sarii soleant, eaque abolere omni conatu studeant, miseris epigrammatis illis prorogat lucem pervicax et inextinguibilis concepti adversus ipsorum parentem odii flamma; quæque Beza æternum abolita et extincta optavit, illi ex pulvere excitant, et repetitis hoc etiam tempore editionibus crebris, malignè eadem in conspectum hominum proferunt ac reponunt. Quid vero Kakońα illâ suâ consequuntur? Nihil aliud, sanè, quam quod se Dei, bonorumque omnium, dignos odio; Bezam autem omni illorum benevolentiâ, amore, et tolerantiâ dignissimus ostendunt, qui quidem juvenilis Musæ ad Deum celebrandum in melius conversione et seriâ commutatione, Angelos in cœlo exhilarevit.”—FAYI in Vita et Op. Bezæ, pp. 8, 10. Given in Sir Egerton Brydges' Polyanthea, p. 431. [How to distinguish a True Preacher and a False.] " WILL you know how to discover a true preacher from a false?" said one who seems to have been of the latter description himself, in Henry the Eighth's days, "You have a dog, which is your conscience. Whensoever you shall come to any sermon, ask your dog what he saith unto it? If he say it be good, then follow it but if your dog bark against it and say it is naught, then beware and follow it not."-STRYPE'S Mem. of Cranmer, p. 106. [Why the Babylonical Building should decay.] "GOD forbid that the trial of true religion should be either upon our upright conversation or theirs, lest if it lay in man's perfection, both the Jew and the Turk might either of them sooner boast of it than either of us. The wisdom of God hath not so builded his church upon sand. 1 Luc. xv. 10. If it were founded upon the works of man, then should his church never stand, neither by them nor by us. We are but feeble and windshaken pillars, unable to underprop and bear such a weight; and therefore howsoever they build their church, we build not ours on ourselves, but we build both it and ourselves upon that unmoveable rock, Jesus Christ; and therefore, howsoever the wind and the weather do shake us and overthrow us through our own weakness, yet our foundation abideth sure, and doth neither fall nor flit away, but abideth so for ever, that we may be still raised and set up on the same again. Deceitful therefore is their dealing who to withdraw men from our church do unjustly say that when we fall, our foundation falleth also but most justly may we assure men, that their Babylonical building must needs come to decay, being founded on the sand of Tiber banks, which is daily washed and eaten away. How can that foundation stand which is made of earth and clay, dust and ashes, of flesh, blood and bones; of popes' mitres, cardinals' hats, monks' hoods, friars' cowls, nuns' veils, shaven crowns, pates, beads, tapers and crosses, anointings and greasings, blessings, kissings, images of metal, wood, glass and stone, holy oil, holy cream, albs, vestments, palls, copes, rotchets, surplices, tippets, coifs, chrisms, mantel and the ring, sensings, pilgrimages, offerings, creeping to crosses, Winifred's needle, the blood of Hales, fasting day, holydays, ember days, croziers, polaxes, dirges, exorcisms, conjurings, masses, trentals, holy water, Purgatory, saints' relics, St. Francis's breeches, limbo patrum, S. John Shorns (sic) boots, the rood of Chester, our Lady of Walsingham, rotten bones, shrines, and a thousand such apish toyes, which daily (as they themselves perceive) do putrefy, rot, and consume to nothing." -JOHN STUDLEY'S Epis. to the Reader, prefixed to his translation of BALE's Pageant of Popes, 1574. [All One in Christ.] BALE-POWEL. BALE, in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Pageant of Popes, says of Geneva, "I greatly marvel at the notable Providence of our God, which so stirred up the minds of the citizens and magistrates, that they were not afraid to receive so many thousand strangers into the suburbs of our city: again, did so turn the hearts of the strangers, that although they were more in number and the superiors, yet would submit themselves under their power, as though they were the inferiors, insomuch that they did not acknowledge themselves to be lords and citizens, but private men and strangers. Let other men feign other miracles, but Geneva seemeth to me to be the wonderful miracle of the whole world: so many from all countries come thither, as it were unto a sanctuary, not to gather riches, but to live in poverty: not to be satisfied, but to be hungry not to live pleasantly, but