thee ruler over much,' is in one way curiously applicable. Life is, he says, a child's play-garden, lent to train us for Heaven, by simple fulfilment of every-day duties in our homely round. And it was in the diligent keeping of his small and homely plot of ground, where many were of course utterly unappreciative, and constantly disappointing, that the life was outwardly spent that influences so many, and that the wisdom flowed from that guided the counsels of the Church for so many years, nay, will always be laid up in her stores. The war-cry came from a true swordsman of the Church Militant, but from one who never stepped out of his post, nor murmured that it was far short of what his talents deserved, but did his work to the utmost there, and therefore did much more. While seemingly cultivating to the utmost his 'play-garden,' he was really labouring to the utmost in the great Vineyard. And one illustration we must give of the 'bread cast on the waters' in this homeliest way, and of unseen results. One of his chief anxieties used to be the difficulty of touching the souls of the old men in the union workhouse, rough old ignorant work-hardened labourers, on some of whom, with all his attention, kindness, and varied attempts, he could never feel that he made an impression. One of these, who belonged to another parish, was moved back to his own after a residence of some months in Hursley Union. The ladies who had known him previously, and had no high opinion of him, were instantly struck by the change in his countenance and manner. They asked him how he liked Hursley. 'Like it!' he said, 'I seemed to myself they was always saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth." (To be continued.) MEDIEVAL SEQUENCES AND HYMNS. No. XIX.-OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST. (Cum per noctis medium) WHEN through the midnight's gloom The earth in silence moved, Into the Virgin's womb God sent His Son beloved, To save us from our doom. Let every mouth praise God, Hath borne its healing flower, Here nature is beguiled, Her laws reversed are, A Virgin undefiled Doth yet conceive and bear A Son, the heavenly Child. Behold God's human birth, In flesh the Light is veiled, The Fruit succeeds the leaf, In Bethlehem is found Our David, Salem's King; Earth's kingdoms quake around When He Whose praise we sing In Gihon's vale is crowned. Death's cause there perisheth, For God hangs on the wood; Victor He yields His breath, For since the Cross hath stood The Sun in gloom that set Beyond all skies He pleads The wounds of His great love, His ever-glorious deeds; And with the Church above For us He intercedes. Grant us Salvation boon, O Father ever blest, Through all the merits won By Him Thou lovest best, Thy sole-begotten Son. Amen. 11 'LOVE OR DEATH.' WHAT means this hunger at my heart, This gnawing restless pain? Is it I find the Better Part,' Less satisfying gain? And do I weary of my seat With Mary on the ground? Do falling from 'His Mouth most sweet' The words less sweetly sound? And have I stood with her in vain In vain beneath the Tree; Can any other object gain And can this heart lack aught beside O JESU, on the festal day Of her who loved much Give 'such a measure of Thy love' Much hast Thou me forgiven, Lord; Give 'love or death,' for life is death Lord, take away the wasted breath Give death-so may I see Thy Face, Give love-so shall this 'desert place' Give such a love as Mary drew Feast of S. Mary Magdalen, 1868. CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. CAMEO XCV. BISHOP REGINALD PECOCK. 1443-1464. 'THE sound of all bells in the steeples was drowned with the noise of drums and trumpets,' quoth Fuller, speaking of this reign; and in truth historians are so much occupied with the conflicts of the rival Roses as to have little thought or time to bestow upon the affairs of the Church. Indeed, the clergy were necessarily greatly involved in the contest; and in the disturbed condition of the nation, Rome, always biding her time, was able to establish precedents and substantiate her encroachments. The great struggle at Basle and at the two following councils of Pisa and Florence, had been whether the Pope were to be regarded as superior to the Council, or the Council as superior to the Pope. Even to the present day the Roman Church has not authoritatively decided the question, and though a considerable portion acknowledge the successor of St. Peter as personally infallible and uniting in his sole self the promises of the guiding Presence of the Holy Spirit-a large number of persons hold the really Catholic doctrine that the promise is to the assembly of the Church at large, such as those at Jerusalem, Nicea, and the other original Councils. In the Councils of the fifteenth century, the battle was in some sort a drawn one, but the Popes, with their consistent policy, were able to undermine the liberties of national Churches, above all of that of England, in the state of ferment and disunion of the nation. Archbishop Chicheley, after Henry of Monmouth's death, had been forced to give way for want of a king to support his resistance. John Stafford, who succeeded him, was a good and patriotic man, who did his best for King and country, but was forced to be rather the peace-maker in civil broils than the defender or advancer of Church progress; and the fearless chivalrous nature, ease, and affability, he inherited as a man of noble blood, made him beloved and followed with the instinctive allegiance of the English nation to a true gentleman. He had no quarrel with the Pope, and he held as a matter of course authority from him to act as legate. This was in fact acknowledging that the Pope had the supreme power, and that the Archbishop was only his commissioned agent, instead of the true Primate of the English Church; but though the bit had been put on, the rein was held so loosely as to be hardly felt, and everyone was both amazed and disgusted, when, in 1447, the full claims of the Papal see were openly advanced in a sermon by Bishop Reginald Pecock. This ecclesiastic was a Welshman, born at Langharne in Caermarthenshire, and when studying at Oxford, became noted both for his great learning and ability as well as for his excessive vanity. He was a fellow of Oriel College, and became Chaplain to the Duke of Glocester, and in 1444 he was made Bishop of St. Asaph. He seems to have been disgusted by the strong, steady, proud attitude of the high-born statesmen Bishops, and equally so with the murmurs of the Lollards against the papal application of English wealth to purposes foreign to English interests; and he took up a line of his own. St. Paul's Cross, a grand canopied stone pulpit for out-of-door preaching, in front of the great cathedral of London, had become the place which men chose for setting forth whatever they desired to excite the widest attention; and here, to a multitude of clergy and citizens, Bishop Pecock declared the Pope not to be merely the first among equal bishops, but the head and source whence all their authority flowed; and as the universal shepherd, having a full right to apply the produce of the flock as he might see fit, not necessarily to provide instruction for one part of the fold with what was drawn therefrom, but to use all at his own discretion, in advancing the political claims of the Church as well as in providing for the spiritual instruction of the people. The bishops and the citizens were alike angered by this direct contravention of the independence for which they had striven so hard, and Archbishop Stafford demanded an explanation. Pecock sent it in writing, and his defence was even more amazing, since finding no support in the early Fathers for the supremacy of the Pope, he absolutely abused with violence the four great doctors of the Church, SS. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory. However, it would not have been possible to degrade a bishop for upholding the Pope, and Pecock not only escaped censure but became Bishop of Chichester after the unfortunate Adam de Moleyns had been murdered in Jack Cade's insurrection. Archbishop Stafford himself died two years later, but not till he had shewn the King the first printed book seen in England, and begged him to procure that a 'printing-mould' should be brought from Germany or Holland, that the Scriptures and other good books might be the more easily dispersed. Good King Henry willingly assented; and Mr. William Caxton, a young London merchant, was accordingly sent to Haarlem to learn the art, which should henceforth supplement the tardy pen with a swift multifold and cheap mode of copying, so as to store up words and bear |