issued letters, announcing that the Asiatic brethren were cut off from the common union of Christians. Here, however, he was not followed by those who had previously agreed with him; and Irenæus in particular, in the name of the Christians in Gaul under his jurisdiction, wrote both to Victor and to various other bishops, strongly pressing milder measures, and reminding the Roman prelate* of the example of Anicetus, one of his predecessors, who paid Polycarp the highest honour, even when assured that he would not conform to the Western custom, and regarded his own as more apostolical. What the immediate result of these letters was we are not informed by any contemporary writer. Anatolius, indeed, (if the Latin version of his Treatise in the Paschal Cycle, published by Bucherius, is to be relied on,) asserts that Victor did not persist in his excommunication; and we know subsequently+ that many churches in Asia adhered to the Jewish reckoning, and yet were not on that account regarded with any aversion by their brethren; and it was not until the council of Nice that their bishops there assembled agreed to follow the general custom, to which, however, some churches did not conform in the time of Chrysostom. The part which the bishop of Rome took in this matter requires perhaps a more explicit notice. It has, no doubt, been felt that Victor acted in a manner which countenances the claims set up by the popes of later days; but when we come to examine, we shall find that whatever claims he advanced, beyond what we should allow, were discountenanced by the then catholic church. He did, or attempted to do, two things: first, to bring the whole church to one practice in the observance of the feast of Easter; secondly, when he did not succeed with some churches, to excommunicate the dissentients. The first was laudable; inasmuch as Christians who travelled upon business, or removed their residence from one part of Christendom to another, had their feelings disturbed by finding their brethren celebrating so important a festival on a different day from that to which they were accustomed; and some weak or factious minds were thus tempted to make divisions in churches to which they removed. This had been particularly the case in the church of Rome, as being a place of general resort; and therefore Victor, both on that account, and as bishop of the principal church in the world, very rightly exerted himself to bring about uniformity. The course he took was also a good one. He wrote to the principal bishops in various countries, to request them to call synods of the neighbouring bishops, that Two fragments of his letter to Victor are preserved by Eusebius, and appear third and fourth of the Fragments, at the end of all the good editions of Irenæus. There is probably another fragment of this or his previous letter to the churches on this same subject, quoted by the author of the Questions and Answers for the Orthodox, Quest. 115, and numbered vii. in the Fragments. + Athanas. de Synodo, 5, p. 719. Firmilian: apud Cyprianum, ep. 75. Chrysostom. tom. V. Hom. 55, p. 608. Euseb. de Vit. Const. 19. Anatolius, apud Bucher. Theodoret. Hist. i. 9. de Cycl. Vict. p. 444, ed. Antwerp, 1633. 17 thus he might ascertain the sense of the catholic church. Nothing could be more prudent or temperate; nor was anything apparently better calculated to persuade the minority, than to find one consenting custom in so many churches, in countries separated so entirely from each other. Now so far we have no claim set up inconsistent with the station of influence and dignity which we readily concede to have appertained to the Roman bishops from very early times; and which, if not most grossly abused, would never have been denied to them. Some have supposed, that he, with his letters, issued a threat of excommunicating those churches which refused to comply with the western custom; but that is opposed to the sequel of the history, from which we learn that such a threat would have called forth remonstrances, of which in this stage of the business we hear nothing. Having received letters from every quarter except from Asia Minor, stating that the traditional custom was the same as that of Rome, he then, instead of proceeding by persuasion, immediately conceived the idea of compelling the dissentient churches to comply with his wishes, by threatening to cut them off from communion if they declined. His threat had no effect, and he proceeded to put it into execution, nothing doubting that the churches who had been with him hitherto would still stand by him. And this is the point at which we encounter something like the modern papal claims; for he declared the churches of Asia Minor cut off, not only from his communion, but from the common unity.