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in 1837, from which I find that the story is proved by such irrefragable evidence that 'de ea ambigere aut dubitare sit nefas,' and that no one can doubt it who is not prepared to deny the power and providence of God, and to remove all faith in the testimony of man. Mr. Ffoulkes, whose turn of mind was such that he seemed to find it as hard as the holy house itself to find a resting-place, either among Protestants or Roman Catholics, neither accepted this story without inquiry, as might a thorough-going Roman Catholic, nor rejected it without inquiry, as might a thorough-going Protestant. He took the trouble of going both to Loretto and to Nazareth, and making laborious investigations on the spot; and the result of his inquiry was, that he came back thoroughly convinced of the fictitious character of the Santa Casa, notwithstanding the privileges bestowed by so many Popes. On stating this conviction to the excellent French priest who had received him into the Roman communion, his only reply was, 'there are many things in the Breviary which I do not believe myself.'

(5). There is one particular class of miraculous story, however, which deserves special attention, on account of the uses that are made of it-I mean alleged divine revelations. On this authority rest a number of new facts and new doctrines. As an example of new facts, I cannot give you a better instance than the history of one of the most popular saints on the Continent at the present day, Saint Philumena. This saint suffered martyrdom, in the Diocletian persecution, on the 10th August, 286-a date on which I might comment, if the story deserved comment. For excellent reasons this saint was unheard of until quite lately. We learn from the authorized history of her life, that a good Neapolitan priest had carried home some bones out of the Roman catacombs, and was much distressed that his valuable relics should be anonymous. He was relieved from his embarrassment by a pious nun in his congregation, who in a dream had revealed to her the name of the saint and her whole history. I am sorry that I have not time to repeat the story to you; but it

XII.]

SAINT PHILUMENA.

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is a tissue of such ludicrous absurdities and impossibilities, that it would be breaking a butterfly on the wheel to prove its falsity; and one would think it could not deceive anyone that was not absolutely a child in respect of critical perception. Yet this history has been circulated by thousands on the Continent;† and a few years ago, Mr. Duffy, on the quays, published an edition for the instruction of Irish Roman Catholics. This history ascribes the wonderful popularity which St. Philumena undoubtedly obtained, to the number of miracles which she works, and in which she outdoes the oldest saint in the calendar. Yet you will take notice that the evidence for her existence is, that some sixteen centuries after her supposed date a nun dreamed about her a story quite irreconcilable with historic possibilities. This one example will enable you to judge whether it is true that if a priest teaches his people falsehood, his bishop will call him to account, and that if the bishop neglect his duty, the Pope will interfere. This romance of Philumena has been circulated as truth, with the approbation of the highest ecclesiastical authorities. The subject of modern revelations,

The scholarship of the narrator of the story may be judged of from the fact that the word 'Philumena' is interpreted to mean 'Friend of Light.'

+ My authority is a French life of the saint: La vie et les miracles de Sainte Philomène, surnommée la thaumaturge du xixe siècle. Ouvrage traduit de l'Italien. The preface states that the work was made on the invitation of a venerable prelate, and it bears the imprimatur of the Bishop of Lausanne, who, after the example of a great number of his colleagues in the Episcopate, thinks fit to second the designs of Divine Providence by recommending to his flock the devotion to the holy miracleworker, Philumena, virgin and martyr, persuaded that it will produce in his diocese, as elsewhere, abundant fruits of sanctification.' The preface claims that the devotion has the sanction of two Popes-Leo XII., who proclaimed the great saint, and Gregory XVI., who blessed one of her images.