to live miserably not to save their goods, but to lose them. Is it not wonderful that Spaniards, Italians, Scots, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, disagreeing in manners, speech and apparel, sheep and wolves, bulls and bears, being coupled with the only yoke of Christ, should live so lovingly and friendly; and that monks, laymen and nuns, disagreeing both in life and sect, should dwell together, like a spiritual and Christian congregation, using one order, one cloister, and like ceremonies. Is it not wonderful that so many stout enemies hanging over them, and looking still to devour them, as Satan and the Pope, their most bitter enemies, they should not only be safe, but also live so long time in quietness? Thanks be therefore unto God, because he hath appointed the pastor of his scattered and dispersed flock, the captain of the banished, to be the chief of the miserable people, with whose counsel, government and wisdom, so great a congregation of people, being not only diverse, but contrary one to another, hath been nourished together under one band of love, so that now nothing is more loving 49 than those enemies, nothing more like than their unlikeness, nothing more happy than these miserable men." [Impropriations of the Children of "WE see and feel to our great grief that our ministry in many, yea in most places, is unprovided.—This specially ariseth of the spoil which the children of Babylon in times past have made by impropriating and annexing the living of so many particular churches to the maintenance of their cloisters, abbeys and dignities by their antichristian dispensations. Whereby they have left the ministry so marvellously unprovided and so beggarly, as that in some places there are to be found many parishes together, whereof all the livings that now remain to them are not sufficient for the competent maintenance of one man and his family. Which lamentable estate of our church deterreth many from undertaking that holy and honourable function, who, having sufficient gifts, seeing the ministry opprest with beggary, and subject to other discredit and inconvenience arising thereof, bestow themselves in some other lawful calling, wherein they may be able to live in wealth and credit. By which means the unsufficient and unlearned ministry seized upon the possessions of the church, to the infinite hindrance of the Gospel, to the increase and strengthening of Popery. Alas, alas, that the poor parish, according unto God's ordinance, giveth a tithe of all they have, to have a man of God amongst them, who may teach them the right way to serve and honour the Lord, and to save their souls ;-alas, I say, that this tithe should be taken away, and still retained by the greedy Nabals and hold-fast Labans of the world, and applied to profane uses, leaving the poor spoiled of their goods, and the whole parish unfurnished of one who should be their guide to everlasting life."-The Auctor's Tears and humble Petition unto Almighty 50 MAXIMILIAN MISSON. nion, nor took the usual oaths and engage God, annexed to GABRIEL POWEL's Consideration of the Papists' Reasons for Toleration | ment." Soon after the coronation, an exact in England. 1604. history or account of that ceremony was printed and distributed to many persons of rank by the King's special order, and MisSON says he had these particulars from that authentic book, which he believes never was sold. "Every one," he adds, "sees the divers consequences of this matter of fact, and especially how some misinformed writ prince, who acted sincerely according to his religious principles, had violated his solemn promise."— Preface to the fourth edition, p. xxiii. [Encroachments of the Puritans.] "THE Puritan, as he increaseth daily above the Protestant in number, so is he of a more presuming, imperious, and hotter disposition and zeal, ever strongly burningers have inconsiderately insinuated that this in desire to reduce all things to the form of his own idea or imagination conceived: and therefore by discourse of reason not unlike (the enterprize being to be paralleled by many examples) to attempt the overthrow of the Protestant, and bring the kingdom, especially the ecclesiastical state, to a parity, or popular form of government, if the Catholic (perchance the powerablest let thereof) were once extinguished; and to extinguish him, no mean more potent than to forbid and punish the exercise of his religion. And what confusion, havock, and effusion of blood such an attempt would work in the commonweal, it is easy to conjecture, whiles the Puritan with his complices, and such as thirst (an infinite number) to have matters in scuffling, to impugne on the one side, and the bishops, deans, canons, and the greatest possessors of spiritual livings, with all those that do adhere to them, defend on the other side, and either party stiffly and violently persecuting other, as is the custom in such commotions, without regard of God or country."