* Some might argue, that he must have had some foundation for this claim; but till something of the kind can be shewn, we have no need to suppose any ground but a strong desire of a rash and determined mind to carry the point he had undertaken. Be the ground what it may, the catholic church negatived his claim; those who agreed with him in the desire of bringing about unity of practice+ would not unite with him in excommunicating their brethren, but rebuked him sharply; and Irenæus in particular represented to him the difference between his spirit and that of his predecessors. And so entirely abortive was his attempt that, about sixty years after, Firmilian, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, in a letter addressed to Cyprian,s expressly asserted that the peace and unity of the catholic church had never been broken by differences about the observance of Easter or other religious rites; and that, in alluding to the conduct of Stephen, bishop of Rome, who had quarrelled with the African bishops because their custom differed from the Roman on the subject of rebaptizing those who had been baptized by heretics, which would necessarily have brought to mind any schism produced by Victor, a previous bishop of Rome, if any such had been produced. Here, then, we have the most satisfactory evidence that the catholic power church, so near to the apostles' times, had decided against the of the bishop of Rome to cut off whom he might think fit from the • Euseb. H. E. V. xxiv. 3. ‡ Euseb. as above quoted. VOL. XV.—Jan. 1839. Jerome in Catal. § Cyprian, Epist. 75, ed. Potter. D common unity; not that they knew nothing of such a claim, but that it was practically made and decided against. We have now brought to a close all the circumstantial part of the public life of Irenæus. Eusebius has preserved to us the names of others of his writings, which we have now lost. Of these he mentions first, a Discourse to the Gentiles; which he characterizes as very brief, and very necessary, or cogent, and informs us that the title of it was, Пlepi 'Emiσruns, which Jerome, in his Catalogue, translates De disciplina, and supposes it to be different from the Discourse. Another tract he wrote, dedicated to one Marcianus, on the Preaching of the Apostles. The last Eusebius mentions is a volume of miscellaneous tracts or discussions, of which the ninth fragment is probably a remnant. Maximus* cites some Discourses on Faith, addressed to Demetrius, a deacon of Vienne, of which we have two fragments, whether genuine or not, in all the best editions of his Remains. Although forty-two fragments, attributed to Irenæus, have been collected, chiefly from Catenas, we have no clue for appropriating the greater part of them to the writings of which they formed a portion. One of them is said to pertain to a discussion on the Eternity of Matter; but whether belonging to a separate treatise, or a remnant of his Discourse to the Gentiles, we have no means of judging. We have no account of the death of Irenæus upon which we can absolutely depend. Jerome in one passage+ calls him a martyr; and so does the author of the Questions and Answers above cited; but no other early writer gives him that appellation; neither have we any notice of his death by any earlier author than Gregory of Tours, who wrote towards the end of the sixth century, and who asserts that he died a martyr in a bloody persecution, which the martyrologists Usuard and Ado§ assert took place under Severus. In fact, all the martyrologists, both Latin and Greek, make him a martyr. The tradition, therefore, is by no means an improbable one. But in whatever way he quitted this world, we may rest assured that his name is written in the book of life. DEVOTIONAL WRITINGS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. NO. II. MR. EDITOR,-The contribution, under this head, which I have now to make to your pages is a translation of a small collection of prayers, which I have met with in an ancient MS. of the early part of the fifteenth century, at least I consider it to be of that period from the nature of its caligraphy &c. The first page has an ornamented flowered border, the painting of which, as well as the initial capitals, are in rather a coarse style of illumination. The MS. itself consists only of five leaves of a small quarto page; but whether it might not have originally formed part of a larger volume, I am unable to de *Tom. II. p. 152, ed. Combefis. + On Isaiah, lxiv. 4, 5, in vol. iv. p. 761, of his Works. $ Tillemont, Memoires, tom. iii. part 1, S. Irenée, Art. x. termine. It was lettered and catalogued by the bookseller from whom I obtained it, "Homi leg Exhortationes," but what this title has to do with the work I am not quite competent to decipher, though I think it must have been meant as an abbreviation of "Hominis legi Exhortationes," &c., in which case exhortationes is a wrong word, for the title at the head of the first page (as is common in all works of this date) stands in red letters as follows, " Hic incipit una oratio bona ad dum ihm xpm." There is, as the reader will observe here, as well as in my former number, a remarkable freedom from popish sentiment in the language of these devotions, though it is but just to add, that at the end of each one of them, the words in red, " Pater noster," and of some of them, " Ave Maria," remind us that they were written at a time when the forms of true and false worship were most artfully blended together. The number of fifteen, to which these prayers amount, may perhaps be accidental, but it is more probably in conformity with the fifteen mysteries of the rosary-viz, the five joyful, the five sorrowful, and the five glorious mysteries, which is a favourite subject in the writings of the period when these prayers were composed. Upon the whole, they will be considered, if I am not greatly mistaken, as well deserving of attention, not only for the beautiful and affecting simplicity with which they enlarge upon that topic which ought to be most dear to all Christians in every age, but as they serve to shew most strikingly, that all the devotions of an age confessedly too superstitious were not confined, as some would have us to suppose, to the virgin and the saints. 