him in a manner inexplicable* to anatomists. Raynald, Dean of Orleans, and afterwards a disciple of Dominic, was twice anointed by the Virgin Mary's own hand (the second time in the presence of Dominic and of another Religioner) with an unguent, † which saved him. from any after-temptation to sin against one of his vows. The great St. Thomas (not the Apostle, who is a very insignificant person among the Romanists, compared to the angelical Doctor of Aquino) was girt by two Angels with that girdle wherewith St. Peter Damian ‡ * Adveniens ad eum Angelus in visione nocturná, ejusque velut aperiens uterum, quandam ignitam carnis strumam de ejus visceribus avellens, ac projiciens, suisque omnia, ut fuerant, locis intestina restituens, Ecce, inquit, incentiva carnis tuæ abscissa sunt, et obtinuisse te noveris hodierná die perpetuam corporis puritatem, quam fideliter poposcisti.-Cassian. Collat. col. vii. c. ii. p. 310. † Acta SS. Aug. t. i. p. 582. I wish it were possible for every reader to examine the authorities which I refer to. Without such proof, any conception which they can form of the impiety and wickedness of this prodigious system of imposture must fall short of the reality. This Petrus Peccator, as he calls himself in the superscription, begins a letter to Pope Nicolas II. thus: Nuper habens cum nonnullis Episcopis ex vestræ majestatis auctoritate colloquium, sanctis eorum femoribus volui seras apponere. Tentavi genitalibus Sacerdotum (ut ita loquar) continentiæ fibulas adhibere. Bernino inserts the epistle in his history (t. iii. p. 71.) as testimonianza pur troppo autentica della malaggità de que' wished to constringe all the clergy. St. Thomas had prayed that he might thus* be delivered tempi. The letter indeed shows how strongly the secular clergy opposed the obligation of celibacy to which the Papal Court, instigated by the Monks, was determined upon subjecting them. * He had run away from his family that he might become a Friar; and his brothers, having caught him, are said to have tried a most unworthy expedient for reconciling him to a secular life: "Nam miserunt ad ipsum solum existentem in camerâ in quá dormiebat, puellam pulcherrimam, cultu meritricio perornatam, qua ipsum alliceret ad peccandum. Quam cum vidisset pugil invictus, qui sibi jam Dei sapientiam sponsam acceperat, cujus amore flagrabat; et sentiret in se carnis insurgere stimulum, quem semper tenuerat sub ratione subjectum, (hoc permittente Providentia Divinæ consilio, ut gloriosior de certamine sibi triumphus exurgeret,) accepto de camino in spiritu titione, juvenculam cum indignatione de camerá expulit, et accedens in spiritus fervore ad angulum cameræ, signum crucis in pariete cum summitate titionis impressit, et prostratus ad terram, cum lacrymis a Deo petivit orando perpetuæ virginitatis cingulum, quod sercare sibi in pugnâ concesserat incorruptum. Qui cum hæc orando cum lacrymis subito obdormisset, ecce ad eum duo Angeli cœlitus missi sunt ; qui asserentes eum à Deo exauditum, et de pugnâ tam difficili obtinuisse triumphum, stringentes ipsum hinc inde in renibus, dixerunt: Ecce ex parte Dei te cingimus, quod petivisti, cingulo castitatis, quod nullâ poterit de cetero impugnatione dissolvi; et quod humanæ virtutis haberi non potest ex merito, tibi conceditur divinæ largitatis ex dono. Unde ex tunc mulierum aspectum semper abhorruit, et earum consessum, colloquium, et convictum toto posse vitacit. Consueverat autem ex hoc admirari quam plurimum, et homines divinis speculationibus deditos assuetus erat arguere, quod diutius possent con from temptation. But holy Abbess Sara, one of the stars of the Egyptian galaxy, made it her prayer that she might perpetually be so tempted* and always resist the temptation. Accordingly she continued in it during thirteen years: at the end of that long trial she was only saved from succumbing by calling upon heaven for immediate aid. The Devil then, being aware that sedendo mulieribus tempus longis locutionibus perdere, nisi aliquod negotium nimis utile causâ necessitatis occurreret, vel de Deo, aut de divinis locutio immineret. In quâ constrictione Angelici tactus cum dolorem sensibilem percepisset, excitatus est cum clamore; et quærentibus ad quid clamasset, revelare noluit donum divinitùs sibi datum; sed manifestandum usque ad suum obitum conservavit occultum. Quod tamen suo socio Raynaldo revelavit, qui ad laudem Dei et revelationem Sancti, pluribus revelavit ad exemplum. -Acta SS. Mart. t. i. p. 661. * Sara, in partibus Thebaidis Abbatissa, cum cogitationes ejus ad libidinem Diabolus incitare soleret, nunquam ut recederet tentatio, oravit; sed ut et ille assiduè oppugnaret, et ipsa semper vinceret. In hoc carnalis lasciviæ bello per annos tredecim fortiter contendit. Sed tandem, aliquantò acrius impugnata quàm ut sustinere posset, clamavit ad Dominum Jesum Christum, et superavit inimicum, ita ut oranti apparens damon diceret, Vicisti me, Sara, vicisti! At illa nihil sibi ex hoc laudis vindicans, Non ego, inquit, vici te, sed Dominus meus Jesus.--Marul. 1. v. c. vii. Zuinger. Theatr. p. 2255. & Sab. 1. x. c. iii. Even if I had not been censured for withholding my authorities, I should set down the original in this and other such cases, that the reader may see how faithfully I have represented them. all further efforts on his part would be ineffectual, made himself visible, and said, Vicisti me, Sara, vicisti! But holy Sara, as it became her, disclaimed the glory, and made answer, Non vici te, sed Dominus meus. ego If the Egyptian Abbess had followed Chæremon's directions, she might have obtained a victory in far less time. That Abbot, being questioned concerning the time which was necessary for attaining this virtue in perfection, delivered it as his opinion, that if any person would abstain from all idle conversation, eschew anger, keep himself from worldly cares, allow himself no other food than two biscuits per day of six ounces each, and not more than three, or at the utmost four hours sleep, he might rely upon it, it would not require more than six months, with God's help, to make him sensible that it was not impossible for him to attain the virtue of perfect chastity.* This, however, has been censured as a temerarious opinion. Even had it been approved, it could not have been followed without a total retirement from the business of the world for the time required, which, for most persons, is impossible. Therefore, as there is nothing for which the Romish *Cassian. Coll. xii. c. xv. p. 420. Church cannot devise a substitute, the Dominicans (who have been the great manufacturers in this line) brought out an invention adapted to general use, whereby the virtue might be obtained at little cost, and "without inconvenience, interruption of business, or loss of time." The hint was taken from that memorable incident in the life of the Angelical Doctor which has been before related. I hope, for the honour of a man whose extraordinary powers of mind few persons are competent to appreciate, (and certainly I am not of the number,) that Thomas Aquinas was not the inventor of this gross and palpable fable, but that it must be ascribed to that brother Raynaldus, who, after Thomas's death, related it on his alleged authority. His contemporary biographer, F. Gulielmus de Thoco, recorded it as an actual and undoubted vision, the reality whereof was proved by the pain which the Saint suffered, and the cries he uttered at the time, by its permanent effect during the remainder of his life, and by his dying attestation. The Dominicans, however, ventured in due time to produce a more substantial proof; they exhibited in their Convent at Vercelli* the It was said to have been presented to that convent by one |