matters of fact in favour of the Catholics. The result of this conference was the return of many schismatical bishops and their flocks to the bosom of the Church. Their dignities were confirmed to them on their joining the Catholic communion. The rage of the defeated party hurried them on to the most daring acts of violence; in the diocese of Hippo, Restitutus a priest was waylaid and murdered. The Emperor Honorius enacted new laws against them; banishing their clergy, and restoring the churches to the Catholics. From that time the influence of the sect declined; and though, from the testimony of S. Gregory, it appears to have revived a little in the end of the sixth century, it never was able again seriously to disturb the peace of the Church. The history of the Donatists resembles, in some important points, the career of the enemies of the Catholic Church in later times. Their presumption, and worldly policy, and sacrilege, and hatred of the Church, have descended to our own day. And the same internal dissensions which arose among them still mark all bodies separated from the Catholic communion. They also affected greater severity and strictness than the Church, just as purity and spirituality of worship are boasted of in these days. But obedience was wanting, which is the fruit of love, the first of the Christian graces. In their numbers also, and in their freedom from heresy on many points of faith, as the mystery of the blessed Trinity, they resembled some of the enemies of the Church in this age. And this is the chief lesson of their melancholy schism. It is no new thing to hear the authority of the Church disparaged and set at nought by rival sects, with every circumstance of impiety and sacrilege which the power of wicked men can add to their disobedience. Such things were done 1500 years ago, and the Church remains ; but her ancient enemies are no where to be found but in the page of history, and in the writings of those who defended the faith against them. Such must, ere long, be the fate of her enemies now; no weapon formed against her can prosper. "So let all Thine enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love Thee be as the sun going forth in his might." The Church in very early times was not unanimous in the time of celebrating the festival of Easter. Some provincial branches, as those of Lesser Asia, observed it on the 14th day of the first lunar month after the spring equinox, without regard to the day of the week on which it fell. This was the way in which the Jews calculated the day of their passover; and those Christians who continued the practice after it was condemned by the council of Arles, were called Quartodecimans. The council of Nicæa confirmed its decision, and finally enjoined that the feast of Easter should be kept on the Sunday following the first full moon after the 21st of March, unless the full moon should fall on a Sunday, in which case the festival should be observed on the Sunday following. The ancient British and Irish Churches long retained a slightly different practice, by omitting to transfer the feast when the full moon fell on a Sunday; but after many conferences the Catholic practice was finally adopted, and is now universal throughout the whole Church. The error of the ancient British Churches was thus distinct from the Quartodecimans', though they did not comply with the whole injunction of the Nicene Council. A slight variety in discipline from the practice of other branches of the Church is not of itself schismatical; but when the Church has condemned it by the voice of her Council, no one can continue to practise it without placing his own private opinion above the judgment of the Church, which is the root and foundation of all schism. JANUARY. JANUARY 8. S. Lucian, Priest and Martyr. 290. THERE is much uncertainty regarding the history of this holy martyr. Some writers maintain that he was a disciple of S. Peter, and followed the blessed Apostle from Antioch to Rome. Others say that he was sent into Gaul by S. Clement Bishop of Rome about the end of the first century, and suffered death under the reign of Domitian. It is certain, however, that he came into Gaul to preach the faith to the pagan inhabitants, and that he finished his labours at Beauvais by the death of a martyr. This happened most probably in the third century. There is good reason to believe that he was of noble Roman blood, and that he accompanied S. Dionysius of Paris, or S. Quintin of Amiens, on their mission into Gaul, about the year 245. They were the chief of a company of devoted missioners who were sent by S. Fabian Bishop of Rome, to preach the Catholic faith in pagan countries, most of whom were honoured with the crown of martyrdom. S. Dionysius is not to be confounded with the saint of that name at Athens, who is usually called the Areopagite. The Bishop of Paris is commemorated in the Anglican kalendar on the 9th of October. When he and his companions arrived in Gaul, he fixed his abode at Paris; S. Quintin proceeded to Amiens, and S. Lucian to Beauvais, with two friends, Maximian and Julian. They devoted themselves with unwearied ardour to preaching and baptizing, in the face of danger and death; and in the persecution which raged under Julian, the prefect of Gaul, the two companions of the saint sealed their testimony with their blood. Lucian, in a little while after, followed their glorious example, about the year 290. They suffered in different places, but their remains were laid by their faithful disciples in the same tomb. It remained long concealed, till S. Evroul abbat of a monastery near Amiens, in the end of the sixth century, was directed by a vision where to find it. A stately abbey was founded in the eighth century at Beauvais, in which the precious relics of the martyrs were deposited in three sumptuous shrines. They were renowned for miracles in the following age, as Rabanus Maurus testifies. In most kalendars, as in the Anglican, S. Lucian is mentioned only as a priest, but an ancient one of the ninth age styles him bishop. He is called the Apostle of Beauvais in the Parisian Breviary. Faint not, and fret not, for threatened woe, Few though the faithful, and fierce though the foe, D |