Catholic Miracles in Germany. 401 splendidly presented to the world, their wonder-working powers every day attracted greater notice, and the fame of their cures spread far and wide, so that on the Prince's arrival, in January 1821, at Eichstädt, the whole country for fifty miles round was in commotion, and the roads were covered with patients afflicted with various maladies, travelling on foot and on horseback, in carriages and sledges, to be healed. Two illustrious personages were said to have been cured, the Princess of Schwarzenburg, and the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the former of debility in the limbs, the latter of a deafness which had afflicted him from his childhood. Hitherto the cures had been performed by prayer and exorcism, between the party desiring relief and Michel and the Prince; the police of Bamberg and Würzburg now interfered, very wisely not to forbid that any more miracles should be wrought, but to prohibit secret proceedings between the workers of them and the patients, and to require that what was done should take place openly, and in the presence of scientific men. On June 28, 1821, accordingly the experiment was tried on twenty patients in the Julius hospital at Würzburg, but without the smallest success, as is attested by a protocol regularly drawn up, although the faith of the common people was so strong that every one of them was believed to have been cured. At Bamberg a commission was appointed for the purpose of investigating the reality of the alleged cures; the Prince tried his gifts in their presence, upon a number of sick persons, without any effect; and as reports continued to be spread of miracles wrought by him in private families, each of these cases was separately inquired into, and the result was, that in none of them did any cure appear to have been effected. Of course the failures were all attributed to want of faith, and those whom he could not heal, the Prince exhorted to come again, after confession and communion, with their minds in a better frame. The two cases which have excited the most attention, those of the Princess of Schwarzenburg, and the Crown Prince of Bavaria, when the circumstances are carefully examined, will appear to be any thing but miraculous. The prescribing an unchangeable model of faith, seems to keep her children at the greatest possible distance from the dangers of infidelity. This we believe to have been the case with the pious Count Stolberg, whose conversion was the subject of a controversy which filled the German newspapers and periodical publications about two years since; and the same motive appears to have influenced a descendant of the celebrated Haller, who has lately published an account of his secession from the Reformed Church of Switzerland to Popery. Others, like Frederic Schlegel, (if indeed his conversion is not to be attributed to the baser motive of worldly ambition,) being men of taste and poetical feeling, find Protestantism too modern, cold and naked for them, and exchange it for the pomp, magnificence and antiquity of Popery. The vulgar, meanwhile, are assailed by their credulity, and an attempt has been recently made to revive the scenes exhibited at the tomb of Abbé Paris, in the South of Germany, which, perhaps, only needed a violent interference of government to produce a delusion equally extensive and extravagant. The principal actors in this affair are a peasant of the name of Martin Michel, of Unterwittighausen, in the grand duchy of Baden, and an ecclesiastic of high rank, the Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe Schillingsfürst. Michel appears to have recovered from some disorder, as he believed, by prayer, and afterwards to have applied the same remedy with the same success to other afflicted persons, till his fame spreading through the neighbourhood, he was persuaded by the priests to consider his miraculous power as a proof of the divine authority of the Catholic Church, and as a manifestation of Divine power, designed for the seasonable purpose of convincing the world that this Church alone inherited. the gifts of healing promised to the apostles. The Prince of Hohenlohe, a very young man, at the present time, we believe, not 28 years of age, residing in his neighbourhood, and having, it should seem by his own account, discovered his own prayers to possess a similar virtue, and being equally zealous for the glory of the Catholic Church, was naturally led to join his operations with those of Michel Martin. Thus Princess, according to the testimony of her medical attendant, Heine, had been making progress towards the recovery of the power of walking, and he had announced to her connexions his hopes that her cure would soon be completed. In this state of things Martin Michel is introduced to her, prays over her with great fervour, raises her mind to a state of high excitement, produces that confidence in her own power which medical men know is in such cases alone wanting to accomplish the effect, commands her to walk,-she makes the experiment, and finds that she can do so. The deafness of the Crown Prince of Bavaria had been only a hardness of hearing, and though, by his own testimony, he heard a great deal better after the prayers of Prince Alexander than before, he confesses that he still hears much worse than other people. It remains to be seen too, whether even this partial amendment will be per manent. The caution with which the Court of Rome proceeded in respect