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saw our Lord, upon his Mother's intreaty, sheathe the sword of justice which he had drawn; and he also died to attest the truth of his declaration.*... An image of the Virgin was one day seen to sweat, till it ran down her face in streams; the portent was accounted for by the declaration of a Devil extorted from him in the process of exorcism, that at that moment she had been engaged in withholding the upraised arm of her incensed Son, and that the agitation which she underwent in Heaven had made her image thus perspire on earth.t... A Carthusian saw our Lord take from a quiver some fiery darts, which he was preparing to hurl against this world, when the Virgin interposed, and he relented at her prayer, saying he could refuse nothing that she asked. It was not a mere dream; for, after the monk awoke from his trance, the Virgin appeared to him and bade him relate what he had seen, and admonish the world to repent. Should you tell me, Sir, that these are only pious frauds, I must exclaim with St. Peter Damian, but using the words in a different sense from that in which he intended them,

* S. Anton. 3 p. Hist. Lit. xxii. c. iii. § 31. and 4 p. Lit. xv. c. ii. ib. 501.

† Cæsarius, ib. 501.

P. Euseb. Trop. Mar. 1. iv. c. lii. ib. 502.

impia pietas! They who either feign miracles, or falsify history upon that system, should put the question to themselves which our sagacious South puts for them when he says,* "will not the world be induced to look upon my religion as a lie, if I allow myself to lie for my religion?" Sometimes the great goddess is represented in a vindictive character, clothed with terrors, As when Minerva in her Sire's defence,

Shook in Phlegræan fields her dreadful spear.

Twelve times during the wars of the Portugueze in Angola has she been seen in battle, in the foremost ranks, sword in hand, slaughtering the infidels by hundreds and by thousands;† in one great action when two hundred Portugueze with ten thousand negro Christians were attacked by an enemy of no less than six hundred thousand unbelievers, she came, with Santiago by her side, and routed them with incredible destruction. With Santiago by her side she defended Cuzco against the Peruvian insurgents; with Santiago, won for the Spaniards the strong hold of the Peñon de Acoma in Mexico. Armed cap-a-pee in white armour,

* Vol. i. 334.

† Andrade, ut supra, 564. Andrade, 572. from the Annual Letter of the Jesuits, ib. § Ib. 581, 2.

and on a white horse, with an imperial crown on her head, and a spear in her hand, she went forth at the head of an army from the city of Siclitana against the Moors; in that form her Image was afterwards worshipped there in remembrance of her victory, and the spot was visited as sacred, where, when she alighted from her horse, the mark of her foot was miraculously impressed.* None of the Grecian gods took so active a part at the siege of Troy, as she did in the recovery of Spain from the Moors. When the musselmen attempted to recover Zaragoza by surprize during the night, her image stood in the gateway, sword in hand, and maintained the entrance against them till the alarm spread, and the Christians hastening to the spot, defeated the already dismayed unbelievers. That very image was venerated in Zaragoza centuries afterwards by the name of N. Señora del Portillo, from the portal which had been the scene of her achievements.† By her aid it was that King St. Ferdinand put the Moors to flight so often, and conquered the city of Seville: she instructed him how to destroy the engines of the enemy; and the pious king, ascribing the conquest to her as was her

* Andrade, 574. P. Paulo Castellati quoted. + Ib. 566.

due, placed her image upon a car that she might enter the city in triumph, and accompanied it in procession that joyful day to the great mosque, which was then consecrated to her name,* and where at this time that same image is venerated and adored. When Rhodes was defended against the great Turk Mahommed, the Virgin stood upon the walls, with St. John the Baptist for her companion in arms, both armed with breastplates, having morions on their heads, and wielding each a spear; and such havoc did they make among the Turks, smiting them down as fast as they mounted in the escalade, that the few who survived that disastrous assault raised the siege in dismay. Her image vanished from its Church at Einsiedeln and

* Acta Vita S. Ferdinandi Regis. Antverpiæ. 1684. p. 189.

191.

† Andrade, 569. Funes Chron. del Orden de S. Juan quoted. This I suppose to be the sumptuous Temple of N. Señora de el Yermo which Andrade speaks of. He adds, upon the authority of Surius, that after the body of Zuinglius was burnt, the heretics carefully collected his ashes, placed them upon an altar and worshipped them. (p. 517.) The truth is, that his heart, which remained unconsumed, was taken away by Thomas Plater (one of his friends), and Myconius, who was also his friend, threw it into the Rhine, lest it should become an object of superstitious veneration to a people hardly weaned from the errors in which they had been trained up.-Ebel. t. ii. 349.

appeared at the head of the believers in that battle wherein Zuinglius and all his followers fell, not a heretic escaping unhurt to bear the news of their utter overthrow.* And on a former occasion, when the Church was in no less danger, and St. Basil prayed to her for help, he saw the image to which his prayers were addressed change colour, and speak to that of the martyr St. Mercurius, which stood near; Mercurius immediately disappeared; presently he returned, the spear which he carried in his hand was red and reeking with blood, and it was afterwards ascertained, that at that very hour the Apostate Julian had received his mortal wound from an unseen hand.†

It is not of Pallas or Bellona, Sir, that these things are related, but of Mary the mother of Jesus! They are told not as the fictions of poets, but in history, in Missionary reports, and in books of popular devotion, by priests, monks, friars, jesuits, and inquisitors. They are gravely related as truths to be believed for edification. Altars have been erected, and chapels endowed for the images concerning which such legends have been forged; and some of these images are worshipped at this day, for the miracles which

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