graphia Hibernia, c. 28, p. 727.) After all, ridiculous as the legend is, it does not come up to the miraculous conception of Joanna Southcott, believed by so many credulous fools, in this nineteenth century.

St. DOMINICK (Domingo de Guzman) was a Spaniard, and may be properly termed a burning and a shining light. His mother, on conceiving him, dreamed that she was with child of a whelp, carrying in his mouth a lighted torch; and that, after he was born, he put the world in an uproar by his fierce barkings, and set it on fire by the torch he carried in his mouth. As Dominick turned out the first inquisitor the world was blessed with, and happily established the Inquisition at Thoulouse, in 1212, his followers, therefore, interpreted the dream to be the doctrine by which he enlightened the world : but, if dreams mean any thing, we should the rather suppose the torch to be an emblem of the fire and faggot lighted by him, and by which a multitude of people were burnt to ashes-for religion's sake!

In one day, fourscore persons were beheaded, and four hundred others burnt alive, by this man's order, and in his sight! This modest mild character could never look a woman in the face, or speak to one. In his preaching expeditrons, he usually slept in the churches, or upon a grave. He wore an iron chain about his body, and he fasted and flagellated incessantly.

At his birth, meteors and earthquakes annunciated the event. The canopy of heaven was illuminated by extra suns and moons, of extraordinary brilliancy. The Virgin Mary acted as his nurse at the birth, receiving him in her arms. When a sucking babe, he observed the fasts of the church, and, foregoing pap, would sleep on the ground, by way of penance. When a man, the saint performed miracles: One day he took up his lodging, as he thought, in a monastery; but, at night, being awakened by direful yells, he found he had got among a legion of devils, and-preached a sermon to them, which was so effectual, that the coast was entirely cleared shortly after, they taking French leave.

One day the flesh became insolent: the quarrel took place in a wood to become victorious, he stripped himself to the skin, and, invoking an army of ants and wasps to a holy alliance, in three hours the contest ended, and he gained the victory. Like his own inquisitorial faggots, he became red-hot with divine love; he glowed, he panted, he sweat blood, and finally became seraphic.

The devil as usual tormented him, as he did all these saints. He appeared to Dominick as a flea, as a monkey; and, in the latter character, Lucifer was made to reverse the old saying, of Holding the candle to the devil;' for so unyielding was the saint, that he made the monkey-devil hold the candle to him while reading, till it burnt down to his very paws.

In the convent of the Dominick church, at Florence, is a painting of one of his miracles, which is remarkable. The devil, who, had robbed the church, is obliged by this saint to restore the plunder; and afterwards forced by him into the confessional, where he confessed all his sins to the saint.

St. Dominick pays some visits to heaven: In one of these he saw vast numbers of the pious of all other orders but his own: no Dominicans were visible: his soul became afflicted: at length he asked the reason: Christ, then, laying his hand upon the Virgin Mary's shoulder, said: "I have committed your order to my mother's care;' and she, lifting up her robe, discovered an innumerable multitude of Dominicans, friars and nuns, nestled under it!'-(Breviarum S. Ordinis Predicatorum, Paris, 1647, Officium S. Domini, p. 68.) These are not the inventions of Protestant revilers, but the authenticated and sanctioned records of their own church.

Again, "The Dominicans, the inquisitors, tell us, that the Virgin appeared to St. Dominick in a cave, near Thoulouse; that she called him her son and her husband; that she took him in her arms, and bared her breasts to him, that he might drink their nectar," &c. &c. (Quarterly Review, No. 12.): but it is almost too profligate for repetition. At another time she espouses him in the midst of celestial witnesses. If the reader will take into account these unequalled blasphemies, with the life, character, and behaviour of this saint, he will then conclude that human depravity could be carried no further, yet still Dominic is a saint ;-so are they all, all honourable saints.

St. DAVID, the patron saint of Wales, whose day is the first of March, when the Welch wear green leeks in their hats, was, in reality, an excellent, learned, and pious bishop. But, as the monkish historians were never satisfied with any thing short of the miraculous and supererogatory, they have added, that an angel was his constant attendant, ministering to his wants, and contributing to his edification and relaxation: that the Bath waters became warm and salubrious through his agency that he healed complaints, and re-animated the dead: that whenever he preached, a snow-white dove sat upon his shoulder: And, among other things, as pulpits were not in

fashion in those days, the earth on which he preached was raised from its level, and became a hill; from whence his voice was heard to the best advantage.

St. EUSEBIUS, Such was his love of mortification, used to wear an iron chain round his body: his continual fastings, and other kinds of macerations, rendered him so lean and emaciated, that his girdle, at length, became useless, and would continually slide down upon his heels.-(Theodoret.)

St. ETHELDREDA, who, according to the breviaries, was "twice a widow, and always a virgin!" was the daughter of Aunas, king of the East Angles. She dedicated her person to God, by a vow of perpetual chastity, and so was deservedly canonized. Her first husband's name was Thombert, whom her parents selected for her; and, at his decease, she was married to Egfrid, king of Northumberland, anno 671. Neither of these, her lords, could induce their pious wife to return their love. After resisting the daily entreaties of the one and the other, she retired from the pomps and vanities of this wicked world into the abbey of Coldingham. Whether king Egfrid regretted the loss of so cold a wife, does not appear; but she left a character behind her for purity and selfdenial, for the edification and admiration of all those who can admit this species of continence, especially in the marriagestate, to be a virtue.