to this affair, appears at first sight extraordinary. The letter addressed to the Vicar-General, Baron von Gross, at Bamberg, is to the following effect: "We have heard with pleasure of the wonderful cures accomplished by the prayers of our beloved son, Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe, and exhort him to continue them, avoiding, however, all noisy publicity, lest that which is holy be made the object of idle curiosity or ridicule. We expect from the Vicar-General an exact and faithful account of the most important of these cures, corroborated by testimony on oath, and we will then summon a special consistory, which, after strict examination, shall decide whether they really bear the character of miracles." Papal infallibility was not wont in former days to wait for affidavits in order to pronounce its decrees; but the reason of this cautions proceeding is evident. The letter was received on September 8; on June 28 the Prince had failed in his attempts to cure the patients in the hospital: no doubt this fact was known at Rome when the rescript was drawn up, and it is, therefore, with consummate prudence that he is exhorted to avoid noisy publicity, and that the final decision on his miracles is referred to a consistory, which, no doubt, will hold its first sitting on the Grecian Kalends. This affair, absurd as it may seem to us, has excited very great attention in Germany, from the attempt made to connect the miracles of the Prince and Michel with the claims of the Catholic Church. The review of the pamphlets occasioned by it fills 35 pages in the Jenaische Allgemeine Litteratur-Zeitung of March this year, from which the facts above related have been extracted. Among them are discourses preached by Ammon at Dresden, and Bretschneider at Gotha, both men of great consideration among the Saxon theologians, and who would hardly have troubled their audiences upon such a subject, had not the reported miracles made a considerable impression, even in their comparatively distant sphere. We see no reason for charging the principal agents in this transaction with any wilful fraud. Michel appears to be an ignorant enthusiastic peasant, who had been led by some accidental circumstances, to attribute a peculiar virtue to his own intercessions, and was persuaded by the priests to consider himself as a living proof of the apostolical tradition of the gift of healing in the true Church. Neither he nor the Prince appears to have derived emolument from their miraculous powers, or to have practised any collusion with the persons alleged to have been benefited by them. In this, as in all the cases of similar popular delusion, there can be no doubt that real benefit has been derived by some persons whose disorders have been of such a nature that lively excitement and strong agitation were calculated to be useful to them. The German Thaumaturgi will serve to furnish an additional chapter to Douglas's Criterion. Their fame seems already to be dying fast away. In the Frankfort Journal of Oct. 6, 1821, Michel gives notice that he is going on a journey for an indefinite time, and shall not be able to receive the visits of those who had announced their intention of coming to him. The Prince on the 15th of the same month, declares by the same channel, “that his professional duties and the weak state of his health compel him to decline the visits of those who meant to apply to him." This illness of the Servetus in Reply to Mr. Yates on 1 Cor. i. 2. universal healer reminds us of what is said to have happened to Von Feinagle, of artificial memory, when in this country. Having lost a bank note, he applied to the police to assist him in recovering it, and on being told that it was necessary they should know the number, he was compelled to confess that he had forgotten it. "Nec prosunt domino quæ prosunt omnibus artes!" K. [Prince Hohenlohe's miracles are not, it seems, confined to Germany, or to his own presence. The Catholic Miscellany, a magazine recently established for the support of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, contains in the number just published the following account of a supernatural cure, effected by the Prince's means, in England: "Miss BARBARA O'CONNOR, aged 29 years, a choir nun of the community of English ladies formerly established at Leeds, but now residing at New Hall, near Chelmsford, Essex, was attacked in November 1820, with a malady in her right arm, accompanied by excruciating pain. In the December following, she lost the entire use of her hand and arm, so that she could not move a finger. Recourse was had to medical art, and the most distinguished practitioners were employed, particularly Mr. Carpue, of London, to restore the afflicted limb, but without effect. From December 23, 1820, till the 3rd of last May, the pain continued without intermission, and the limb paralytic, though the swelling was at times reduced by the application of medicine. On the 5th of March last, Prince HOHENLOHE was applied to by letter, who, in reply, dated Bamberg, March 16, gave notice that he would offer up mass for the afflicted sister on May 3, at eight o'clock, and invoke for her the sacred name of Jesus. The invalid made a retreat and a nine days' devotion, and prepared herself by a general confession. On the same day, at the same hour, mass was likewise celebrated by the chaplain of the convent, and all the sisters communicated. At twenty minutes past eight, as the priest was beginning to