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cast off their spiritual allegiance, is quite sur

prising. For more than twelve years of my life,

at a period when my university studies required uninterrupted attention, I believed myself bound to repeat the appointed prayers and lessons; a task which, in spite of a rapid enunciation, took up an hour and a half daily. A dispensation of this duty is not to be obtained from Rome without the utmost difficulty*. I never, indeed, knew or heard of any one who had obtained it.

The Breviary, therefore, must be reckoned the true standard to which the church of Rome wishes to reduce the minds and hearts of her clergy, from the highest dignitary to the most obscure priest. It is in the Breviary that we may be sure to find the full extent of the pious belief, to which she trains the pastors of her flock; and the true stamp of those virtues which she boasts of in her models of Christian perfection. By making the daily repetition of the Breviary a

* Among the many charges made in the name of the Pope by Cardinal Gonsalvi, against Baron von Wessenberg, Vicar General of Constance, is, that he had granted dispensations of this kind, to many clergymen in his diocese. This curious correspondence was published in London, by Ackermann, in 1819. It deserves the attention of such as wish to ascertain the temper of the court of Rome in our own days.

paramount duty of the clergy,Rome evidently gives it the preference over all other works; and as far as she is concerned, provided the appointed teachers of her laity read her own book, they may trouble themselves very little about others. Nay, should a Roman Catholic clergyman, as is often the case, be unable to devote more than an hour and a half a day, to reading; his church places him under the necessity of deriving his whole knowledge from the Breviary.

Precious, indeed, must be the contents of that privileged volume, if we trust the authority which so decidedly enforces its perusal. There was a time when I knew it by heart; but long neglect of that store of knowledge, had lately left but faint traces of the most exquisite passages contained therein. The present occasion, however, has forced me to take my old task-book in hand; and it shall now be my endeavour to arrange and condense the copious extracts made in my last revision.

The office of the Roman Catholic church was originally so contrived as to divide the Psaltery between the seven days of the week. Portions of the Old Scriptures were also read alternately with

extracts from the legends of the saints, and the works of the fathers. But as the calendar became crowded with saints, whose festivals take precedence of the regular church service; little room is left for any thing but a few psalms, which are constantly repeated, a very small part of the Old Testament, and mere fragments of the Gospels and Epistles. The great and never-end-. ing variety consists in the compendious lives of the saints, of which I will here give some specimens.

In the first place, I shall speak of the early martyrs, the spurious records of whose sufferings have been made to contribute most copiously to the composition of the Breviary. The variety and ingenuity of the tortures described, are only equalled by the innumerable miracles which baffled the tyrants, whenever they attempted to injure the Christians by any method but cutting their throats. Houses were set on fire to burn the martyrs within; but the Breviary informs us that the flames raged for a whole day and a night without molesting them. Often do we hear of

idols tumbling from their pedestals at the approach of the persecuted Christians; and even the judges themselves dropt dead when they attempted to pass sentence. The wild beasts seldom devour a martyr without prostrating themselves before him; and lions follow young virgins to protect them from insult. The sea refuses to drown those who are committed to its waters; and when compelled to do that odious service, the waves generally convey the dead bodies where the Christians may preserve them as relics. On one occasion a pope is thrown into the Lake Mootis, with an anchor which the cautious infidels had tied round his neck, for fear of the usual miraculous floating: the plan succeeded, and the pope was drowned. But the sea was soon after observed to recede three miles from the shore, where a temple appeared, in which the body of the martyr had been provided with a marble sarcophagus *.

Clemens a Trajano imperatore relegatus est trans Mare Ponticum in solitudinem urbis Chersonæ, in qua duo millia Christianorum reperit. . . qui cum in eruendis et secandis marmoribus aquæ penuria laborarent, Clemens facta oratione in vicinum collem ascendit; in cujus jugo vidit Agnum dextro

There is a good deal of romantic interest in the history of Cyprian and Justina. The former being a heathen magician, who to that detestable art joined a still more infamous occupation; engaged to put a young man in possession of Justina, a Christian virgin. For this purpose he employed the most potent incantations, till the devil was forced to confess that he had no power over Christians. Upon this, Cyprian very sensibly concluded, that it was better to be a Christian than a sorcerer. The readers of romance may, after this, expect every sort of incident except a marriage, which none but inferior saints ever contract; and from which all must extricate themselves before they can be in a fair way of obtaining a place in the calendar. Cyprian and Justina being accused be

pede fontem aquæ dulcis, qui inde scaturiebat attingentem, ubi omnes sitim expleverunt ; eoque miraculo multi infideles ad Christi fidem conversi, Clementis etiam sanctitatem venerare cœperunt: quibus concitatus Trajanus, misit illuc qui Clementem, alligatâ ad ejus collum anchorâ, in profundum dejicerent. Quod cum factum esset, Christianis ad littus orantibus, mare ad tria milliaria recessit; eòque illi accedentes, ædiculam marmoream in templi formam, et intus arcam lapideam, ubi Martyris corpus conditum erat, et, juxta illud, anchoram quâ mersus fuerat, invenerunt."

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