of her necklace, and asked her if she would like to be married.* Hinc admonemur, says his biographer, illius dicti, bonum est homini mulierem non tangere.

It is a maxim of Barclay's that ingentibus vitiis magnæ virtutes parum absunt. The opinion is to the full as dangerous as it may seem charitable; and we may say with more truth as well as safety, that when any virtue is carried beyond the bounds of discretion, it ceases to be virtue, and becomes either a weakness, or a folly, or a vice. There are men whose favourite theory is, that the scale of morality must be graduated according to degrees of latitude. While these persons adhere to a system of philosophy as degrading as it is fallacious, it is impossible that they can judge wisely or worthily of human nature. But if they were better acquainted with the history of man, they would learn that his character is every where stamped by institutions, and that moral circumstances are far more influential than physical ones in modifying it. Difference of climate will not explain the difference of morals in Great Britain and in Italy. The difference of religion will. To represent that virtue which is of all others the most requisite for the happi

* Acta SS. Mai. t. vi. 118.

Euphormio, p. 103. Ed. 1637.

ness of private families and the good of society, as so difficult that Saints themselves have not been able to observe it, without special efforts and special grace, is not the likeliest mode of promoting it among the people. Yet this is done in those countries where celibacy is required from the whole body of the clergy, and where women are constrained to it by irrevocable vows. The difficulty and the merit of this species of self-restraint are alike exaggerated. It is spoken of as the virtue of virtues, which the Apostle Paul* set above all others, and therefore especially dignified by the name of sanctification. And they who have palmed their monkish fables upon the world for revelations, declare it to be so peculiarly acceptable in the sight of the Creator, that married

* "... ut cuncta præteream quæ in Sanctis Scripturis ob laudem virtutis hujus inserta sunt,..unam tantummodo ponam beati Pauli Apostoli sententiam, quá pateat qualiter illam, Thessaloni censibus scribens, virtutibus prætulerit universis, tali eam verbi nobilitate commendans. Hæc est, inquit, voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra. Et ne fortè dubium nobis relinqueret, vel obscurum, quidnam sanctificationem voluerit appellare, utrum justitiam, an caritatem, an humilitatem, an patientiam (in omnibus enim istis virtutibus creditur acquiri sanctificatio;) infert et manifestò designat quod propriè sanctificationem voluerit appellare."-Cassian. De Cœnob. Inst. 1. vi. c. xiv. xv. pp. 114, 115. Lipsiæ, 1733.

Y

persons, however excellent their conduct in all the relations of life, can only hope to attain the lowest place in the kingdom of Heaven.

*This was revealed to the blessed Veronica of Binasco, when our Saviour showed her the Saints in bliss. Oranti Veronicæ pro cœnobii sui cunctis Sororibus, ac corporeis solutæ sensibus, dixit aliquando Christus; felicitatem quam Sororibus tui monasteri, ceterisce electis meis dare statui, tibi nunc palam efficere volo! Innumerabiles Sanctorum beatitudines se conspexisse Veronica asseruit, quarum potiores erant illæ quas Ecclesiæ Sanctæ Dei Pastoribus idem ipse Deus largiri disposuerat. Aiebat quoque Christus Sacerdotes vocitans Christos, sanctimoniales vero Christas, quæ nomina, juxta veterum Doctorum morem, omnibus diviná gratiâ præditis convenire possunt: majores ego ceteris beatitudines Christis meis virginitate pollentibus disposui, minores vero feminis. Mihi profecto quàm gratissimi existunt Christi mei virginitate decori! quos ita amo, ut, etiamsi crimen quodpiam commiserint quantumlibet grave, eos custodire proposuerim à labiis iniquis et à linguâ dolosa. Veh autem illis, qui Christos meos sive in occulto, sive palam sagittabunt; nam destruam eos, et evellam de terrá.

Vidit quoque Virgo dispares beatitudines, &c... Quam vero conjugati habituri sint gloriam, minorem ceteris omnibus asseruit.— Acta SS. Jan. t. i. p. 903.

The last labour which Geddes undertook was to translate the Portugueze life of this Saint by F. Joam Freire, as a legend written" with a design to support the authority of the Church of Rome against all that was done by the Reformers to shake it; there not being a doctrine or usage in that corrupt Church condemned by the Reformers that in this legend is not said to have had its truth and lawfulness confirmed by the infallible testimony of a heavenly vision."

This legend, which the Definidor in Portugal licensed as

But then the difficulty of acquiring a higher seat! Even in Mr. Alban Butler's volumes, pruned, and trimmed, and qualified, and softened down, and varnished, as every legend is in passing through his hands, we read of Saints who resorted to such refrigerants as the ice bath and the bed of snow. St. Benedict and the Seraphic St. Francis, personages of the highest order in the hagiarchy, found it necessary to prescribe for themselves a roll among the briars,

Vero

a book that ought to be printed, because it had been inspected and reinspected by Angels, and approved by God, (ja visto e revisto pellos Anjos, e aprovado por Dios,) was not the fabrication of a dark age, nor was it brought forth in a corner. nica was born in 1445, and died at Milan, in 1497, where, only twenty years after her death, upon the ground of this legend, Leo X., by a Bull, permitted her to be honoured, venerated, and adored, at the special request of Francis I. On the part of Francis this was a profligate device for making himself popular at Milan,... on the part of the Pope, a profligate subserviency to the views of the French King. The legend had been dedicated to Francis and his Queen by F. Isidoruś de Isolanis, who had probably no small share in fabricating it. The dedication, which is dated on Michaelmas day, 1517, alludes to the French King's victories in Italy, and concludes thus: accipite igitur Regis Christianæ Reipublicæ lumina diva Virginea gesta, Veronicamque virginem incognitæ mortalibus sanctitudinis, numinibus vestris tutelaribus annumerate. Francis lost no time in applying to Rome through his ambassador the Bishop of St. Malo, and on the fifteenth of December, the obsequious Pope expedited his bull sub annulo Piscatoris.

which was successful in both cases, and in that of the latter produced the most miraculous and splendid consequences. St. Arduin* obtained the desired effect by rolling in full undress among the nettles. The Cherubic St. Dominic, finding himself unable to support a single combat, retired into a wood, stript, lay down, and. called upon the ants and the wasps for aid; and even against these auxiliaries the flesh maintained a three hours contest before he came off victorious; † after which he not only became, for the rest of his life, as "chaste as ice," but physically also fire-proof. The holy Equitius,‡ and the equally holy Helias, § and the not less holy Methodius, had that operation performed upon them by Angels in a dream which Origen and Ambrosio Morales, in the ardour of their zeal, performed upon themselves. The like favour was conferred upon the holy Abbot Serenus, who became more serene in consequence; and the miracle was wrought upon

* Bulzius. Lararium Poeticum, pars ii. p. 112.

+ Vida de S. Domingo, por el M. R. P. Fr. Francisco de Possadas, 1. ii. c. iv. §§ 9-14. Fossadas gives a full description of the combat.

S. Gregory's Dialogues, book i. chap. iv.

§ Zuinger. Theatrum Humanæ Vitæ, p. 2252, 2256. || Ibid, 2254.