read the last gospel, Miss O'Connor felt a powerful emotion; she heard a sudden crack in her right shoulder, from which a thrilling sensation darted to the ends of her fingers, the pain instantly ceased, and motion was simultaneously restored to both her arm and hand, the free use of which she continues to enjoy to this day. as 403 "For some time previously to the cure, Miss O'Connor had left off the use of medicine. On May 2, however, she was visited by Dr. Badley, of Chelmsford, and Mr. Barlow, a surgeon of Writtle, who it to be in as bad a state as they had ever both examined her arm, and pronounced seen it; the wrist measured 15 inches round. They both visited her again shortly after the sudden cure, expressed their astonishment at the change they witnessed, and attributed it to the intervention of Divine power and goodness. Dr. Badley, in a letter dated May 24, which he wrote to a gentlemen on the subject, observes in conclusion, This, my dear Sir, battles all reasoning. What can we say? Nothing; but bow in silent wonder and admiration; or burst out with the poet-These are thy wonderous works, Parent of good! Almighty!" The same magazine thus announces the Catholic conversions in Germany, to which our correspondent has alluded: "During the present year two foreigners, named John Christopher Rous and Thomas Watts, made abjuration of Protestantismu in the church of St. Nicholas of Chardonnet; and also two English gentlemen, who have received confirmation in a private chapel. Other great examples are daily occurring; the learned as well as the simple have opened their eyes to the truth; pastors, men of letters, professors and magistrates have returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church. A distinguished professor of Lausanne was lately employed to answer Mr. Haller; this task obliged him to read controversy, and the result was his conviction of the truth of Catholic doctrines, and his renunciation of error. He has since entered among the Jesuits at Fribourg." SIR, MR. ED.] R. YATES infers, (p. 292,) that my own view of the construetion of the words of 1 Cor. i. 2, σvy πασι τοις επικαλεμενοις το όνομα το Κύριε ήμων Ιησε Χριςε εν παντι τοπῳ, is not clear; because, as he supposes, I have offered no less than five different translations of them: this is a is merely verbal, for the sense is idenmistaken supposition: the difference vertible! This may be elucidated by tically the same. The terms are cona reference to Dr. Clarke: Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, Works, IV. 73, No. 691, where he notices that James ii. 7, "that worthy name by which ye name." The competency of Wakefield, as a scholar, to decide on the meaning of an idiom used by Jewish writers who wrote in Greek, was by me taken for granted, and I did not conceive it incumbent on me to furnish the proofs of the accuracy of his opinion. Wakefield renders Acts ix. 14, "to bind all that call themselves by thy name," which is equivalent in sense, though a little varied in phrase, with his rendering of 1 Cor. i. 2, " that take upon themselves the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." For this usage of εnikaλeoμai, in the middle or reciprocal sense, he has Schleusner's authority. Hammond, with whom Locke agrees, says, σε επικαλείσθαι ονομα is to be called by the name' of Jesus Christ as by a surname; marking the peculiar union which subsists between us and Christ, as of a spouse with her husband, or as of a slave with his master, who is also called by his master's name." Whether we adopt the passive or middle sense, the words still convey the same meaning; for, as Schleusner remarks, "the formulary ETIKAREαι ovoμa Tivos, signifies universally, to profess some certain person's religion."" I cannot, therefore, agree with Mr. Yates, that the difference in the middle or passive use of the verb is at all material. Among the various senses enumerated by Dr. Clarke, (Scrip. Doct. No. 691,) in which this phrase is used, only one implies direct invocation: Acts vii. 59, when Stephen, who sees Jesus present with him in a vision, calls upon him "to receive his spirit:" but Hammond, speaking of the use of the word generally in the New Testament, says expressly, “Eкaλa signifies to be named (or surnamed); Matt. x. 3; Luke xxii. 3; Acts i. 23, iv. 36, and in other places, in which it has a passive, not an active, signification." Thus, Sir, if I see no difficulty in the formula before us, and feel no doubt as to its bearing and import, I have at least the countenance of better scholars than myself. Mr. Yates, in support of his hypothesis, that this is "one of the difficulties left in revelation for the purpose of inculcating humility and candour," quotes a passage from the Trinitarian translators of the Bible, importing that "it has pleased God, in his divine providence, here and there to scatter words and sentences of difficulty and doubtfulness :" that "fearfulness would therefore better beseem us than confidence, and that, if we will resolve, we should resolve upon modesty." Now, Sir, I, for my part, cannot understand the modesty which hesitates when all is at stake. Paul speaks of "great boldness in the faith;" and he who, through modesty, doubts whether Christ may not have been invocated in prayer, in opposition to his own express contrary command, John xvi. 23, may, through the same modesty, hesitate whether he ought not to acknowledge that the sacramental bread is Christ's body. There is an end of all critical