thing is begunn and hath a good medium, onely do you help to finish it with such and many other words they overcame the simplicity of the brother, so that he consented vnto it, and gave himself to their disposing, whereof they greatly rejoyced and hoped the cause would go right and come to a good end.

In the meane time they devised a cunning trick; they gave vnto the brother some of the water which made him senselesse, and healed his old wounds, so that onely the red bloud colloured seignes remained; and after much instruction they sett him vpon his knees vpon the altar in our Ladies chappel, before an image erected for that purpose, and Doctor Steven stood vnseen after * a hanging behinde the image and spooke through a pipe, in the person of Christ to Mary, 'mother, wherefore do you crie, have I not promised you that your will shall be done?' the image of Mary answered, I crie therefore because there is no end made of this bussinesse:'† then the image of Christ spake againe, believe me, mother, it shall be manifested.'These words heard the kneeling brother before the image, by the power of the drink being vnmoveable, as if he had bene in a swound; presently Doctor Steven stole out of the chappel and bolted it; then they prepared old women who went through the city and made a great noise, and spread it all over the citty, how our Lady att the preachers, cryed and spake, wherefore there was a great concourse of people came thither.

"Now, in this concourse of people, the four friers came running also, as if they knew nothing of it, with much admiration, and commanded the chappel to be shutt, and went to the brother, asking him how he was come thether and what this signified?—he answered, a spirit had in his devotion drawn him thither, also that the image had spoken, he might also not come down from thence before the four superiors of the citty came there with whom he had something to communicate, and before he had received the holy sacrament.

"Then they sent presently for the four superiors, whose names for shortnesse sake I will omitte, to whom the brother said, that our Lady lamented the miserable destruction of the citty of Bern, because they yearly took money from the French king, and because they did not expell the bare-footed friars who led an unholy life and gave her a feigned honnour which she did not want nor desired, viz. that she was conceived without originall sinn, vpon this the Lords held their peace.

"Now it was purposed, in the presence of the Lords and the people, to poison the brother in the sacrament, by which their bussiness would be closed vp, and the brother would have bene counted a saint and then their bussiness had bene done, but the brother perceived the matter and would have none of the coulored poisoned hoste, which

After-i. e. behind.

+ The answer was, according to Burnet, "because his honour was given to her, since it was said that she was born without sin." ie. at the convent of the preaching friars.

they said was wonderfully sprinkled with the bloud of Christ: then they gave him another which he received, and then he was led with great pompe to the vpper end of the church, before the high altar.

"The brother and the four friers were cited before the councell; who with the four friers confirmed all these things, which seemed very strange vnto them.

"The four friers begann to doubt of the brother and were terrified and kept a close councell what they should do, because the brother knew their deceit, and they lived in continuall feare that he would not leave prating, also he had perceived att the altar that they would have poisoned him.

"But to make short, the one would shutt him up and famish him, the other would drown him, the third would poison him, and the fourth would stabbe him and strangle him.

"This conclusion the brother heard (by the permission of God) hid in a private place, and he was sore afraid, yet warned by this.

66

They break off his victuals dayly, whereby he looked like a spirituall martyr, this made the brother weary, and he privately followed the four friers on a time, then he found them sitting amongst handsome women, clad in worldly habits of his silke which he had brought into the cloister, and glutted with good fatt capons, whereof they were so terrified that they all ranne away.

"Then said Doctor Steven, be not offended, these are my sisters; then they thought he had seene too much; and that it were time to take a course with him, they gave him some hearbs in his meate pressed with the joice of spiders, which by the will of God did him no harme.

"Then they thought it had not bene anough poisoned and gave some of it to a catt, which died immediately.

"The Prior also brought him poisoned drink, but he would not drink it, then they gave it to 5 young wolves which they had in the cloister, which died presently of it.