St. EUFRAXIA, a female saint, belonged to a convent of one hundred and thirty nuns, not one of whom ever washed her feet; and the very mention of a bath was an abomination among them.

St. ERKENWALD, the son of Kissgaffa, fourth in succession from Melitus, was deservedly canonized; for the very litter in which he was carried, in his last illness, continued, during many centuries, to cure fevers by the touch; and the very chips, carried to the sick, restored them to health. So great was the reputation of his piety, that his shrine, in the old cathedral of St. Paul, was enriched with gold, silver, and precious stones, and three goldsmiths were kept at work on it for a whole year.

St. ENARCHUS, or Evortius, bishop of Orleans, in France, would have been a valuable auxiliary to our fire-offices: for his legend says, 'By the efficacy of his prayers, he extinguished a fire that otherwise would have consumed the city!" He converted seven thousand infidels in a few days, and built a church, by pointing out a certain spot, where money was dis

covered by the workmen, which defrayed the expenses. To shew he was worthy to become the bishop of Orleans, "a dove alighted on his head, and afforded to the wondering multitude proof incontestable that he was the fit person." Here it may be observed, that the legends tell of so many pigeons perching upon pious pastors, that one is apt to suspect some tampering with, and teaching of, the said doves, who, we know, are very docile in their nature, and easily domesticated. Mr. Addison, in his Travels in Italy, relates, that he saw, at Ravenna, in Italy, 'a little window in the church, through which the Holy Ghost is said to have entered, in the form of a dove, and to have settled on one of the candidates for the bishopric: the dove is represented on the window, and is in great repute all over Italy! Such supernatural interferences were, doubtless, once believed.

St. FIACRE was the patron saint of persons afflicted with the piles: He has also given a name to a species of carriage, used by the French. This saint was the heir to Eugenius the Fourth, king of Scots, who lived in the seventh century; but, being pious, he refused the Scottish crown, died, and was canonized, and probably buried at St. Omer's, as there is a chapel dedicated to him there. "The troops of Henry the Fifth are said to have pillaged the chapel of the Highland saint; who, in revenge, assisted his countrymen in the French service to defeat the English at Bauge; and afterwards afflicted Henry with the piles, of which he died. This prince complained, that he was not only plagued by the living Scots, but even persecuted by those who were dead," meaning St. Fiacre.-Smollett's Travels, letter 4.)

St. FAITH was a virgin martyr: she suffered under Dacianus, about 290. No miracles are recorded as the cause of her canonization, her virginity and martyrdom being 'sufficient' to place her in the calendar. Under our forthcoming head of Celibacy of Priests and Nuns, the importance annexed to the first in the Romish church will be shewn. This unsocial and unnatural feeling, we must confess, is not the least of the eccentricities of the human mind, displayed in this work. That a life should be pleasing to God, which is thus rendered useless to mankind, is but the supposition of an insane; and that life led, too, in wastes and solitudes, in dirt and filth, in unnecessary privations, in voluntary penance,-and this to please the Lord and Giver of life and light, who made all things for our usc.-What is this but the disdaining or abuse of his very bounty?

St. FRANCIS, of Assisi, who was born in 1181, died Oct. 4, 1226, canonized by Pope Gregory the Ninth, and founder of one of the four orders of mendicants, so betook himself to solitude and macerations, that his townsmen thought he was mad, so ghastly did his face become. He devoted himself to an evangelical poverty. He was forced to lie apon ice and snow, nature was so rebellious; or, in the language of Bonaventure, "Blessed Francis, at the beginning of his conversion, would often, in winter, throw himself into a ditch full of ice, that he might get a complete victory over his domestic enemy, and to preserve the robe of chastity from the conflagration of pleasure. Being one day strongly pressed by a temptation of the flesh, he pulled off his clothes, and scourged himself soundly; then, warmed with an admirable fervency of zeal, he opened his cell, and coming out of it, he went into a garden, where, having thrown himself naked into a great heap of snow, he made of it seven balls, and, laying them before him, he thus spoke to his external man: The largest of these balls is thy wife; the other four are thy two sons and two daughters; and the remaining two are thy man and maid servants, which thou must keep. Make haste then to clothe them, for they are starved with cold; but, if the trouble they put thee to is uneasy to thee, serve carefully only one God. The devil, who then tempted St. Francis, being baulked, immediately left him, and this holy man returned victoriously into his cell; for the cold, which he endured externally, so extinguished the internal flames of his concupiscence, that he was never after troubled with their insolences." One of the greatest rarities of St. Francis is, that it is pretended that Jesus Christ stamped upon him the marks of his five wounds; but the satirists of the day were so bold as to assert, that these marks were made by St. Dominick, with a spit, when he was hid under the bed, upon a quarrel one saint had with the other. The monks of his order, however, obtained permission to consecrate a festival, in honour of these holy marks, and to repeat the office of it. This good saint, who had a wife and family of-snow, might very well have swallows and grasshoppers for his sisters, and hares, leverets, and lambs for his brothers; for thus he called these animals: Swallows! my sisters, you have chatted enough: My brother leveret, hast thou let thyself be thus deceived? Grasshopper, my sister, sing and praise thy Creator! He said to a countryman, who carried two lambs on his shoulders, Why dost thou thus torment my brothers?" His mercy extended even to lice and worms; for he would not suffer them to be killed; because it is said, in the 21st Psalm, 'I am a worm and not a man.' (Jurieu's Apology for