-Supplication to the King's most excellent Majesty. 1604. James II. It is said by MAXIMILIAN MISSON, the traveller, that "James II. was not installed in the Royalty on his coronation day, after the manner of his Protestant predecessors. The delicacy of his conscience, and the designs he had then in view, obliged him to change the form of the ceremonies; so that his Majesty neither received the commu THIS same writer gives us a poem upon the expected birth of the Pretender, which, extraordinary as it is, those persons who are at all conversant with Catholic devotional poetry will have no hesitation in believing genuine. In February 1688, an English Jesuit at Loretto shewed him an angel of gold, holding a heart bigger than an egg, which was covered with diamonds of great value. This costly offering, which was the last present the Idol of the temple had received, came from the queen of England. "This reverend father informed me also," says MISSON, addressing his correspondent, “of a great piece of news, of which you ought, in my opinion, to have given us some advice. He assured us that that Princess was big with child, and added that undoubtedly it was by a miracle: since they had calculated that the very moment in which the present entered, was the happy minute in which she conceived. He made the following verses upon this subject, and would needs give me a copy of 'em. He introduces the angel speaking to our Lady, and our Lady answering : " ANGELUS. SALVE, Virgo potens! En supplex Angelus adsum, Reginæ Anglorum munera, vota, fero. Perpetuos edit gemitus mœstissima princeps; Sis pia, et afflictæ quam petit affer opem. HOARE - BERNAL DIAZ. 51 Casta Maria petit sobolem ; petit Anglia; the shrine of the saint, under the mask of summi Pontificis titubans Relligioque petit. Inculti miserere uteri; sitientia tandem Viscera, fœcundo fonte rigare velis. VIRGO. Nuncie cœlestis, Reginæ vota secundo: ANGELUS. Sed natum, O Regina, Marem Regina peroptat, Nam spem jam regni filia1 bina fovet. Dona, Virgo, Marem. VIRGO. Jam condunt ilia natum Fulcrum erit imperii, relligionis honos. ANGELUS. Reginam exaudit Regina Maria Mariam. Alleluia! O felix, ter, quater, Alleluïa. [Saint Osana and the Rector's Concubine.] "In the North of England beyond the Humber, and in the church of Hovedene, the concubine of the rector incautiously sat down on the tomb of saint Osana, sister of king Osred, which projected like a wooden seat; on wishing to retire, she could not be removed until the people came to her assistance: her clothes were rent, her body laid bare, and severely afflicted with many strokes of discipline, even till the blood flowed; nor did she regain her liberty, until by many tears and sincere repentance, she had showed evident signs of compunction."-HOARE's Giraldus, vol. 1, p. 29. wwww [The Thief at St. Edmundsbury's Shrine.] "A MIRACLE happened at St. Edmundsbury to a poor woman, who often visited 1 The Princesses of Orange and Denmark. devotion; not with the design of giving, but of taking something away, namely, silver and gold offerings, which by a curious kind of theft, she licked up by kissing, and carried away in her mouth. But in one of these attempts her tongue and lips adhered to the altar, when by Divine interposition she was detected, and openly disgorged the Christians, expressing their astonishment, secret theft. Many persons, both Jews and flocked to the place where, for the greater part of the day she remained motionless, that no possible doubt might be entertained of the miracle."-HOARE's Giraldus, vol. 1, p. 29. [St. Patrick's Horn.] "THE horn of Saint Patrick, not golden indeed, but brazen, which lately was brought into these parts from Ireland, excites our admiration. The miraculous power of this relic first appeared with a terrible example in that country, through the foolish and absurd blowing of Bernard, a priest. The most remarkable circumstance attending this horn is, that whoever places the wider end of it to his ear, will hear a sweet sound and melody united, such as ariseth from a harp gently touched."