nineteen out of twenty of our standard writers for the last five hundred years? Would his line of argument be thought conclusive?

But though we have no direct, we have at least indirect testimonies of the fact from the first five centuries of the Church. We have the evidence of writers, both Greek and Latin, from the sixth to the present century, many of whom refer to the testimony of previous writers, and nearly all of whom speak on the subject in a tone of confidence, which precludes every doubt, and proves that they are only giving utterance to the general and settled belief of their age -a belief too, not of a new opinion, but of a fact handed down from previous centuries. If such be the characters of the evidence we are about to adduce, it must certainly be viewed as strong, if not conclusive. And that they are such, we think every impartial mind will admit.

Our first witness is St. Gregory of Tours, a writer of the sixth century, and the father of French history. Speaking of the Assumption of the Virgin, he uses this clear and explicit language:* "The Lord ordered the most sacred body of the Virgin to be taken up to Paradise, where now, united with her soul, it is exulting with the elect, and enjoying forever, without any fear of change, the goods of eternity." Had there been any doubt on the subject in the sixth century, he would certainly have spoken with some hesitancy. St. Ildefonsus of Toledo, a writer of the seventh century, bears evidence to the same belief, though it must be admitted, that he speaks less confidently. He says: "Nor ought we to omit, what many through a feeling of piety most willingly believe, that she was on this day bodily raised up to the palace of heaven." Were it deemed important to multiply testimonies to establish what few will deny-the general belief in the bodily Assumption of the Virgin in the Latin Church after the sixth century-we might bring the testimony of Fulbert, of St. Peter Damians, and of Peter Blesensis, who wrote in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. St. Thomas of Aquin, and the scholastic Theologians generally, held the same belief.T

The testimony of the Greek Fathers is perhaps more important, because they lived nearer Jerusalem where the fact occurred, and perhaps had access to many sources of information, which may not have been open to those of the Western Church. Many of them in fact appeal to the testimony of previous writers, whose works have since perished. Thus, about the year 630, St. Modestus delivered a discourse on the Assumption, in which he proved the fact from reason, and from the testimony of more ancient authors. This work is cited by Photius in his Bibliotheca Orientalis, and was published at Rome by M. Giacomelli in 1760. Towards the close of the seventh century, Andrew of Crete, not only states the fact of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin, but gives it with all the important details referred to above.** In the eighth century, St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, bears explicit testimony to the same fact.tt

Among the Greek writers of the eighth century, none was more distinguished than St. John Damascene. As a historian, as a critic, and as a theologian, he stands justly pre-eminent among the writers of his age. He would not surely have hazarded a statement on so grave a subject, without being borne out by the strongest evidence. In the second of his Homilies, "on the sleep of the Virgin," he relates the following public facts, and appeals to the authority of the Historian Euthymius, as his warrant for the statement. The Em

• Lib. de Miracalis c. iv. † Sermo vi. de Assumpt.

Sermo 2, de Nativitate. Sermo de Assumpt. Sermo 28 de Assumpt.

Summa. Pars iii. Quest. 27, Art. 1. **Orat. in Dorm. B. M. tt Orat. in Dorm. Deip:

press Pulcheria had erected a magnificent Church at Constantinople, which she had dedicated to God, under the name and invocation of the Virgin. Influenced with an ardent desire to find the body of the Blessed Mother of God, she and her imperial consort Marcian, sent an embassy to Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, desiring him to use every exertion to find the body, which, they had learned, was still preserved in her tomb in the Garden of Gethsemani. Juvenal answered, that the tomb still remained, but that the body was not thereand that on the third day after her death, the Apostles having opened her tomb, found nothing but her garments, which exhaled a most fragrant odor. Marcian and Pulcheria then directed that the sepulchre with the garments, well sealed, should be brought to Constantinople. These facts are also related by Nicephorus, in his history, written in the following century. Some have attempted to invalidate the testimony of Nicephorus, who further states that the tomb was actually transferred to Constantinople, by alleging the fact that Burchard in his Travels,† and several other writers testify to having seen the tomb of the Virgin in the Garden of Gethsemani, for centuries after the reign of Marcian and Pulcheria, in the fifth century. But this has but little force; for Nicephorus may be understood as implying, that the bier only, or inner portion of the Virgin's tomb, was transported to the Imperial City, and that the tomb itself, or rather the monument erected over it, remained at Jerusalem.

Here then we have a very grave writer, stating a public fact, the actors in which were an Emperor, an Empress and a Bishop, and supporting his assertion by appealing to the testimony of a previous writer, then well known. We also find his testimony confirmed by that of a standard historian of the following century. Would Damascene have hazarded the assertion, under the circumstances, unless the fact had been deemed evident and incontestible? Had he done so, would not some one have contradicted him? Would not the facts, and the documents which he alleged, have been called in question? And would Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, have given the answer he did to the imperial envoys, unless he had been fully warranted in doing so, by the uninterrupted tradition of his Church?

But we have still stronger evidence for the fact we are endeavoring to establish-we have the public and official documents of both the Latin and of the Greek Church, contained in their respective Martyrologies, Sacramentaries, and Liturgies. The bodily Assumption of the Virgin is clearly implied in a prayer prescribed for the Feast of the Assumption, in the Sacramentary of Pope Gelasius, as enlarged by Pope Gregory the Great, towards the close of the sixth century. The old Gothic Missal, edited by Cardinal Thomasius, end republished with notes by the learned Mabillon, clearly asserts the same fact. We must observe, that this Missal is at least as old as the eighth century; for it went out of use early in the ninth, when, by order of Charlemagne, the Roman Missal began to be generally used throughout Germany and France. To the testimony of the Missals and Sacramentaries, we may add that of the ancient Martyrologies. In the old Martyrology of the Latin Church, the Feast of the Assumption is clearly mentioned. It is remarkable, however, that in this, as in many similar ancient documents, two distinct feasts are indicated: one of her Depositio, Dormitio, or death, which was set down for the 18th of January, and the other of her transitus, or Assumption, which was celebrated as at present on the 15th of August.

