguments that have been before the human mind during all the
ages are as available now as in any period of the past, and need only
be refurbished that they may perfectly suit our modern uses.

Books of this sort are nowadays a decided gain ; they popularise
knowledge which a century back would be in place only in the lecture
hall of a university, but which now must be at hand for the safety and
defence of minds that move on a much lower intellectual level. It
used be the luxury of the learned and cultured to indulge a refined
scepticism concerning the first principles of knowledge, to narrow our
thoughts to mere sense perceptions, to dispute about a First Cause,
and to pride themselves in finding methods of questioning its reality
or weakening its demonstration. But in our time we have changed all
that ; the active propaganda of unbelief and agnosticism has made
these* questions burning topics in circles that are badly prepared for
their discussion. This is the warfare of infidelity that our 'author
speaks of, and which now is waged upon men of peace, in no way
prepared for such hostilities, and this treatise on God, Known and
Knowable, is a manual of drill that will enable them to cope with the
enemy and meet him at every turn.

Father Ronayne professes to have sought light wherever he
believed he might find it ; but his main help and strength has
evidently been borrowed from scholasticism. But in turn he has
given their theories such treatment and exposition as they rarely meet
with at the hands of writers trained according to the systems in
vogue in English speaking countries. In the opening chapter on
"Nature witnessing to God," he develops in a masterly way the
physico-theological arguments that evince the necessity of a supreme
ruler and architect, and further brings into very clear light how
contingent things postulate some self-existing and necessary Being from
whose hands they must ultimately proceed. These arguments are put

Notices of Books, 573

forward with great skill, and the conversational form into which they
are thrown is an admirable scheme for introducing the objections that
modern thought has evolved against the various reasons adduced in
the central thesis. Here and there the author deviates somewhat
from scholastic doctrine, as for instance, page 45, where he writes : —
"I hold that all bodies have an activity peculiar to them, and that
their very essence is the principle of their activity." To the first
part of this sentence no sound schoolman would demur, but we think
they would put the other section in a more confined and more correct
form.

But in so far as it is an exposition of scholastic principles, the
second chapter on the "Data of Natural Knowledge," is the most
valuable portion of this work. The form is somewhat different from
that of the opening section, the interlocutory method is laid aside,
and, perhaps, there are traces of transcription from Latin manuals,
and an absence of that smoothness that shows complete assimilation,
but at the same time it presents a singularly just and adequate view
of the schoolmen's theory of thought. It faces, too, every difficulty;
and treats Pantheism with the scorn and contempt it deserves.
The notion of Being (we are told, at page 105), which Pantheists
abstracts from things they take for Deity, much after the manner
that Positivists abstract human humanity from mortal men, and then
set it up as a divinity. This is the most subtle and most recent form
of this delirium, and meeting it vigorously and overthrowing it
our author deserves the thanks of all who love true principles and
sound philosophical enquiry.

This section could be made more intelligible to non-scholastics,
by appending in some places definitions or explanations of the terms
used. For instance, page 72, we read : " that the sensible rendered
intelligible by the working of the active intellect becomes connatural
to it ;" which, putting aside that it is the loose way of putting th<»
matter, is difficult to follow without knowing what the nature an
functions of the Intellectus Agens may be. This might interrupt the
flow of the eloquent periods, but it would seem to be necessary for
those readers with respect to whom the book is bound to do its best
work.

Of the remaining chapters we have no room to speak ; but they
seem as satisfactory as those we have so far analysed. Taken as a
whole, the work is bound to do great and far-reaching good. It will
popularise sound philosophy, it will enable plain people to reap some of
the fruits promised to the learned from the revival of scholastic

574 Notices of Books.

methods, it will adjust the armour of Saul to the shoulders of many
of less gigantic stature, and as a consequence, " give security to some
souls, and in a measure stem the tide of infidelity," which the author
proposes as the end and best reward of his labours.

A. W.

MEDITATIONS ON THE LIFE AND VIRTUES OF ST. IGNATIUS OF
LOYOLA, Founder of the Society of Jesus. Translated
from the French by M. A. W., and Revised by a Father
of the Society of Jesus. London : Burns & Gates, Limited
New York : Catholic Publication Society Co.
THE little volume before us contains an abstract of the life of St.
Ignatius, proposed in the form of Meditations on his admirable
virtues. These Meditations are divided according to the three states
of the spiritual life by which God Himself led the saint to perfection.
St. Ignatius, in the first instance, is proposed to us in the garb of a
penitent ; we are then invited to follow him through the different
stages of his ever- increasing sanctity, until after a life spent in pro-
moting the honour and glory of God and the salvation of his fellow-
man, we stand by his side to meditate on his calm and peaceful death.
Each Meditation is followed by maxims of the saint ; a brief recapitu-
lation of the points of the Meditation ; a petition for the virtue under
consideration, and, finally, to stimulate our devotion, an example is
introduced.

The careful perusal of these Meditations will, we feel confident,
be of great use to all classes ; sinners will find in them all-powerful
motives for contrition ; the lukewarm will be aroused to fervour,
while pious souls will have a large field for their holy thoughts and
devout aspirations.

