that earlier and later orders were tempted to try their fortune in the same kind of manufacture. Referring only to the abominable tales concerning St. Dominic and the Virgin, which have been closely imitated by the Cistercians, I will instance in this place a fable of such a character, that where it failed to excite disgust, we might suppose it would provoke ridicule,.. and yet we shall see with what success it was hazarded. St. Dominic in one of his visions was carried before the Throne of Christ. Looking around him in heaven, as it was natural he should, he saw there monks, friars, and nuns in abundance, but not a single one of his own order: upon which he broke out in lamentations, and ventured to ask the reason of so mortifying a disappointment. Our Lord laid his hand upon the Virgin's shoulder, benignly answering, I have committed your followers to my Mother's care; and she opening her mantle, discovered an innumerable number of Dominicans nestling under it. Benignamente, vi prego, ascoltate You have it upon the authority of that ancient author F. Thedorick de Appoldia, who by command of the general of the order, composed a life of the Saint before the end of the thirteenth century.* St. Antonine gave the tale the sanction of his sanctity by repeating it; a host of shaven and shorn Cherubics have followed him; and to crown all, it is inserted in the Dominican↑ Breviary, as part of the Church service on St. Dominic's day!!! But pereant qui ante nos nostra dixissent, may the Dominicans have said upon this occasion, for a Cistercian had had just such a vision before them, and seen his brethren occupying the same place! How were these revelations to be reconciled? The Cistercian saw no Dominicans under the aforesaid mantle,..the Dominican saw no Cistercians there! And yet they who maintained the credit of the one vision, could not with decency impugn the other. It was agreed therefore that this high prerogative belonged to both orders; and to this decision the Jesuit Cuper, after summing up the case, gives his assent, declaring on the part of his brethren that they perceived no reason why the vision should not have been vouchsafed both to a Cistercian and a Dominican, seeing the Blessed Virgin had conde * Acta SS. Aug. t. i. p. 583. + Breviarium S. Ordinis Prædicatorum. Parisiis. 1647. p. 68. scended to bestow the same favour upon their humble* society also! Here then, Sir, are three orders under the Virgin's cloak; and if you refer to the Flores Seraphicit of F. Charles de Aremberg, you will find a covey of Capuchines in the same cover. You remember, Sir, where Chaucer places the departed friars in his Sompnour's Tale? In these legends we have the origin of that satire, and the proof how well it was deserved. But what carried the Hyperdulia to its height was the Franciscan tenet of the Virgin's immaculate conception. When the Dominicans, in an unlucky hour, found themselves pledged to support the unpopular side of that question, they strove to counteract the prejudice which was thus excited against them, by exaggerating her prerogatives, as well as by inventing legends to prove how greatly she delighted in their order and in its founder. The Franciscans would not be outdone in this line of invention, and thus the * Certè non videmus, cur similis visio monacho Cisterciensi, et S. Dominico offerri non potuerit, cum beatissima Virgo minimam nostram societatem eodem favore dignata est!-Acta SS. Aug. t. ii. p. 468. ad They may be seen there in Tanner's Societas Jesu usque sanguinis et vitæ profusionem militans.-P. 5. Pragæ. 1675. ↑ Page 63. two most mendacious fraternities that the world has ever seen, were engaged in a competition of impiety and imposture. Benedictines, Carmelites, Carthusians, and Jesuits could not remain silent, lest they might seem wanting in this popular part of their faith, and out of -favour in the Court of Heaven. The more hyperbolical the language which was used, the better was it adapted to the taste of the multitude; the more superstitious the practices of piety which were introduced, the more acceptable were they to a people who were forbidden to read the Bible, and taught to rely upon their own works. There are cases in which the most opposite parties can be brought to act together when they either have, or fancy that they have a common interest in view: we have an example at this day in the confederacy between the British and Irish Romanists, the Socinians, the Unbelievers, and that part of the Dissenters who adhere more faithfully to the political temper, than to the religious principles of their Puritan ancestors, the Saints of the Rebellion. As these discordant bodies are now uniting their efforts to weaken and overthrow the Church of England, each having its own special hopes from the result, so the rival orders in the Papal Church, while they heartily hated each other, were at all times ready to act in union against the Protestants, and for carrying on the great scheme of delusion in which they were all concerned. There was a tacit agreement among them to receive each other's bills; each affected to believe the other's inventions, and so all their fables obtained currency throughout the papal world. No difficulty was made in licensing them; the Court of Rome was not scrupulous in such matters; and on the most blasphemous of these fabrications the Romish Church set the seal of its infallibility, by canonizing the heroes and heroines of the tale, assigning them their places in the Kalendar, and appointing their legends to be read in its Church service. We have seen how it approved the Society of the Rosary, and by what indulgences it encouraged a practice of gross and palpable superstition, which was introduced and recommended by frauds and falsehoods as impudent as they are impious. For the present, Sir, farewell. At a convenient season, I may complete the examination of your charges and statements, and show that they are in every instance as fallacious as those |