The Cove

nanters' no

choretic

life.

without restraint on the bleak mountain side, or in the deserted shieling on the moors; and who can describe the divine ravishment of soul which they experienced in approaching the mercy seat through the great Intercessor, whose bowels of compassion yearned over his suffering Church? Some of the worthy men who outlived these times of tribulation declared that if they had the choice of any period of their life to spend it the second time, they would without hesitation, select the period of persecution, because it was then in an especial manner that they enjoyed the light of God's countenance, and fellowship with Him.

"Never were men more out of their reckoning than were the enemies of these worthies, when they imagined tion of Ana- that they robbed them of all conceivable comfort in compelling them to flee to the solitudes, and in keeping them there in the depth of winter, in cold and hunger, and loneliness; for the places to which they resorted, whether huts, or caves, or woods, were places where God's presence was peculiarly felt, and where they experienced the plain foretastes of heaven itself, so that it was with difficulty they were prevailed on to withdraw from these retreats. The deserts, as places of prayer, appeared to them more sweet and lovely than the most delectable paradise on earth. They loved the solitudes, for there rested the bodies of the martyrs; they loved the solitudes, for there they prayed together; they loved the solitudes, for there they walked with God, and enjoyed high communion with the Saviour, who seemed to have retired to the deserts with them. Could these be otherwise than excellent men who led a life so heavenly?"

For the curious little work from which this extract is taken I may here express my acknowledgments to my good friend Mr. Pollock of

Oatlands, Co. Dublin. The passage of the book here given furnishes us with a striking illustration of the facility with which men often drift into opinions imagined by them to be most contrary to their own, when they see not the tendency of the current which carries them along. For surely the reader, on perusing these extracts, may well exclaim, "Mutato nomine de monachis fabula narratur." Other parts of the little book in question exhibit no less remarkable sympathy, or rather identity of sentiment, with the Church of Rome, in her most glaring and comparatively modern errors, especially that notorious one of the claim of a deposing power against heretic princes; of which the reader who is curious in such matters may find some interesting specimens by referring to pp. 88, 89, &c. of the work in question. Vid. No. LXIII. inf.

No. V.

LETTER OF POPE JOHN VIII. APPROVING OF THE USE OF THE VULGAR TONGUE IN PUBLIC WORSHIP, WITH VIEWS OF SOME OTHER LEARNED ROMANISTS ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

The following is taken from a letter of Pope John VIII., written in A.D. 880, to Sfentopulcher, Count of Moravia (referred to at p. 370 of

Pope John

Service

ought to be celebrated in the vul

gar tongue

this work. The entire epistle may be seen in the Sac. Conc. Labbe & Coss. tom. IX. coll. 175-177, Lut. Par. 1671.)

"Finally, as to the Sclavonic letters discovered by the VIII. proves philosopher Constantine, and their adaptation for the from Holy due celebration of the praises of God, we approve of Scripture that Divine them, as is just; and we enjoin that the preaching and actions of Christ our Lord be proclaimed in the said language. For it is not in three languages only, but in every language, that we are exhorted to praise the Lord, by the sacred authority which commands us, saying, Praise the Lord all ye nations, and laud him all ye people. And the Apostles filled with the Holy Spirit, spake in all tongues of the wonderful works of God. Hence too Paul also, that heavenly trumpeter, sounds forth this exhortation, Let every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord in the glory of God the Father. Concerning which tongues he likewise gives us full and plain 1 Cor. xiv. instructions in the First Epistle to the Corinthians;

of every
country.

Ps. cxvii. 1.
Acts ii. 4,

11.

Philip. ii.

11.

[shewing] how by speaking with tongues we may edify the Church of God. Nor indeed is it at all injurious to faith or doctrine, either to sing mass in the same Sclavonic language, or to read [therein] the Holy Gospel, or divine Lessons from the Old and New Testaments, well translated and interpreted, or to chant [in the same tongue] all the rest of the Offices for the Hours. Since He that made the three principal tongues, Hebrew namely, Greek, and Latin, did Himself create all others likewise for his own praise and glory. We enjoin however, that in all Churches of your country, for the sake of greater dignity, the Gospel be read in Latin; and that it be afterwards proclaimed, in a translation into the Sclavonic tongue, in the ears of the people that understand not the Latin words; as appears to be the practice in some Churches. And if you and your Judges be

pleased to hear Mass in the Latin tongue in preference, we enjoin that the ceremonies of the Mass be celebrated for you in Latin."

servations

The very learned Romish author Martene has some obsome interesting observations on this subject, of Martene part of which, especially as being connected on this matter quoted. with the matter of the preceding extract, appears worth giving to the reader in this place. In his elaborate work De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus, (tom. i. p. 101, seu lib. 1, cap. iii. art. 2, Bassani, 1788,) this author has the following passage: :

66

Although the system of ecclesiastical discipline He approves which prevails at present, requires that the mass be of having celebrated only in three tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and mass in a Latin, (as Honorius of Autun observes in the Jewel of understood tongue not the Soul,' b. i. c. 92,) and the Church has by her sta- by the peotutes for many and just reasons banished the mother ple, altongue from the sacred Liturgies, far different however though admitting was her primitive arrangement. And it appears to us this to be to be not without good reason that we may assert (with entirely Cardinal Bona de Rebus Liturgicis, 1. 1, c. 5,) that the contrary to Apostolic Apostles and their successors used in each country, that language that was common and vernacular among the people; and so celebrated divine service at Jerusalem in Chaldee; at Antioch, Alexandria, and other Greek cities, in Greek; and at Rome, and all through the West, in Latin."

usage;

clears from

In the next passage, Martene corrects a state- which he ment of Cardinal Bona's, which seemed to re- an error of duce all the old Liturgies to the Three Tongues here named. He shews on the contrary by

Cardinal Bona's,

partly by a reference to the letter of

Pope John VIII., above cited.

many proofs, that other tongues, the Egyptian, &c., were used in the countries where they were spoken. In the course of this argument occurs the following notice of the letter of Pope John VIII. above cited :

"V. In the IXth century, when the Sclavi were converted to the Christian faith by the zealous preaching of S. Methodius, John VIII. the Supreme Pontiff, not only allowed, but in the strongest manner approved of, their having divine Service and the Sacred Liturgy in the Sclavonic language. With reference to this point we may quote the authority of the same Pontiff in his letter (247) to Sfentopulcher, Count of Moravia. Finally,' says he in it, as to the Sclavonic letters,' &c., &c."

Then follows the passage of Pope John's letter already given to the reader; after which Martene adds, that the said letter was written to Sfentopulcher in A.D. 880, by Pope John, who was "admonished by God so to write," as is stated by Eneas Sylvius, that was afterwards the Supreme Pontiff Pius II., in his History of Bohemia.

General character of the Instructions of St. Columba

nus.

Nos. VI. AND VII.

THE INSTRUCTIONS" OF ST. COLUMBANUS.

The two following discourses are given as a specimen of the "Instructions" or short Ser