In obedience to a decree of Pope Urban VIII., these authorities express themselves with a certain reserve; but they give their approbation to the circulation among their people of works teaching them to act as if the whole story contained nothing but undoubted facts. Here is a specimen of the prayers they are taught to address to a being as imaginary as Desdemona or Ophelia: Vierge fidèle et glorieuse Martyre, ayez pitié de moi; exercez et sur mon âme et sur mon corps le ministère de salut dont Dieu vous a jugée digne; mieux de moi vous connaissez la multitude et la diversité de mes besoins: me voici à vos pieds, plein de misère et d'espérance, je sollicite votre charité: ô grande Sainte! exaucez-moi, bénissez-moi,

as a foundation for new doctrines, is so important, that I will not enter on it now, but keep it for the next day.

daignez faire agréer à mon Dieu l'humble supplique que je vous présente. Oui j'en ai la ferme confiance, par vos mérites, par vos ignominies, par vos douleurs, par votre mort, unies aux mérites de la mort et de la passion de JESUS-CHRIST, j'obtiendrai ce que je vous demande,' &c. The work from which I cite gives in conclusion the music of a hymn, the chorus of which is, A Philomène offrons nos voeux; tout est soumis a sa puissance.

Since the above was in type, passing through Reims, I saw a notice in the Cathedral that a novena in honour of St. Philumena was to commence on the Sunday after my visit.

ΟΝ

MODERN REVELATIONS.

N the last day I spoke of one use made of modern revelations in the Church of Rome, and gave a specimen how, on the authority of what is there called a revelation, but we should call a dream, a tissue of historical facts is asserted without a particle of historical evidence, or rather in the teeth of historical probability. I told how bishops encourage their flocks to invoke in their prayers the intercession of a person who never had any existence, and even propagate tales of miracles worked by the power of this imaginary personage. It is impossible to doubt that there must be many a Roman Catholic ecclesiastic in high position who does not believe in St. Philumena any more than we do; but it is very common with such persons to regard the excitement of devotional feeling as more important than the truth of the alleged facts which excite it; and so they see no necessity to interfere with the practice of a devotion which appears to them conducive to pious feelings, and to be at least harmless.

But these alleged revelations are also the foundation of new doctrines, and the Pope's silence concerning them affects the whole question of the rule of faith. I do not think that in the Roman Catholic controversy sufficient attention has been given to the place which modern revelations have now taken as part of the foundation of their system. No one can take up modern popular books of Roman Catholic devotion without seeing that their teaching differs as much from that of the Council of Trent, as the teaching of that Council differs from that of the Church of England. Taking notice of this difference was the fundamental idea of Dr. Pusey's book,

The Eirenicon, to which I referred in a former Lecture. He observed how far popular Roman doctrine had got beyond anything that the Council of Trent had authorized, and more particularly so in the place assigned to the Blessed Virgin. Pusey's idea then was to make the Trent decrees a basis of reconciliation: if the Romanists would only confine themselves within Tridentine limits, he hoped to screw up Anglican teaching so far. Whether he would have succeeded in the latter part of his task we need not speculate; for the doctrine of development has now gained too firm a hold of the Roman Church to permit her people to be content to believe now as she believed three hundred years ago. One of the ablest of the Roman Catholic replies to Dr. Pusey was by a Father Harper, originally, I believe, a pervert, now a Jesuit. Pusey had said, 'I doubt not that the Roman Church and ourselves are kept apart much more by that vast practical system which lies beyond the letter of the Council of Trent-things which are taught with a quasi-authority in the Roman Church-than by what is actually defined.' Harper replies (I. lxxvii.), 'It is precisely this practical system, this development of the Tridentine Canons, as Dr. Pusey means it, which is the expression, or rather actuation, of the Church's present indwelling vitality. Dead ideas alone can be hidden up in manuscript; living ideas grow and show fruit. It is precisely in and through this vast practical system, in proportion as it is universal, that the Holy Ghost is working, directing, leading the mind of the Church by degrees into all the truth. Mere formulas, mere written definitions, by themselves are bodies that either have lost animation, or are waiting for it. In the Church they are the expression of her perfected consciousness, on the particular subject of that revealed dogma about which they treat. They live in her spirit and grow with her growth. Like all things else that have an undecaying life, they can never decrease, but must ever increase. Christ grew in wisdom daily. So does the Church, not in mere appearance, but of a truth. Her creed, therefore, can never shrink back to the dimensions of the past, but must ever enlarge with the onward future.' I am not now discus

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