MARTYRS.

The sober discretion of the present age can more easily admire than imitate the fervour of the first Christians, who according to the lively expression of Sulpicius Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than his own cotemporaries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatius composed, as he was carried in chains. through the cities of Asia, breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that when he should be exposed in the amphitheatre, they would not by their kind, but unseasonable intercession, deprive him of the crown of glory; and he declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which might be employed as the instruments of his death. Some stories are related of the courage of martyrs who actually performed what Igna tius had intended; who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires which were kindled to comsume them, and discovered a sensation of joy and pleasure in the midst of the most exquisite tortures. Several examples have been preserved of a zeal impatient of those restraints which the Emperors had provided for the security of the Church. The Christians

sometimes supplied by their voluntary declaration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed the public service of Paganism, and rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the magistrates, · called upon them to pronounce and to inflict the sentence of the law. The behaviour of the Christians was too remarkable to escape the notice of the ancient philosophers, but they seem to have considered it with much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of conceiving the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude of believers beyond the bounds of prudence or reason, they treated such an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate despair, of stupid insensibility, or of superstitious phrenzy. "Un

happy men," exclaimed the proconsul Antonius, to the Christians of Asia, "unhappy men, “if you are thus weary of your lives, is it so "difficult for you to find ropes and precipices?', He was extremely cautious, as it is observed by a learned and pious historian, of punishing men who had found no accusers but themselves, the Imperial laws not having made any provision for so unexpected a case, condemning therefore a few as a warning to their brethren, he dismissed the multitude with indignation and contempt. Notwithstanding this real or affected disdain, the intrepid constancy of the faithful was productive

of more salutary effects on those minds which nature or grace had disposed for the easy recep tion of religious truth. On these melancholy occasions there were many among the Gentiles who pitied, who admired, and who were converted. The generous enthusiasm was communicated from the sufferer to the spectators; and the blood of martyrs, according to a well known observation, became the seed of the church,

ABBOT BRIHMAN.

About the year 1414, Brihman, abbot of St. Michael, being at the council of Constance, was pitched upon by the prelates to say mass, because he was a man of quality. He performed it so well, that an Italian cardinal fancied that he must be a doctor of divinity or of canon law, and desired to get acquainted with him. He approached and addressed himself to him in Latin. The abbot who knew no Latin, could not answer; but without showing any concern, he turned to his own chaplain and said, "What "shall I do?" "Can you not recollect," replied the chaplain, "the names of the towns and vil26 lages in your neighbourhood? Name them "to him and he will think you talk Greek, and "then he will leave you." Immediately the

abbot answered the cardinal, "Sturwolt, Hase, "Gisen, Boersahe, Ravenstede, Drispenstedes, "Itzem." The cardinal asked if he were a Greek, and the chaplain answered "yes," and then the Italian prelate withdrew.

PIOUS THE FOURTH.

The common people of Rome complained to pope Pius the Fourth of a tax which he had laid upon corn, and which could not exceed three sols per head per annum. "You have more reason

"of Paul the Fourth, has made you lose a

"to complain," said he, "my predecessor, who "days work of five sols, by instituting a new "festival."

CARDINAL TURLone.

It appears that the cruelties of the holy office, are not only of a recent date, but that they on whom they are inflicted retaliated; for on Wednesday, August the third 1786, about four o'clock in the afternoon, as cardinal Turlone, high inquisitor of the holy, office was coming from the Vatican, he was set upon by an incensed multitude, who forced his eminence out of the carriage, and after cutting off his nose and ears, and mangling him in a most shocking manner, dragged the mangled carcase to Monte Tiburno,

where they hung it on a gibbet fifty feet high, which they erected for that purpose; the reasons assigned for this popular execution are various, but the one of them which seems to have wrought most powerfully on the minds of the populace, was the cruelty of his disposition, which exceeded even that of Nero; for when by the vigour with which he had exercised the office of inqui sitor he had filled the gaols throughout the pope's dominions, with industrious artificers and others, on slight pretences, and a motion was made in the Vatican, for an act of grace, instead of giving that motion his suffrage, he sent an express order to the several gaolers to keep their' prisoners doubly ironed lest an escape should be attempted. He was originally a black friar, but for some time was a pleader at the bar, and raised to the purple, to the amazement of the people, by a concatenation of crafty and iniquitous intrigues.

SAINT CHRYSOSTOM.

St. Chrysostom has consecrated three books to the praise and the defence of the monastic life. He is encouraged by the example of the ark, to presume that none but the elect, the monks, can possibly be saved. In another part of his work he becomes more merciful, and