alleged that the British Almanack' professes to give only scientific institutions.' If so, why do we find enumerated the Allowance Office for Spoiled Stamps,' p. 77, Coal Exchange,' ibid., and Wine Licence Office,' p. 79., &c. &c.? 11. That it does, in fact, give 'The Church-building Society,' and the Society for Promoting the Employment of Additional Curates.' And under what head are these two societies arranged? Under that of Scientific Institutions!' The arrangement is either right or wrong. If right, why omit the 'Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge?' the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts?' the National Society for the Education of the Poor? If wrong, no blame can attach to Indagator for overlooking (which he readily allows he did) the two societies abovementioned when inserted in an inappropriate place.

6

"Nor will it be a valid excuse to allege that it was unnecessary to insert again at pp. 78, 79 these two societies, since they had already appeared at pp. 73, 74. For the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge' appears in all the effulgence of small capitals at p. 73, and yet again twinkles, though with diminished splendour, at p. 79!"

Received: F. D.-John-Mr. Winning-J. W. H.-Theta Lancastriensis-A Cornish Curate-H. T. T.-A Fermanagh Curate-A Wiltshire Incumbent Scrutator-Inquisitor-Uniformis-M. B.-Discipulus--Mr. Blunt-C. J. H.P. K.- Nemo-Mr. Chesnutt-Futuro Clericus - Catholica Christiana-Vesper Hymns.

The Editor is obliged to H. A., and will be glad to avail himself of his offer as circumstances may admit; and to Otiosus, whose letter should have been inserted this month if possible. It is in type, and so is that of Uniformis.

W. B. requests from any reader who may be able to give it, a short and clear account of the nature, constitution, and history of the court of Delegates.

Another correspondent asks, "Is the manor-house at Little Gidding, where Nicholas Ferrar resided, still standing? and if so, what is its present condition? In what style of architecture is the church which was beautified by Ferrar's mother, and are there any remains (as stained glass, carving, &c.) of the decorations which that pious woman bestowed on it? Are there any traditionary accounts of the religious community of Little Gidding still existing among the country people of that neighbourhood? Has any account of the dispersion of the members of the society been handed down to us?

Another wishes for authentic information as to the religious character of Milton. M. J. is thanked for his letter, which has been forwarded to the gentleman to whose communication it relates.

W. M. X. will find a letter, from Alpha at the office, No. 13, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.

The Editor is not learned as to the point on which "A Clergyman" inquires; but he apprehends that the Gazette is the regular organ for the promulgation of an Order in Council.

The Editor thanks E. E. and quite agrees with him; at least he quite agrees with what he believes E. E. would say, if he were aware of some things of which, if he thinks it worth while, the Editor will be very happy to inform him.

A letter from the neighbourhood of Glasgow has been received; but without "accompanying pamphlets."

Several letters on the "Amen" in the Liturgy are postponed while the facts of the case are undergoing investigation.

The tone of G. E.'s letter seems to indicate that it comes from somebody much Mr. Hallam's superior: but there are so few such persons, that the Editor thinks it must be a mistake, and would wish for a certificate of the fact before he inserts it.

The Editor would gladly insert Mr. Hill's letter about Ancient Christianity, but there seems to be no good in occupying the pages of this Magazine with what in fact only amounts to a statement that an apparent contradiction, noticed in this work, has been in some way explained by the author, in an old number of a periodical scarcely known in this country. If Mr. Hill will furnish an extract of moderate length, the Editor will be happy to insert it in the meantime, any readers who have the Dublin Christian Examiner for August, 1839, may read the original.

:

It is known that there are editions of the French New Testament which translate Acts, xiii. 2, by "Or comme ils offroient au Seigneur le Sacrifice de la Messe," &c.; will any reader who is able say how many, and which?

THE

BRITISH MAGAZINE.

APRIL 1, 1841.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN BUSCH.

NO. I.