1. O Jesus, eternal sweetness of those who love thee; a joy bringing with it every delight; a health yielding every desire; the lover of sinners, who didst bear witness that thy delights were with the sons of men, when thou wert made a man for the sake of man, at the end of the appointed times. Remember all the forethought and inward anguish which thou sustainedst in thy body; that very moment of thy most salutary passion having been ordained from eternity in the divine heart. Remember also the sadness and bitterness which thou hadst in thy soul, when, being thyself present at the last supper with thy disciples, thou didst deliver thy body and thy blood; didst wash their feet; and whilst sweetly consoling them, art a monument to shew that in thy delicate body thou didst bear the passion of thy cross beforehand, when after the third prayer thou didst sweat the sweat of blood. Thou wert betrayed by a kiss for the sake of gain; seized by an elect nation; accused by false witnesses; unjustly tried by three judges; and in the elect city, during the paschal season, in the flower of thy body's youth, thou wert innocently condemned. Stript of thine own garment, thou wert arrayed in strange clothing. Thine eyes were buffeted, and thy face was concealed with a veil.* The writer of the MS. has only taken the expression, πɛρıkaλúþavreg avròv, see Luke, xxii. 64, in the largest sense, considering that it means something more than a mere bandage round the eyes. Schleusner renders the passage, "obvelato capite ejus ;" and he adds, "Scilicet ultimo supplicio damnati obvelato capite apud veteres rapi solebant," with references to authorities for this assertion. Thou wert made to submit to blows; thou wert bound to the column; wert scourged, crowned with thorns, struck on the head with the reed, and, moreover, wounded with innumerable calumnies. Give me, I pray thee, to suffer for the memory of the evils which happened before thy crucifixion; before death, give me true contrition, a pure confession, a worthy satisfaction, and a full remission of all my sins. Amen. Pater noster. 2. O Jesus, fabricator of the world, whom no bounds can really divide or contain, who holdest the earth in the hollow of thine hand, remember that most bitter grief which thou didst sustain, when they first afflicted thy most sacred hands by fastening them to the cross with blunted nails, and when, besides the perforation of thy dearest feet, because thou wert not agreeable to their will, they added a fresh anguish to thy wounds, and so drew thee and stretched thee on the length and breadth of thy cross that the joints of thy members were dislocated. Thee I beseech to give me the memory of this most sacred and bitter sorrow on the cross, and thy fear, and thy love. Amen. Pater noster. Ave Maria. 3. O Jesus, heavenly physician, recal to mind that the languor, wanness, and pain, which must be sustained when the body is placed on the lofty arms of the cross, thou didst suffer in all thy thoroughly lacerated members, nought of which remained in its proper state, so that no sorrow could be found like unto thine, inasmuch as even from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head no soundness was found in it; yet even then, unmindful of all these woes, thou didst entreat the Father for thine enemies, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." By this mercy, and by the memory of that sorrow, grant that, for the remembrance of thy most bitter passion, I may obtain the full remission of all my sins. Amen. Pater noster. 4. O Jesus, the true liberty of angels, virtue itself, and a paradise of delights, remember the terror and weakness thou didst endure when all thine enemies like a lion ferociously stood round about thee, and with buffetings, spittings, and the tearing of nails, besides other cursed punishments, molested thee; and moreover, with all manner of contumelious words, which were, indeed, hard stripes, yea, the hardest of torments. By all these things, O Lord Jesus Christ, with which thou wert injuriously afflicted by thine enemies, I beseech thee, that thou wouldest deliver me from all my visible and invisible enemies, and grant me to find the protection of thy eternal salvation under the shadow of thy wings. Amen. Pater noster. 5. O Jesus, thou mirror of eternal charity, remember that anguish which thou hadst when in the glass of the severest splendour of thy majesty thou didst behold the predestination of thy elect. By the torments of thy passion as the Saviour, and which thou sufferedst in the reprobation of the wicked and in the multitude of the damned; by the abyss also of thy manifold compassion which thou hadst for us betrayed and desperate sinners, and especially when thou didst exhibit thyself as saying to the thief, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise;" I ask thee, O pious Jesu, that thou wouldest shew me mercy in the hour of my death. Amen. Pater noster. Ave Maria. |