It is not altogether certain when the Feast of the Assumption was first in

*

stituted and observed in the Church; nor is it important to our present inquiry. The fact of the Assumption may have been undoubted, and yet for various reasons, a feast to commemorate it on a special day may have been delayed.It appears certain, that shortly after the council of Ephesus in 431, several feasts of the Virgin began to be celebrated throughout both the Latin and the Greek churches. It is also certain that the feast of the Assumption was generally observed before the close of the 6th century, when the emperor Mauritius, as we learn from Nicephorus, published an edict by which he commanded all his subjects to observe this feast on the same day-the 15th of August. About two centuries later, an edict of similar tencr was issued by Charlemagne.These imperial laws were no doubt made with the express or tacit consent of the bishops, and were designed, not to institute new feasts, but to secure uniformity in the observance of those already in existence. In regard to the feast in question, this uniformity in respect to the day has existed throughout the Greek and Latin churches for more than twelve centuries. The Greek church not only bears evidence to the fact of the Assumption, in her Menologium,† or martyrology, but has even gone farther on this subject than the Latin church, and confirmed it, in a public synod held at Jerusalem in the year 1672, under the Patriarch Dositheus. Among the declarations of this council in opposition to the doctrines of Calvin, is found a very strong one in favour of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and of her bodily assumption.

To conclude, we have endeavoured to prove that the belief in the bodily assumption of the Virgin is both reasonable in itself and sustained by strong his torical evidence. No valid argument against its reasonableness can be adduced either from philosophy or from Revelation: and from history no positive proof can be alleged against the fact. The unanimous consent on the subject of the Greek and Latin, and oriental churches-the general consent of martyrologies and liturgies-the common opinion of christ ans attached to all the old churches, and the difficulties of explaining this wondrous agreement, unless on the hypothesis that the fact really occurred-constitute, taken together, a mass of evidence which no reasonable mind can resist. The maxim of Tertullian may be here applied, quod ab omnibus est creditum, non est erratum, sed traditum.""What all agree in believing is not an error but a sound tradition." This is specially true, when this common belief and agreement are found to exist in the bosom of that church which was built "upon a rock," concerning which Christ pledged his solemn word, that "the gates of hell should not prevail against it," and to the ministers of which he promised, that "He would be with them all days even to the end of the world.‡ (Math. xvi. and xxvIII.

P. F.

We append to the foregoing learned contribution to the pages of the Cabinet, the following lines taken from an English Catholic Journal. They will be found to contain a fine poetical description of the Assumption. They were attached to Raphael's picture of the Assumption exhibited last year at the Bristol (England) Institution. The poet, it will be seen, has adopted the opinion, that the Holy Virgin died at Ephesus.

• Lib 17, c 28. † Ad. diem 15, Augusti.

Those who wish to see more upon this interesting subject may consult an essay sur le Trepas de la Sainte Vierge in the cible de Vence, Tom. 12; also, Suarez Tractat de Mysteries B. M. Virginis; the Vindicie Assumptionis contra Launojum, written by an anonynous author, under the fictitious name, Avocat, Thomdssin Traite des Fetes lív 2, ch. 20; and Benedict 14, de Festis J. C. et B. M. V. c. 8, and de Canoniz La 1 c. 43, &c. &c.'

In Ephesus our Lady dear,
Christ's holy mother, died,

And many a day around the bier
Her mourners watched and sigh'd.

For, O, she wore no look of death
In that long slumber deep;

But seemed as one whose gentle breath
Forebore to breathe asleep.

Her lips still kept their native red,
Her eyes retained their light,
And round the honours of her head
A glory circled bright.

No wonder, then, her mourners dear
Should common custom waive,
And for a long, long time forbear
To give her to the grave.

At length, by awe and reverence led,
With faith to cheer the gloom,
They made in mother earth a bed,
And gave her to the tomb.

With skill did they the same devise,
And bade the stone record-

"Here waiting resurrection lies
The Mother of our Lord."

Not long, when from the countries round
The bless'd Apostles came,-

The chosen few still faithful found
To spread their Master's name.

And soon they found that sacred place
Where she was laid to rest,-
The hailed as Mary full of grace
By Gabriel the blest.

To Salem all with one accord

They will her body bear,

And lay her where was laid the Lord,
In Joseph's sepulchre.

With pious awe they lift the stone,

That holds her name in trust;

Where late beneath, outstretched and prone, Was laid her hallow'd dust.

With reverence deep, they bend, they bow, Look down into the tomb,

And what see they ?-fresh flowrets blow In all their summer bloom.

The fragrant lily, fair and white,
Profusely flourished there,

'Mong leaves as green, and full and bright, As ever did earth bear.

While round about, in order brave,

Did roses thickly bloom,

A London contemporary furnishes us with the subjoined extracts from the works of protestant writers, which we have willingly transferred to our pages, for motives which it requires no wizzard to penetrate.

"The Catholic mission is guided by a zealous and well-informed superintendent, under the title of Vicar-Apostolic of the Islands of the western Pacific, settled at Kororarika, where he performs Mass. He has been very assiduous in his duties, and is very sanguine as to the result. With those Mowrees (natives) to whom he is known, he seems popular. He is a native of France, M. Pompaliere: the natives call him the Pikypo, for whatreas on I know not;—