Now if thou

abjured my baptism, so did it depart from me. canst, O venerable Father, help me, in compassion upon one who has thus voluntarily undone himself.' He said this prostrate on the ground, and bedewed with tears.

"When the man of God, the Bishop, heard this, he threw himself upon the ground, and lay there beside Anthemius, weeping and praying to the Lord. Then, after a long while, rising, he roused Anthemius, and said to him, verily, son, I dare not again purify by baptism a man who hath been already baptized, for among Christians there is no second baptism, except of tears. Yet do not thou despair of thy salvation, nor of the divine mercy, but rather commit thyself to God, praying and humbly beseeching him for all the remainder of thy life and God, who is good and merciful, may render back to thee the writing of thy abjuration, and moreover forgive thee that impiety, as he forgave the ten thousand talents to the debtor in the Gospel. Hope not to find a better way than this, for there is no other to be found.' He then being persuaded thus to do, and having obtained the Bishop's prayers, went his way, weeping and groaning for the sin which he had committed; and having returned home, he sold all his goods, and set at liberty all his people, both men servants and maid servants, giving them also of his possessions, and the rest of his goods he distributed to the churches, and to the poor, secretly, by the hand of a faithful servant. Moreover, he gave three pounds of gold to the mother of that Virgin, with the love of whom the Demon, to his own destruction, had inflamed him, having placed them in a certain church, saying, 'I beseech ye pray to God for me a sinner: I shall never again trouble you, nor any other person; for I depart I know not whither to bewail the wickedness of my deeds.' Thus this man did,.. and from that time he was seen no more, casting himself wholly upon the mercy of God, to which none who hath betaken himself can perish.

"But we, who have heard the relation of this dreadful thing, praise the Almighty Lord our God, and adore the greatness of his works, that he hath protected the virgin Maria

in her holy intention of leading a single life, and hath taken her mother out of poverty, affording liberally to them both for their support and maintenance, and hath delivered her also from the fear of sin, avoiding the transgression of the oath, which had passed between Maria the virgin and her enemy Anthemius, by annulling it. For the Lord brought these things to pass before the fifteen days, which were the appointed time between them, had elapsed. Wherefore we may say with the Evangelist, Our Lord hath done all things well. Nor hath he suffered the suppliant, who seeks him in penitence, to perish; for he saith, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Let us, therefore, continue to intreat him, that we may be protected by his Almighty hand, and may be delivered from all the devices of the Devil, and that, being aided by the prayers of the Saints, we may be worthy to attain the kingdom of Heaven. To the Lord our God belong all honour and glory and adoration, now and always, for ever and ever. Amen."

The Greeks appear to have delighted in fictions of this peculiar kind. The most extravagant of such legends is that of St. Justina and St. Cyprian, which Martene and Durand present as a veritable history, censuring Bishop Fell for treating it as fabulous! It is much too long for insertion in this place, but it would be injured by abridging it. The reader may find it in the Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum, t. iii. pp. 1618-1650. Calderon has taken it for the subject of his Magico Prodigioso.

There on the everlasting ice

His dolorous throne was placed.-p. 158.

It was the north of Heaven that Lucifer, according to grave authors, attempted to take by storm. En aver criado Dios con tanta hermosura el cielo y la tierra, quedo ordenada su celestial Corte de divinas Hierarchias; mas reynò tanto la ingratitud en uno de los Cortesanos, viendose tan lindo y bello, y en mas eminente lugar que los demas (segun Theodoreto) que quiso emparejar con el Altissimo, y subir al Aquilon, formando para esto una quadrilla de sus confidentes y parciales.

With this sentence Fr. Marco de Guadalajara y Xavierr begins his account of the Memorable Expulsion, y justissimo destierro de los Moriscos de España.

The description of the marriage service is taken from Dr. King's work upon "the Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia." "In all the offices of the Greek Church," he says, "there is not perhaps a more curious service than this of matrimony, nor any which carries more genuine marks of antiquity; as from the bare perusal of it may be seen, at one view, most of the ceremonies which antiquarians have taken great pains to ascertain." It agrees very closely with the ritual given by Martene, De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus, t. ii. pp. 390-398.

