foyson' of people came agaynst it and sayd. The man of god is founden yt the cyte sought. Whatsomever sike body myght touch the shryne, he was anone heled of his malady.

There was a blynde man y' recouered hys syght, and lame and other he heled. The emperour made. grete foyson of golde and syluer to be throwen amonge ye people for to make waye y' the shryne myght passe. And thus, by grete labour and réuerence, was borne the body of Saint Alexis unto the churche of Saynt Bonyface, ye glorious martyr. And there was the body put in a shryne moche honourably made of golde and syluer, ye seuenth daye of Juyll. And al the people rendred thankynges and laudes to our lorde God for his grete myracles, unto whome be gyuen honour, laude and glory in secula seculorum. Amen 3.

From the preceding narratives, the reader may discover some of the most prominent features of Roman Catholic worship. Let us glance at the story. Here is a young man connected by the closest of all

From the GoLDen Legend, Ed. 1527. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde," at the sygne of the Sonne," in Fleet-street.

ties to a deserving female, whom he marries to read a theological lecture, and then leave a prey to irremediable regret. He associates with a number of squalid wretches, and exists on the precarious bounty of strangers in the most unprofitable, not to say knavish indolence. In the mean time his broken hearted parents are devoured by an intense anxiety, of which he is totally regardless. I pass the miraculous part of this veritable history; if Prince Hohenlohe's marvels deserve credit, it would be incongruous and inconsistent to refuse it here. Our "pious Æneas," disguised in the accumulated filth of seventeen years, returns to his father's house. Here he breeds a race of vermin; and luxuriously battens upon the garbage, which the servants, aware of his peculiar taste, plentifully, and one might think, properly, communicated. All this while he is an eyewitness, and an ear-witness, of the misery his absence occasions; and, as if to complete the perfection of such a character, he leaves behind him a scroll, of which the only effect must necessarily be to arouse a keener agony, and to quicken a dying despair. And this is the monstrous compound, which a voice from Heaven proclaims holy, and which miracles are called in to sanction! This is to be emphatically, a "MAN OF GOD!" He, who neglects every relative

duty; he who is a cruel and ungrateful son, a bad husband, and careless master; he whose whole life is to consume time, not to employ it to vegetate, but not to exist-to dream away life, with every sense locked up, every capability destroyed, every good principle uncultivated-and that too in the most loathsome and degraded condition-THIS, is to be a Man of God!

That the story before us contains a faithful picture of the times, and of many succeeding times; that it describes the prevailing tenets of Popery, will be generally admitted. Some, indeed, whose charity "hopeth the best," will be ready to believe, that the colours of an imaginative mind have been scattered along it; and that, however correspondent the outline may be, the sketch has been filled up by the aid of exaggeration, while embellishment has stepped into the place of truth. But we have unfortunately too many prototypes in nature; history is too copious in examples to oblige us to have recourse to fiction for an illustrative comment. The life of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of Jesus, presents a very singular and apposite confirmation of the remark; and I am happy to have received a most obliging permission to extract an able article on this subject from a late number of the Retrospective Review-a work, which I have no hesita

tion in commending, whether for the soundness of its principles, the depth and accuracy of its researches, or the high intellectual superiority with which it has hitherto been conducted.

"We must commence our history in the year 1491, which was rendered important by the birth of Ignatius, who first saw the light in Spain, in the district called Guipuscoa. Being descended from an ancient family, the lords of Ognez and Loyola, and moreover well-shaped and of a lively temper, his father destined him for the court, where he was sent at an early age as page to king Ferdinand. Incited, however, by the example of his brothers, who had distinguished themselves in the army, and his own love of glory, he soon grew weary of the inactivity of a court life, and determined to seek renown in

1 This production deserves every share of public favour; and large as the present sale is said to be, I have no doubt of its increase. The nature of the publication, confined as it is to past ages of literature, will probably preclude that circulation to which its merits justly entitle it; but no man, who takes an interest in the progress of the human mind, and who would know something of works formerly so popular, though now subjected to the mutabilities of human caprice, " to time and chance, which happeneth to all," will neglect an occasion of acquiring as much as investigation can achieve, or ability communicate. In support of these remarks I refer to an article on CHAUCER contained in the Seventeenth Number-not perhaps as the best, but as one among many good.

This

war. He applied himself with great assiduity and success to his military exercises, and soon qualified himself for the service of his prince. It is said, that on all occasions he displayed great bravery and conduct; but the writers of his life being more interested in the detail of his theological warfare, have passed over his military achievements with a slight notice, except the affair which was the more immediate cause of what is called his conversion. was the siege of Pampeluna by the French; on which occasion Don Ignatius, then about thirty years of age, displayed great gallantry, and was wounded by a splinter in his left leg, and his right was almost at the same moment broken by a cannon shot. The wounds were for a time considered dangerous; and the physicians declared, that unless a change took place before the middle of the night they would prove fatal: it was therefore thought adviseable that the sacrament should be administered to him. This fortunately happened to be the eve of St. Peter, for whom Ignatius had a special veneration, and in whose praise he had formerly indited certain Spanish verses. This early piety, says Maffei, produced no small fruit, for before the critical time of the night arrived, the apostle appeared to him in a vision, bringing healing on his wings.'