its indulgence was not forthcoming, or if it suited with the immediate interest or present temper of the reigning Pontiff to exercise the rigour of its laws; but its sanction was granted without hesitation to unions so unnatural that even state-policy and family pride would never have contemplated them as possible, if the governments which acquiesced in the usurpations of the Papal Court, and believed its figments, had not, at the same time, thoroughly understood its venality.*

* Having thus repelled Dr. Milner's charge of falsification, I retort it upon him, and lay my proofs before the reader.

In his strictures upon the Book of the Church (note, p. 11.) he says that" Southey himself avows the Moravians' fundamental fanaticism of instantaneous conversion," and for proof of this assertion refers to a passage in the Life of Wesley, which passage, instead of containing any such avowal, exposes the futility of the reasoning whereby Wesley persuaded himself of the doctrine in question. The words are these—“Examining more particularly the Acts of the Apostles, he (Wesley) says that he was "utterly astonished at finding scarcely any instances there of other than instantaneous conversions,... scarce any other so slow as that of St. Paul, who was three days in the pangs of the New Birth." Is it possible that a man of Wesley's acuteness should have studied the Scriptures as he had studied them, till the age of five-and-thirty, without perceiving that the conversions which they record are instantaneous? and is it possible that he should not now have perceived they were necessarily instantaneous, because they were produced by plain miracles?"-vol. i. p. 159.

The reader who may incline to think that Dr. Milner has mistaken the meaning of this passage, and not intentionally misrepresented it, compliments his honesty at the expense of his understanding. How far his honesty deserves to be so complimented, will be seen from the second instance. He says (p. 30) that at Bainham's martyrdom," a miracle, exceeding that of the Three Children in the Babylonian furnace, was wrought upon him, according to Fox, whom Southey follows: when his arms and legs were half consumed, they tell us, he cried out from the midst of the flames, Ye Papists, see a miracle! I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down." It is true that Southey has followed Fox in relating this, but the relation is followed by these words: .." The fact may be believed without supposing a miracle, or even recurring to that almost miraculous power which the mind sometimes can exercise over the body. Nature is more merciful to us than man to man. This was a case in which excess of pain had destroyed the power of suffering: no other bodily feeling was left but that of ease after torture; while the soul triumphed in its victory, and in the sure anticipation of its immediate and eternal reward."--Book of the Church, vol. ii. p. 19.

Dr. Milner asserts also (p. 71.) that Southey, speaking of Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, says of them, " they were both women of saintly piety." Southey is neither so ignorant of history, nor so regardless of truth, as to have said this of either, though he regards the misfortunes, the errors, and even the crimes of the one with compassion, and the general conduct of the other with that proud and grateful sense of respect and admiration which every whole-hearted Englishman must feel. What he has said is this-" Two persons so circumstanced with regard to each other as the Queens of England and Scotland, must have been mortal enemies, unless they had been women of saintly piety and virtue. Both were endowed with extraordinary talents; and in the natural dispositions of both, it is pro

bable that the better qualities greatly preponderated. But they were so situated that it was scarcely possible for them to think, or act, justly towards each other."-Book of the Church, vol. ii. p. 274.

If Dr. Milner ventures thus to misrepresent a living writer who is able to vindicate himself, and a book which any person may refer to without difficulty, the reader will judge how far such a controversialist is to be trusted in his references to those works of the dead which few have the opportunity of consulting, and fewer still the inclination. In the present instance it may seem strange that he should not have been deterred from such practices by the apprehension of exposure; but former success had emboldened him, and the Titular Prelate knew very well for whom he was writing. He knew that the persons among whom his Strictures would be circulated would think it a sin to look into any refutation of them; and that in the opinion of the few members of his own Church who understand what credit is due to his authority, such an exposure could do him no injury. The most learned of those Roman Catholics cannot think worse of him than they have already publicly spoken; and by the others, as long as he is true to their party, the tricks by which he supports it will be accounted meritorious.

241

ST. DUNSTAN.

WE come now, Sir, to that well-known personage, St. Dunstan, concerning whom you and I differ toto cœlo. You are convinced that he praise of probity, talent, I regard him, upon the statement of his own friends and accomplices, as a complete exemplar of the monkish character in its worst form.

"is entitled to the and true religion."

In your solicitude that his sanctity should appear to have been without alloy, you deny that the early part of his life exhibits any indication of ambition, and represent him as "retiring in his youth from the dignities and gaudes of the world." But the fact is not concealed even by Dr. Lingard, that he was a disappointed courtier; and the resolution of retiring from the world, which you represent as having been formed during the serious hours of a long illness, and, in common with that historian, as being executed after his recovery, was in reality a sudden resolution, taken and carried into effect under the immediate† fear of death.

* Page 57.

We are told by his contemporary biographer that the disease came upon him suddenly, his kinsman, Bishop Elphege,

R

Misrepresentations of this kind detract something from the credit of an author when they originate in carelessness: they affect his character deeply if they are frequent and systematical; ... if they are always of the same kind,... if there be a constant endeavour to put a false colouring upon facts, glossing and softening them down, or keeping in the shade those which will not bear daylight.

But the manner in which you, and the living Romanists upon whom you pin your historical belief, have treated the story of Edwy and Elgiva, is of more importance. You repeat, Sir, without any apparent scruple, a statement which even Dr. Lingard did not at first hint at without saying, "if we may listen to the scandal of the age. Scandal I dare pronounce it to be, ...

having prayed God to inflict some chastisement upon him for wishing rather to marry a woman with whom he was in love, than to profess as a monk, as he had exhorted him to do, quod, Deo misericorditer favente, in parvi momenti spatio factum comprobatur fuisse. Eo namque modo turgentium vesicarum dolor intolerabilis omne corpus ipsius obtexit, ut elephantinum morbum se pati putaret, et spem vitæ propria penitus non haberet. Tunc festinanter, magno angore correptus, misit, et ad se Pontificem, jam ante à se spretum, humili prece vocavit, et obedire se velle ejus salutaribus monitis nuntiavit: et ille visitando veniens, consolatum et emendatum Deo monachum consecravit.-Acta SS. Mai. t. iv. p. 349.

Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 400.