the dealer, it is St. Agatha. You see her holding a plate in which are her breasts. St. Lucia holds a plate in which are her eyes. We have only to paint out the breasts and paint in the eyes, and there you have Sta. Lucia. We often change them in this way.' There was, then, no difficulty, artistic or moral, in effecting the contemplated change in Bartolo's wonderful picture; nor does he seem to have apprehended any loss of its efficacy from the transformation. Bartolo writes with much simplicity how he asked the artist, the pious Maldarelli,' to change St. Rosa's crown of roses into St. Catherine's crown of thorns, and to paint into the palms of her hands the stigmata, in accordance with the legendary transmission of the tokens of the Saviour's passion to the hands, feet, and side of St. Catherine. It was also necessary to transform as far as possible the round, full-moon face given to St. Rosa in the poor old picture into the nobler countenance of St. Catherine, 'gentle and worn with penance, like that still to be seen in the Church of St. Dominic at Siena.' 6 Happily, Father Radente had bought a Marriage of St. Catherine' for the same low price-eight carlini-as he had paid for the original Rosary Madonna. This picture, a gift, like the former, to Sister Concetta Maria de Litala, she would lend as a model for the painter to work from. Here was seen St. Catherine receiving the ring of her heavenly spousals from the hand of the Infant Christ held in the arms of the Madonna of the Rosary. Nothing could be better in suggestion for the artist. And at length the wonderful picture was made perfect. The originally coarse features of the Madonna had been made more refined, her contours less unpleasantly plump; greater animation had been imparted to the Infant Christ; the oncevulgar features of St. Dominic had been ennobled St. Rosa had become St. Catherine of Siena. A new piece of canvas had been skilfully inserted over the Madonna's head, so that her figure occupied its proper position in the painting. Was this the old picture approved by wonders of healing, or was it a new one? It seemed that the Madonna was well pleased with the changes wrought in her image, for there appeared no diminution in its supernatural efficacy. THE MIRACLE OF THE MIRACULOUS PICTURE. Enclosed in a costly bronze frame estimated at 10,000 lire (£400), encircled by fifteen medallions representing the fifteen 'mysteries' of the Rosary, the picture now sits' enthroned high above the high altar of the Sanctuary of Valle di Pompei. So high is this throne' of the Rosary Queen that she is all but invisible to wondering spectators, and they must take on trust her superhuman beauty. Her countenance,' says Bartolo, inspires confidence, love, devotion; it is radiant with beauty. I am convinced that the Madonna, by a visible prodigy, herself has made her own image thus beautiful.' The painter Maldarelli could not have worked such a change; he himself would never claim the credit for it. So says the admiring and adoring Bartolo, glorying in this sign of the Madonna's approval of the new-born work in Valle di Pompei. It is a sad thing that the very lofty position of the picture debars ordinary spectators, like the present writer, from appreciating this vision of beauty. Perhaps it is due to the indifferent skill of modern copyists, perhaps to our own heretical unbelief, that the countless reproductions of the picture to be seen in Naples do not impress us by any remarkable beauty, but seem vastly inferior to many other Italian Madonnas. VIII OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY AND ST. DOMINIC THE HE Holy Athlete,' 'kind to his friends, cruel to his foes,' as says Dante in his 'Paradiso,' has been already briefly referred to in our pages as the institutor of the Rosary. It is necessary to dwell a little further on the character and career of this extraordinary man. A member of the noble Spanish house of Gusman, he saw the light first in the village of Calarugna, in Castile, A.D. 1170. He was educated at the University of Palenza, and it is recorded to his credit that during his student days, a famine having broken out, he sold his books and his furniture for the relief of the sufferers, and that his example stirred many others to like deeds of humanity. But his memory is associated with far other achievements. The legend goes that before his birth his mother dreamed that she would be delivered of a dog carrying in his mouth a burning torch. His admirers have interpreted this as an omen of the 'fire of Christian piety' to be kindled by the example of his glowing zeal; others have thought it portended only the flames of persecution which he was destined to kindle, and