MOST persons who have paid any attention to ecclesiastical history have acknowledged and deplored the difficulty that exists in getting anything like a clear idea of the actual state and circumstances of the church in various periods, especially in some of peculiar interest; and perhaps this has been more generally felt with regard to the century immediately preceding the Reformation than respecting any other period. On the one hand we are told, that if there was at that time anything defective in the discipline, or institutions, or members of the church, the church itself was in lively anxiety to reform it, and would infallibly have done so if Luther had not impatiently broken into schism; on the other, we are given to understand that all pretence of religion, still more of reform, was base hypocrisy, and that what professed to be the church of Christ was an apostate synagogue of Satan. Yet materials are not wanting; though they are, if not entirely neglected, only now and then resorted to for some specific fact which may help to make out a case. It is not with any such view that the reader's attention is called to the autobiography of John Busch, or Busk,-he may call him which he pleases, but because it presents to us a vivid picture of the times, sketched by an eye-witness, whose extraordinary mixture of shrewdness and simplicity render him a very amusing historian. He tells his own story from the beginning so plainly that it requires no introduction, and anything in the way of remark or illustration may be better made in the course of the narrative. In the meantime, it is only necessary to say that the translator has done his best faithfully to render a text which is often obviously corrupt and sometimes quite unintelligible; and that, except where the fact is stated, nothing is omitted. It may also be proper to add, that he has not the least idea of being responsible for some of the opinions, sayings, or doings of John Busch, and other persons mentioned in the narrative.

VOL. XIX.-April, 1841.

3 B

CHAPTER I.

OF THE BEGINNING OF THE LIFE AND CONVERSATION OF BROTHER JOHN BUSCH BEFORE PROFESSION, AND OF HIS RECEPTION AT WINDESHEIM AS A CLERK ON PROBATION.

"My song shall be alway of the loving-kindness of the Lord." O Lord God, my creator and redeemer, my judge and my rewarder, how many mercies hast thou vouchsafed to me from the beginning of my life to this present time! So that there has never been an hour, nor a moment, in which Thou hast not multiplied thy mercies upon me, so that I may well say continually, "My song shall be alway of the loving-kindness of the Lord;" for thou didst preserve me in my mother's womb, and when I was born an infant didst nourish me by the care of my parents, and didst lead me on by various steps to childhood and youth. And when I was sent to school, thou didst give me a teachable understanding, so that, having been, in my fifteenth year, promoted to the highest class of the school in our town of Zwoll,* I had in my eighteenth made such progress in grammar, logic, and philosophy which were there read to us, as to perceive that I could make no farther progress in that place; for we had two or three masters of arts from Paris, and often when I disputed with them I thought that they were wrong and I was right. At the same time I was the fifth master in the school there, where I had sometimes more than sixty or eighty scholars attending me, to whom I read grammar and logic, and examined them in the same. Sometimes also I occupied the third place, for our masters presided in the first and second. Moreover, our head master, John Cele, made me presents when from my place near the door of the school I could sometimes see eight hundred or a thousand scholars. My parents therefore wished to send me to study at the university of Erford, that I might be the head of all my friends and relations. But I began to think, "Now, suppose you were a doctor, and wore a variety of robes, and furred ones too, and were called Doctor,' everybody saying, Domine doctor, good morning, good day,' what would it profit, if after this life you must go down into hell to everlasting burnings?" And frequently meditating on the eternity of infernal punishment, and the infinity of the heavenly glory, I attentively considered whether I could form any idea in my mind of the end of eternity; and when I found this to be impossible, having fully deliberated, after much consideration I firmly resolved in my mind that I would renounce the whole world, with all its pleasures, and devote myself to the perpetual service of God in some good reformed monastery, for these words, "for ever and ever," compelled me so to do, and to leave parents, friends, and relations, many in number, for the sake of God and eternal life. My parents and friends hearing of this strove to turn me from my purpose, especially my mother, who said to me, " My son, when you were young you used to want to eat in bed. You cannot fast. Will you kill yourself? And they will not let you alone in one monastery,

* In Holland, a few miles north of Deventer.

"Bibales," Germ. Trink-geld.