discussion or inquiry, and there remains only an orthodox " prostration of the understanding." The extract from the preface to the Bible assumes what I am by no means disposed to grant, the plenary inspiration of the Sacred Records. If God scattered, through the written Gospels, words and sentences of difficulty and doubtfulness," God by his immediate spirit superintended and dictated the writing: and when Paul desired that "the cloak and parchments which he left behind him at Troas might be sent to him," it may be contended, as, in fact, it has been contended, that the sentence was designed to include some meaning of mysterious instruction. But, Sir, as the evangelical and apostolical writers lay no claim to any such supernatural aid, as they specially note it when afforded, and cautiously disclaim it where it might mistakenly be conceived that they wrote under its direction, the notion of literal inspiration falls to the ground, and with it that of dark phrases and dubious meanings, purposely inserted to try our faith or exercise our charity. The Rebuke of Intolerance in America. phrase in question, from its frequent occurrence, appears to have been a common, and therefore well understood form of expression: it occurs usually in the course of historical narrative, where the writer is simply stating a fact, or designating a class or profession of persons, and where those who 66 profess the name of Christ," or the simple term "Christians," would have equally well comported with the drift of the passage. That such was really its import, and that it was a Hebraism in common use, has been shewn from the instances already adduced, and is further proved from Deuteron. xxviii. 10: "And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord :” οψονται σε παντα τα εθνη της γης, ότι το ονομα Κυριο επικεκληται σοι· that the name of the Lord has been called upon thee. The sense of cognominor to επικαλεομαι is common both in Xenophon and Lucian: but it is, I think, more to the purpose to appeal to the collateral authorities in the writers of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures than to those in profane authors, whose use of the term would not be conclusive as to the use of it by a Jewish writer of Greek. The conjunction of Kaλεoμaι with ovμa, in a sense of religious subjection or allegiance, is an idiom, which seems to have been imported into the Greek language from that of the Hebrews; and to have been adopted by the apostles from the Greek Septuagint. The several passages, which I consider as proofs of the sense which the apostles intended to convey, being equivalent to Christian profession, are not new to Mr. Yates, for he has him. self quoted and arranged them with great perspicuity and effect in his *Vindication, p. 225," I cannot disguise my astonishment that, having brought them to bear with such complete success against the display of texts adduced by Mr. Wardlaw in defence of the idolatrous worship of Jesus of Nazareth, he should still profess that he is in a state of uncertainty: and that he should have weakened the force of this part of his Vindication, by such previous admissions. I do not apprehend that Mr. Yates means to allow, that if the sense of " taking Christ's name" be found inadmissible, it will follow that Christ was invocated 405 in prayer: but the effect of his concessions is to make it appear so, and to lend additional weight to the argument in favour of such invocation. SERVETUS. P. S. The friends of Unitarian truth will, I dare say, feel their obligation to Mr. Yates for his having so promptly acceded to the suggestion of your correspondent Proselytus: will the author of "the Sequel," allow me to hint a hope that the new edition will be printed of a uniform size with the "Vindication," in order that they who possess the latter may be enabled to bind them in one volume? Rebuke of Intolerance in America. from an American paper, edited by A has sent us the following extract MUCH respected correspondent Mr. Walsh, the American traveller and political writer. "Being himself a zealous Catholic," (says our correspondent,) his testimony in favour of the Unitarians in America is particuthe bigotry of Dr. Mason the more larly valuable, and his exposure of striking. Dr. Mason when here, I think, published a Plea for Catholic licism is particular, as I think TillotCommunion: but it seems his Cathoson observes of Roman Catholics." INTOLERANCE. 66 ve Dr. MASON, President of Carlisle College, delivered an animated address to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, on the occupation of the new State Capitol at Harrisburg. Some phrases, such as nerable hearers," "friends and fathers," applied to the legislature, give rather a grotesque air to the composition, but, the occurrence, and is marked by excelon the whole, it was well adapted to lent doctrine. deserved all the attention and reflection The following passage of his auditors. "The first great question with all earthly legislators should be, not what is popular, but what is right, making the point of popularity to be at all times subordinate to the point of integrity, having always a distinct reference to the presence and the commandment of our inwhere all is authority on one side, and finite Judge. We are here upon ground all ought to be obedience on the other. The divine law admits of no compromise: and the legislation which does not proceed upon this principle, I must take leave to say, is rotten: and, as it disre |