"In the third place, they thrust down his throat a poisoned sacrament, but he vomited it vp againe, and when the sacrament fell vpon a bench it sweathed bloud, which affreighted them much, and they threw the bench with the sacrament into the oven to burn it, then there was such a terrible noise heard in the cloister, that they were almost out of their witts and eried out, woe to vs, what we have done;' but yet they did not leave of, but tied him to a chaine, and pinched him with red hott irons, to force him to an oath, that he should not disclose their rogueries, which att last out of great paine he promised.

"The thing lay too heavy vpon the brother, and he saw, that they dayly sought his life, therefore he sought an opportunity to gett out of the cloister and he shortly found one, so that he ranne out of the cloister, and threw his cappe from him, and followed his former trade, and declared their roguerie not onely to the councell, but to every one that he knew.

"Wherefore they were sommoned before the councell to be heard together, and the fault was laid vpon the brother, because the friers

should not easely runne away out of the cloister, also they were not prepared, neither would they burn their hands to lay them easely on the clergy.

"Immediately the ordre prepared themselves, and sent a legate to Roome, viz. Doctor Steven and the supprior, because the Pope should confirm their miracle and then nobody dare speake against it, in the meane time the brother was cast into prison, and they diligently enquired the ground of all the bussiness, but the brother halted on both sides, some things he confirmed and some he rejected, because he would not wholly disgrace the order; in the meane time, these two returned from Roome, in good hopes that their bussiness would come to a good end.

"The Provinciall and Prior of Basell sought also that the roguery should be sothed vp, and the fault laid vpon the brother, but when the four friers were laid hold of and putt into irons, then these two went away without taking their leafe for fear it would fall vpon them also; presently the citty of Bern sent to Roome, and desired an orderly judge who according to the spirituall might proceede in the cause and make an end of it, which Pope Julius did not deny them, and sent them three Bishops and the Provinciall of the preachers, and those he allowed all power.

"When now the four friers were putt to the rack, and straightly examined, the provinciall of the preachers put his two fingers vpon his mouth, shewing thereby to Doctor Steven that he should not confesse, but one of the Bishops perceived it and thrust him out of his commission, wherefore he died of griefe att Constans; for the thing, whereof perhaps he had knowledge, as by the brothers confession may be seen, lay heavy to his heart: the four friers in their tortures confessed vnheard of things: then they sent to Roome to Pope Julius for a larger commission; in the meane time, they putt the brother also to rack, who confessed all the bussiness, how they begann with him and how they proceeded, which was comprehended in 22 articles, viz. that att the first they would not receive him, vntill they perceived that he had 53 florins and some damasks and other silks.

"In the next place, of all the false apparitions, dolour and pangs which they had putt him to, and had bewitched them with the black art, and had vsed him as is before related in the historie.

* The meaning appears to be, that the magistrates were not prepared to burn their hands by laying them upon the clergy, without very good reason.

+ Burnet does not notice this application for a larger commission. He says, "it may be easily imagined that the Franciscans took all possible care to have it well examined; the Bishops of Lausanne and of Zyon, with the Provinciall of the Dominicans, were appointed to form the Processe." He adds, that the Provincial opposed the application of torture to the friars, who endured it as long as they could; at last one of them " said plainly, that he [the Provincial] was on the whole secret, and so he withdrew"--and was supposed to have poisoned himself. p. 41.

"Item, that it was therefore purposely begunn, because they would expell the bare-footed friers, and ruine them, and that they, with their opinion of the sinfull conception, might be superior to them, and by this institute a profitable pelgrimage vnto them [selves].

66

Item, he believed certainly, that St. Catharine of Sena was vsed

in the same manner, and received the 5 wounds like him.

66

Item, that Doctor Steven did not come to the mettens in 3 years' space, and that on a certaine tyme he had found them among handsome women.

"Item, how the Provinciall had commanded him to follow the four friers in all things, he is also guilty of the bussiness.

66 Item, how he came one time att vnawares in Doctor Steven's cell, and found him clothed in a woman's apparel, and by this cause his suspicion of the false apperition.