-Hoare's Giraldus, vol. 1, p. 31. [Wounds cured with Oil, and the Wounded blessed and psalmed.] "WHEN night parted us we cured our wounds with oil, and by a soldier called Juan Catalan, who blessed us and psalmed us, and I say truly we found our Saviour Jesus Christ was pleased to give us strength, besides the many mercies which he daily vouchsafed us, for they presently healed, and thus wounded and bandaged, we had to fight from morning till night; for if the wounded had remained in the camp, and not gone forth to battle, there would not have been twenty sound men from every company. So when our Ilascellan friends saw 52 GAGE-FULLER-BARLOWE - SCOTT. that this man blessed us, all their wounded came to him, and he had enough to do to cure them all day long."-BErnal Diaz, p. 142. Reformation, &c. Bishop Croft, the humble Moderator. "I BESEECH you tell me, did not Christ and the apostles preach the best way? and are not we to follow their example? Who dare say otherwise? yet many do otherwise; they take here or there a sentence of Scripture, the shorter and more abstruse the better, to show their skill and invention. This they divide and subdivide into generals and particulars, the quid, the quale, the quantum, and such-like quack-salving "In the morning early notice was given unto us that one Friar Pablo de Londres, an old crab-faced English frier, living in St. Lucar, had got the Duke of Medina his letter, and sent it to the Governor of Cales, charging him to seek for me and to stay me, signifying the King of Spain's will and plea-forms; then they study how to hook in this sure that no English should pass to the Indies, having a country of their own to convert."—GAGE's Survey of the West Indies, p. 31. "SAD the times in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, when by her Majesty's injunctions, the clergy were commanded to read the chapters over once or twice by themselves, that so they might be the better enabled to read them distinctly in the congregation."-FULLER's Trifle Reconciler, p. 82. I HAVE seen a history of the Loretto Lady, printed on a single sheet in Welsh, which was purchased at Loretto by one of Wynn's ancestors about a century ago; he brought home a copy in English also. It was ready for pilgrims of every nation.-R. S. "I LET passe," says BARLOWE, "my lord cardinal's acte in pullynge down and suppressing of religious places, our Lord asoile his soule. I wyll wrestle with no soules: he knoweth by this tyme whyther he dyd well or evyll. But thys dare I be bolde to saye, that the countries where they stode fynde suche lacke of them, that they would he had let them stand. And thinke you then that there wold be no lack founden if the remanaunt were so served to? I wene men wold so sore mysse theym, that many which speke agaynst them wolde sone laboure his owne handes to set them up agayne."-Dialoge, &c. or that quaint sentence of philosopher or Father, this or that nice speculation, endeavouring to couch all this in most elegant language;-in short, their main end is to show their wit, their reading, and whatever they think is excellent in them : No doubt rarely agreeing with that of St. Paul, 'I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified; and my speech and preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power: 1 Cor. ii. And I verily believe this is the reason why preaching hath so little effect in these days, because they labour to speak the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God; nor do they preach in demonstration of the Spirit, but in demonstration of their learning. I know full well this unapostolic way of preaching was used by some of the ancient fathers, especially the Greeks, who, always fond of niceties and curiosities, and being now become Christians (as I said before) transplanted their beloved rhetorical flowers of human learning into Christian gardens, which proved rather weeds to overrun the seed of sound and plain apostolic doctrine, human nature being a soil apter to give nourishment and vigour to human principles than divine. But when did ever any learned, witty, rhetorical harangue, or cunning syllogistical discourse, convert the tythe of St. Peter's or St. Paul's foolish preaching, as he terms it, but the wisdom of God to |