In these ceremonies,

"The which do endless matrimony make,”

the parties are betrothed to each other "for their salvation,"

66

now and for ever, even unto ages of ages."

"Formerly these crowns were garlands made of flowers or shrubs; but now there are generally in all churches crowns of silver, or other metals, kept for that purpose."— Dr. King's Rites, &c. p. 232.

"A certain crown of flowers used in marriages," says the excellent Bishop Heber, (writing from the Carnatic,) "has been denounced to me as a device of Satan! And a gentleman has just written to complain that the Danish Government of Tranquebar will not allow him to excommunicate some young persons for wearing masks, and acting, as it appears, in a Christmas mummery, or at least in some private rustic thea

VOL. VII.

tricals. If this be heathenish, Heaven help the wicked! But I hope you will not suspect that I shall lend any countenance to this kind of ecclesiastical tyrrany, or consent to men's consciences being burdened with restrictions so foreign to the cheerful spirit of the Gospel."-vol. iii. pp. 446.

Basil, of living men

The powerfullest in prayer.

p. 190.

The most remarkable instance of St. Basil's power in prayer is to be found, not in either of his lives, the veracious or the apocryphal one, but in a very curious account of the opinions held by the Armenian Christians, as drawn up for the information of Pope Benedict XII., and inserted by Domenico Bernino in his Historia di tutte l'Heresie (Secolo xiv. cap. iv. t. iii. pp. 508-536.) It is there related that on the sixth day of the Creation, when the rebellious angels fell from heaven through that opening in the firmament which the Armenians call Arocea, and we the Galaxy, one unlucky angel, who had no participation in their sin, but seems to have been caught in the crowd, fell with them: and many others would in like manner have fallen by no fault of their own, if the Lord had not said unto them Pax vobis. But this unfortunate angel was not restored till he obtained, it is not said how, the prayers of St. Basil; his condition meantime, from the sixth day of the Creation to the fourth century of the Christian era, must have been even more uncomfortable than that of Klopstock's repentant Devil.—p. 512. § 16.

In the legend the penitent is left forty days and nights to contend with the Powers of Darkness in the Relic Chamber. Captain Hall relates an amusing example of the manner in which penance may be managed at this time in Mexico.

"I went," he says, " to the Convent of La Cruz to visit a friend who was doing penance, not for a sin he had committed, but for one he was preparing to commit. The case was this:

Don N. had recently lost his wife, and, not choosing to live in solitude, looked about for another helpmate; and being of a disposition to take little trouble in such a research, or, probably, thinking that no labour could procure for him any one so suitable as what his own house afforded, he proposed the matter to his lately lamented wife's sister, who had lived in his house several years; and who, as he told me himself, was not only a very good sort of person, but one well acquainted with all the details of his household, known and esteemed by his children, and accustomed to his society.

"The church, however, looked exceedingly grave upon the occasion; not, however, as I at first supposed, from the nearness of the connection, or the shortness of the interval since the first wife's death, but because the intended lady had stood godmother to four of Don N.'s children. This, the church said, was a serious bar to the new alliance, which nothing could surmount but protracted penances and extensive charity. Don N. was urgent; and a council was assembled to deliberate on the matter. The learned body declared, after some discussion, the case to be a very knotty one; and that, as the lady had been four times godmother to Don N.'s children, it was impossible she could marry him. Nevertheless, the Fathers (compassionate persons!) wished to give the unhappy couple another chance; and agreed to refer the question to a learned doctor in the neighbourhood, skilled in all difficult questions of casuistry. This sage person decided that, according to the canons of the church, the marriage might take place, on payment of a fine of four hundred dollars: two for the poor in pocket, and two for the poor in spirit: namely, the priests. But, to expiate the crime of marrying a quadruple godmother, a slight penance must also be submitted to in the following manner. Don N. was to place himself on his knees before the altar, with a long wax candle burning in his hand, while his intended lady stood by his side, holding another: this was to be repeated in the face of the congregation, for one hour, during every Sunday and fast-day throughout a whole year; after which purifying exposure, the parties were to be held