THE VIRGIN MOTHER, ACCORDING TO THEOLOGY. By the
Rev. John Baptist Petitalot.

THIS work is a translation of the third edition of the Abbe Petitalot's
La Vierge Mere d'apres la Theologie, and as such gives a simple and
easy rendering of a very valuable book. It is full and satisfactory in
its treatment of that inexhaustible theme, the life and dignity, and
prerogatives of the Virgin Mother.

It is distinguished sharply from the host of somewhat similar
treatises, by the view it takes of the Madonna. It does not consist in
recounting the favours or miracles of the Blessed Virgin, nor does it
deal in rhapsodies or highly tinted word-pictures, such as Father Faber's

Notices of Books. 575

works have made us familiar with, but describes her as she appears
in the authentic light of Patristic teaching and severe theological
thought. It is well to accentuate this view of devotion to the
Blessed Virgin ; the more logical and reasonable our devotion towards
her becomes, the more secure it will be and the more worthy of her
supereminent dignity. Our love for Mary has no fear of investigation ;
rooted in eternal truths it will grow with a knowledge of her glory
and her power. As our author tells us, it would be still greater and
more tender if it were more thoughtful and better informed. This
fuller knowledge cannot be had by mere meditation, nor through the
obiter dicta of saints or mystics ; Habemus firmiorem propheticiiun
sermonem ; and to this we must needs attend if we would fully con-
solidate and define our devotion to the Virgin Mother.

This is the scope of this work ; it examines every aspect of the
question, from the Predestination of Mary and her Immaculate
Conception, to her Assumption and Celestial Glory. It treats of her
Virginity and Maternity, of her Joys and her Dolours, and gives the
true idea of devotion to her, and of her relation to the great mysteries
of our faith.

Being all this, it may be safely commended to our people and
clergy as a secure guide to popular devotion, and as a treasury of
thoughts well suited to the instruction and edification of the faithful.

A. W.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, FROM ITS FIRST ESTABLISHMENT
TO OUR OWN TIMES. By Rev. J. A. Birkhaeuser.
New York and Cincinnatti : F. Pustet & Co.

WE extend a hearty welcome to this work which comes to us
across the Atlantic. It is intended to supply " a real need of a good
English text book on Church history suited for theological students
and more advanced pupils." That such a work is necessary few will
deny. Alzog and Darras, the most popular of our text books, are not
at all suitable for students ; the former is more learned than useful,
while the manner of treating events pursued by the latter is an
insuperable objection to its suitableness as a text book.

Father Birkhaeuser's work in its general plan and execution is the
most suitable English text book for students we have seen. Its style
is clear and simple, while the order is everything that could be
desired. Not only is each question treated by itself, but also its
different parts are marked by letters or numerals — an arrangement
which while it assists the memory is calculated to produce habits

576 Notices tf Books.

of accuracy in the minds of students. Within the comparatively
narrow limits of 776 pages, the history of the Church is treated from
the birth of Christ down to the Vatican Council (1870), and nearly
every question of interest in the ecclesiastical history of that period
is touched on. We must, however, confess that in a book intended for
" the more advanced pupils," we should wish ta find a fuller treat-
ment of the more important questions, especially those of a contro-
versial kind, even at the cost of excluding others of less interest.
For instance, there are only a few lines of a footnote devoted to the
case of Galileo, though in recent times there is perhaps no other event
so frequently referred to by anti- Catholic writers in their attacks on
the Church. Moreover, the statement of the author that " the decree
against Galileo . . . was simply disciplinary not doctrinal" is,
to say the least, misleading; for granting that the decree of 1616
was purely disciplinary, the same cannot be said of the decree of
1633, which declared Galileo's heliocentric system " false and opposed
to Sacred Scripture."

There are some opinions advanced by Father Birkhaeuser which
we cannot accept. Thus, speaking of the False Decretals of Isidore,
he says i1 " The main object of the author in compiling this collection
was to defend and maintain by principles already universally acknow-
ledged, the dignity and prerogatives of the Roman Church ; the
relation of the Holy See to the Metropolitans and Provincial Synods,
and Suffragan Bishops to their Metropolitans ; and the independence
of the spiritual power from the secular." We admit that the purpose
of the writer was to protect the clergy against oppression by Metro-
politans, and to secure " the independence of the spiritual power from
the secular;" but the whole tenor of the Decretals forbids us to admit
^hat they were fabricated in the interests of Rome. Even Canon
Robertson, one of the best modern Protestant authorities on Church
history, says :2 " that the protection of Roman interests appears to
have been a result beyond the contemplation of those who planned or
executed them [the Decretals."]

Then we are told that St. Boniface " established the Church in
Germany upon a permanent footing by uniting the different Churches
already founded with the See of Rome."3 Surely the writer does not
mean to convey that the Churches of Germany, many of which were
founded by Irish missionaries, were not in union with Rome before
the time of St. Boniface »

1 P. 330. 3 Vol. iii. p. 323. 3 p. 260.

BX 801 .168 1889 SMC
The Irish ecclesiastical

record 47085658 ln

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