66

Item, that they had pressed the first wound into his hand with a naile, and had eaten the other four with a water, and of the three waters above mentioned, how that he had mixed together the bloud of a jew, quicksilver and other things not decent to be told*, how that he plucked 19 haires out of the eybrows of a jews child, and conjured as many divells into the water, by which they made him some

* Burnet is less scrupulous. He says, that the sub-prior exhibited a book full of charms, "but he said that before they could be effectual they must renounce God, and he not only did this himself, but by a formal act put in writing, signed with his blood, he dedicated himself to the Devil: it is true he did not oblige the rest to this, but only to renounce God. The composition of the Draught was a mixture of some Fountain water and Chrisme, the hairs of the Eye-brows of a Child, some Quicksilver, some grains of. Incense, somewhat of an Easter Wax-Candle, some consecrated Salt, and the Blood of an unbaptised Child. This composition was a secret, which the Subprior did not communicate to the other Friers.

"In these transactions the Legates returned from Rome, with a full power and commission to act in the thing, then the foure were strictly examined againe. The bishops desired that the proper written confession might be onely given to them, to show to the Pope, it was so odious, but it would not be graunted them, but it should also be discovered vnto 8 of the Senate, and after an open degradation of their ecclesiasticall dignity, they were openly burned in the market place att Bern, in the sight of a multitude of people, as hereticks, in the yeare 1509, onely 4 articles of their confession were printed.

"The matter lay asleep some time, but a year after that a Spanish Bishop came, authorised with full powers from Rome, and the whole Cheat being fully proved, the four Friers were solemnly degraded from their priesthood, and Eight daies after, it being the last of May, 1509, they were burnt in a Meadow on the other side of the River over against the great church; the place of their Execution was shewed me, as well as the hole in the wall, thro which the Voice was conveyed to the Image.'-p. 41.

times vnmoveable, sometimes raving, and then said the friers, I lay so deep in devotion, and when I raved then I played with Christ's bitter passion.

"A baptised jew at Bamberch, called Lasarus, had procured that before named bloud to them, he had also made the collour, wherewith they had colloured the Sacrament, as also the crucifix.

"Item, that they had an art to keep the wounds open vnputrified and without paine: Item, how that they had healed them vp, and by the vertue of a sap of a tree, had made him these wonderfull seignes in stead of the hooles.

"Item, how he was instructed in all things, to speake before the image, concerning the citty of Berne and the Barefooted friers.

"Item, how they had bound themselves together with an oath to take my life away.

Item, of the force and torture they had vsed to make me hold my tongue, and of the poisoned hearbs, drink and sacrament, they had given him.

"Item, the superior had stolen from the cloister 500 pounds, he could also make that every woman, vnto whom he gave his hand, must fulfill his will.

"Item, the four friers had stolen our Ladies jewels, and gave him something of [sic] for an ornament in his celle, because they might convince him of theft, and the Prior had sent his part into Swabia.'

We will conclude this long extract in the words of Burnet. "It was certainly one of the blackest and yet the best carried on cheat that has been ever known, and no doubt had the poor Frier died, before the discovery, it had passed down to posterity as one of the greatest Miracles that ever was, and it gives a shrewd suspition that many of the other Miracles of that church were of the same nature, but more successfully finished."Letters, p. 42.

ART. V.-1. Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin, compos'd at several times. Printed by his true copies. The Songs were set in Musick by Mr. Henry Lawes, Gentleman, of the King's Chapel, and one of his Majesties Private Musick. Printed and Publish'd according to Order. London. Printed by Ruth Raworth, for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at the signe of the Princes Arms, in Paul's Church Yard. 1645. Small octavo, pp. 214.

2. Paradise Lost. A Poem, written in TEN Books, by John Milton. Licensed and Entred according to Order. London. Printed, and to be sold by Peter Parker, under Creed Church,