befallen the see of Lichfield. In 789 Adrian Bishop of Rome erected it into an archbishopric, at the desire of King Offa; and a pall was sent to Eadulf the bishop. The sees of Hereford, Worcester, Legaceaster, Sionaceaster, Clinham, and Donwich acknowledged the bishop of Lichfield as their metropolitan.

Soon after the Conquest, Lichfield was thought too small for the residence of a bishop, and in 1075 the see was transferred to Chester, and thence in 1102 to Coventry. In 1170 the privileges of a cathedral were equally divided between Coventry and Lichfield. The bishop was chosen alternately by the chapter of each church, and the united chapter of both cathedrals governed their affairs. The bishop was styled of Coventry and Lichfield. This continued till the cathedral church of Coventry was suppressed by Act of Parliament, 33 Henry VIII.

Great part of the present cathedral of Lichfield was built about 1140 by bishop Roger Clinton, who was consecrated in 1129 and died at Antioch in 1149. The Lady-chapel and cloisters were added by Walter de Langton, who was consecrated in 1296, and died in 1321. He also spent 2000l. on a sumptuous shrine for the honour of S. Chad. There were many nobly-endowed chauntries in the cathedral; and these all fell into the hands of the spoiler in the reign of King Henry VIII. The glorious shrine of S. Chad was pulled down, and the value of it was given to the Church for repairs.

During the stormy scenes of the Great Rebellion, which followed as a consummation of the deeds of the sixteenth century, Lichfield was noted for three sieges which the Close sustained. The feast of

S. Chad in 1643 is memorable for the death of the Lord Brook, who commanded the army of the rebel Puritans. As he led on the attack upon the sacred enclosure he called aloud on God for a sign by which His approval might be known. While he raised

the visor of his helmet in order to be the better heard, a bullet went through his head and he fell dead on the spot. This fearful sign did not daunt his fanatical followers; and they carried the Close by storm. The treasures of the Church having been pillaged a century before, by their predecessors in sacrilege, they found nothing to gratify their avarice, and were fain to avenge their disappointment on the sacred building itself. Soon after the restoration of King Charles II., bishop Hacket repaired at a great expense the ravages which they had committed.

"The name of Lichfield is supposed to signify a field of dead bodies; and the city bears for its device an escutcheon of landscape with many martyrs in it, in several ways massacred. A small plot of ground within the city is still called The Christian Field, where a number of Christians were murdered by the Romans in 303 or 304, about the same time as S. Alban's martyrdom under Maximian the colleague of Dioclesian. They were left unburied there to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey 1."

There were formerly two monasteries in Lichfield; one called the station of S. Chad, afterwards Stow; and the other under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin.

1 Harwood's History of Lichfield.

His food it was the heavenly word;

He searched the Book of Truth and Love,
Till watchful prayer would wings afford,

And he would be with them above.

This is the narrow way to heaven;
O holy Godhead, holy Three,
The Three in One, to us be given
Thus by this way to come to Thee.

Hymns from the Parisian Breviary, p. 315.

MARCH 7.

S. Perpetua, Martyr.

203.

S. PERPETUA and her companions suffered martyrdom in the reign of the Emperor Severus, about the year 203, or perhaps a little later. Some martyrologies mention Tuburbium, a town of Mauritania in Africa, as the scene of their triumph; but S. Prosper says that it took place at Carthage.

The five catechumens, Revocatus and his fellowslave and perhaps sister Felicitas, Saturninus, Secundulus, and Vivia Perpetua were seized by the orders of Minutius the pro-consul of Africa on the suspicion of being Christians. Saturus was afterwards added to their number, and became their instructor in the higher mysteries of the faith.

Perpetua was a young matron, of twenty-two of age, and of an honourable family; her father and mother and two brothers were then alive, and

years

All her relations seem to

she had an infant child. have been Christians except her father. No mention is made of her husband in her Acts; and hence it is supposed that he was absent, or perhaps in concealment for his religion. Felicitas was also a young married woman, of humble rank, but filled with ardent love for her Lord.

They were not immediately put in prison, but were confined in a private house, under a guard. During this interval they were baptized; and, as Perpetua relates in her Acts, they prayed to the Lord to grant them constancy to endure all that awaited them. Her father besought her, even with violence, to renounce her faith, but she was not to be moved by his entreaties.

The martyrs were afterwards shut up in a dark crowded prison, where Perpetua suffered much from the overpowering heat, the rudeness of the soldiers, and anxiety for her child. By the kindness of a priest they were removed from this place to a more commodious prison. Here Perpetua had a vision, or, as it might in these days be called, a dream, of a golden ladder, which reached from earth to heaven, and which was so narrow that only one person at a time could ascend; and its sides were armed with many sharp cutting instruments. A wakeful dragon lay at the foot, to terrify those who would ascend. Saturus mounted first; and having reached the top he turned round to her and said, Perpetua, I wait for you, but beware of the dragon. And she answered, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ he shall not hurt me. And as she began to ascend the first step of the ladder she seemed to tread upon his

head. When she arrived at the top she saw a venerable man in the guise of a shepherd, feeding his flock; and round him stood many thousands clothed in white. He raised his head, and looked on her, and said, You are welcome, my child. And he fed her with the milk of the flock; and those who stood by said, Amen. At the sound of their voices she awoke.

Then she understood that it was the will of her heavenly Lord that she should die for Him.

While she remained in prison her father made another effort to prevail on her to deny Christ, but with no better success than before. He besought her by his grey hairs, by her mother, and by her child; kissing her hands, and throwing himself at her feet.

At last the little company was brought to the forum to be publicly examined by Hilarian the procurator, who acted for the proconsul. Hilarian entreated Perpetua to renounce her faith, and offer sacrifice for the health of the emperor. Her father pressing forward to second his entreaties was beaten off by order of the magistrate. The sight of this insult afflicted Perpetua more than her own sufferings. As nothing could persuade her and her companions to deny the faith, they were condemned to the wild beasts; and were remanded to prison till the season of the shows. Perpetua was then separated from her child, not by the persecutor's order but by her own father, who would not restore it to her, hoping thus to overcome her constancy.

Soon after her return to prison, as Perpetua was one day praying, she began to entreat the Lord with many tears for the soul of her little brother Dino