to fan into destroying fury. Dominic's piety proved of a really terrible ascetic character. It would seem as if Bartolo Longo had merely followed his example when tormenting his mortal body with fasting and watching and cruel scourgings. The Roman Breviary has much to say of the amazing holiness and thaumaturgic power of this Dominic of the house of Gusman. It tells how in life and after death' he worked wonderful miracles, 'having raised three persons 56 from the dead.. He was a pillar of the faith, a trumpet of the Spirit. a second harbinger of Christ.' His austerities and his devoutness recommended him to the Bishop Didacus, who gladly received him into the clergy. But while he was journeying to Rome in search of Papal aid and sanction for his enterprise of converting the heretics everywhere by sermons and disputations Didacus died. His death was followed by a complete change in the antiheretical campaign, now controlled by Dominic alone, for this fiery and impatient man now aimed, not at the conversion, but at the extirpation, of the 'heretics,' who vexed his soul by the commotions they had raised in the Church. With a few companions he made his way into France, to combat the French sectaries' on their own ground, and attacked the Albigenses and other so-called enemies of the faith not only with his own fiery eloquence and scholastic subtlety, but with the sword of the civil power and the terrors of the Inquisition, which, says Mosheim, 'owed its form to this violent and sanguinary priest.' Bartolo, in his 'Life of Dominic,' has tried to prove that the 'kind and generous' Saint had no part in the horrors of the crusades, and no connection with the Inquisition. More impartial historians see in him the first general Inquisitor. The Breviary tells us of 'seven years' spent by Dominic in attacking the 'Albigensian heretics.' Neander, speaking of the 'horrible crusade against the Albigenses,' tells us that the cruelties employed for the extirpation of heretics were approved and promoted' by Dominic. Now, be it remembered, the Madonna of New Pompei is the Madonna of the Rosary as given to Dominic; the ecclesiastical control and spiritual administration of the Sanctuary is in the hands of Dominican Fathers, acting under the direction of the General of the Dominicans as servants of the Pope. Thus the Sanctuary has historical relations with the Inquisition of to-day through its founder, Dominic. Don Bartolo is not unnaturally anxious to disavow such a connection with that terrible tribunal, held up as it has long been to public abhorrence throughout Italy in public schools, in Universities, in the press, on the stage. He has tried to disprove the universal belief that the Inquisition was founded by 'that meek and kindly Spanish patriarch, chosen by the Virgin to be the institutor of the Rosary in the world'; yet he would fain defend from the charge of 'cruelty' that purely ecclesiastical tribunal, most truly styled the Congregation of the Holy Office.' 6 His efforts have not obtained very much success in Italy. There exists still, visible to all the faithful in Santa Maria Novella at Florence, a painting illustrating the triumphs of the Dominicans, who are symbolized as black and white dogs, biting and driving off those 'grievous wolves'-i.e., hereticsdepicted as assaulting the flock of the Church, shepherded by the Emperor and the Pope. The furious hounds are well understood to represent the Dominicans-Domini canes, 'hounds of the Lord '-the black-and-white-robed Friars of the Holy Office. The dominant idea of that painting is openly and frankly accepted by Italian Catholics as one truly descriptive of that Order and of the Holy Office, and they are not slow to avow their detestation of both. This Dominican zeal for the extirpation of heresy is, moreover, plainly expressed in the dedicatory tablet of the Sanctuary, where the Madonna of the Rosary is glorified as 'the Conqueress of the Albigenses and all the enemies of the Christian name.' . Nor does it lessen the horror associated with the Inquisition to describe it as a 'purely ecclesiastical tribunal.' That has always been its character. But it is implied in the term ' ecclesiastical' when used by Rome. Has the Church of Rome renounced at all its venerable claim to the character of a State, a Government, having its laws, its magistracy, its power of inflicting punishment, even unto death'? Not for a moment. The claim has been openly reaffirmed in the present day, as we have already seen. Nor is the Inquisition dead; it is living, working, acting, judging, and passing sentence. This is admitted by Bartolo himself. Trial by bodily torture, public infliction of the death penalty, may not at |