the Councils printed at Paris, in 1630; and overagainst a very remarkable passage from Cyril, p.

James Merlin, the first editor of the Councils, was a doctor of divinity, and chanoine of Notre-dame de Paris. Besides the Councils, in two large volumes folio; he published the works of Durand de St. Pourçain, in 1515; the works of Richard de St. Victor, in 1518; and the works of Peter de Blois, in 1519. His Defence of Origen, in 4to. a good thing; and Six Homilies on Gabriel's being sent to the Virgin Mary, in 8vo; which homilies are not worth half a farthing, are all that may be considered his. Merlin, born in 1472, died in 1541, æt. 69.

Peter Crabb, the second editor of the councils, born in 1470, was a Franciscan friar. He published two volumes of the Councils, in folio, at Cologne, in 1538; and a third volume in 1550.-He died in 1553, æt. 83.

Lawrence Surius, the third editor of the Councils, born in 1522; a monk of the Chartreux, published his edition of them, in four large volumes in folio, in 1560; and a few years after printed his lives of the Saints, in six volumes. He wrote likewise a short History of his own Time; and An Apology for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He was the most outrageous, abusive bigot that ever wrote against the Protestants. The great men of his own church despised him, and Cardinal Perron, in particular, calls him bête and l'ignorant. He died in 1578, æt. 56.

Philip Labbé, the Jesuit, born in 1607; the fifth

549, I found several written leaves, bound up in the volume, and these leaves referred to by an asterisk.

editor, and next after Binius; lived only to publish 11 volumes of the Councils, the eleventh came out the year he died; the other seven were done by Cossart. Labbé was a man of learning, and besides his collection of Councils, wrote several other pieces. The best of them are Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum; Concordia Cronologica; Bellarmini Philologica; and the Life of Galen. He died in 1667, æt. 60.

Gabriel Cossart, the continuator, who published the other seven volumes in 1672, died at Paris, the 18th. of December, 1674, æt. 59.

Richard de St. Victor, whose works were published by Merlin, at Paris, in 1518, was a Scotchman, and prior of the abbey of St. Victor in Paris. He was the author of Three Critical and Historical Dissertations on the Tabernacle; Two on the Temple; Three on the Harmony of the Chronology of the Kings of Judea and Israel: Commentaries on the Psalms, Canticles, the Epistles of St. Paul, and the Revelation; as also of some Treatises in Divinity; and several Disquisitions relating to Spiritual Life. There have been four editions of these pieces, and the best of them is that printed at Rouen in 1650, in two volumes, by Father John de Toulouse, who wrote the life of Father Richard, and added it to his edition. The three other editions are those of Paris, in 1518; of Venice, in 1592, and of Co

The passage I call remarkable, is part of a homily pronounced by the Alexandrian Patriarch before the

logne, in 1621. Richard de Victor has been highly commended by several celebrated writers, particularly by Henry de Grand, Trithemius, Bellarmine, and Sixte de Sienne. There are many curious and fine things in his writings, it must be allowed; but in general, he is too subtil, too diffuse, and too full of digressions. His commentaries, for the most part, are weak, and evince that he did not understand St. Paul. He died 10th March 1173, æt. 91; and, for the twelfth century, was an extraordinary man.

But who was St. Victor, to whom the abbey of Chanoines Reguliers in Paris, and the greater abbaye of Chanoines in Marseilles, are dedicated? He was a Frenchman, who fought under the Emperors Dioclesian and Maximilian with great applause, in the most honourable post; but in the year 302, suffered martyrdom for refusing to sacrifice to the idols. He was executed on the spot where the abbey of St. Victor in Marseilles now stands, and there they have his reliques, ' a la reserve du pié,' that is, except his foot, which lies in the Abbaye de St. Victor de Paris. William Grimaud, abbot of St. Victor de Marseille, on his being made Pope, under the title of Urban V. in 1362, took the foot of St. Victor from his abbey, when he left it, and made a present of it to John, Duke of Berry, one of the sons of John I. King of France, who was taken

council of Ephesus on St. John's day, in a church dedicated to his name. In rehearsing his discourse

prisoner by Edward the Black Prince, in the battle of Poitiers, Sept. 19, 1356; and this duke of Berry gave the inestimable foot to the monks of St. Victor in Paris. There it remains to this day; and though so small a part of the blessed Victor, sheds immense benefits on the pious Catholics who adore it. Happy Catholics!

As to Peter de Blois, he was archdeacon of Bath, in the reign of Henry the second, and died in London, in the year 1200, æt. 71. His works comprise one hundred and eighty-three letters on various subjects, twenty sermons, and seventeen tracts of several kinds, they were first printed at Mayence in 1500, then by Merlin at Paris, in 1519, as before mentioned; and afterwards, John Busée the jesuit, gave an edition of them in 1600, which is far preferable to that edited by Merlin. But the most valuable edition is that of Peter de Goussainville, printed at Paris, in 1667, in folio; to this edition is prefixed the life of Peter de Blois, and very learned remarks on his writings, and the subjects he wrote on, are added, by Goussainville. De Blois's works contain many excellent things, and his life is a curious piece. Some of his notions relating to the scriptures are very good, and he writes well against vice. He is a good author for the age he lived in. His letters are well worth reading, especially such of them as relate to his own time. King Henry II. ordered him to make a collection of them for his royal use.

to the Holy Fathers, the Saint cites Heb. ch. 1. v. 6, and then addresses himself to the apostle.

Durand de St. Pourçain, bishop of Meaux, in 1326, died the 13th of September, 1333, in the 89th year of his age. His works are, Liber de Origine jurisdictionum, a learned piece; and Commentaries on the

Four Books of Sentences. The book called the Sentences, was written by the famous Peter Lombard, bishop of Paris, who died in the year 1164. æt. 82. In the Sentences, one of the propositions argued on is this: Christus secundum quod est homo, non est aliquod. Some call these Sentences excellent, which is what I cannot think them; but in Durand's Commentary on them, there are several excellent things.

As to the jesuit, Jean Busée, who published the third edition of the works of Peter de Blois; he was the author of many books not worth mentioning, and died at Mayence, 30th of May, 1611, aged 64.

The learned Goussainville, who printed the last edition of De Blois, with notes, died in the year 1683, extremely poor and miserable. He likewise published the works of Pope Gregory, with many valuable remarks and notes. There are four editions of this pope's works; that by Tussiniani, bishop of Venice, by order of Pope Sixtus the Vth; the Paris edition of 1640; Goussainville's edition; and the Benedictine edition; but Goussainville's is, in my opinion, the most valuable.

The Sermons in the first and second editions of Peter