chronology,* geography,† and (if he would carry his researches to the manuscripts) diplomatic. He should be in a condition constantly to employ a sound and judicious criticism; he should not be ignorant of science or of art. His imagination should be sufficiently vigorous to transport him to other lands and other times; and his mind should be superior to vulgar prejudices. But above all, he must be under the influence of religious principle; for no one but the spiritual man can appreciate and understand the various manifestations of religious feeling, and trace and estimate God's dealings with his church. The accomplished inquirer must possess all these qualifications: but persons of very inferior parts and acquirements may by the mere exercise of a conscientious industry render important service to the cause of truth, and obtain a highly satisfactory acquaintance with church-history.

I. The private sources of ecclesiastical history are, as I have already observed, supplied by the testimony of individual writers.

1. In our inquiries respecting the events of past times, the guides to whom we most naturally turn for information are the writers whose works were expressly composed to communicate to posterity the knowledge which we are seeking to obtain,-I mean the historians.§ It may well be thought that I have already said enough on this class of writers. But the word by which they are described is in some degree equivocal. It is evident that it does not always bear the same meaning. I have hitherto used it in its most comprehensive sense, and designated by the name of ecclesiastical historians all who have written on the history of the church. But the writer who gives us the results of his own observation, and speaks from his own knowledge, or whose works were composed with some peculiar opportunities of obtaining information, is evidently an historian in a different sense to the one who draws up his narrative from the materials transmitted by his predecessors. Though they are described by the same name, their claims upon our attention are quite dissimilar. The latter may deserve our admiration as an artist and a scholar; but the former is an authority, and takes his place among the sources of history.

The original historians, whose works deserve to be regarded as authorities, either wrote at the time to which their works refer, or at

student are, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Hallam's History of the Middle Ages.

I am not aware that there is any scientific work expressly written on ecclesiastical chronology. But the great work of the Benedictines (L'Art de vérifier les Dates) extends to the whole subject. The latest work is, Ideler's Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie aus der Quellen bearbeitet, Berl. 1825-26, in two volumes 8vo.

Caroli in S.

A. Mirai notitia Episcopatuum Orbis Christiani, Antv. 1613. Paulo Geographia Sacra, edit. J. Cleric, Amstel 1703. The ninth book of Bingham. Mabillon de re Diplomatica, Paris, 1681; 1709. Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique par deux Religieux Benedictins, Paris, 1750-65, 6 vols. 4to. The latest work on the subject which I find mentioned is Schönemann's vollständiges System der allgemeinen Diplomatik, Hamburg, 1801. 2 Bde. 8.

§ G. J. Vossius (de Historicis Græcis Libri iv.; de Historicis Latinis, Libri iii., in the fourth volume of his works, Amstel. 1699;) Sagittarius (Introductio in Hist. Eccles. Jenæ, 1718;) and Hamberger (Directorium Historicorum, Gottinga, 1772;) communicate much useful information respecting the historians.

a period so little removed from the events which they record as to be able to collect traditional notices which must be regarded as possessing historic value. When we can consult historians who themselves took part in the transactions which form the subject of their narrative, or were eye-witnesses of the facts which they relate, we may congratulate ourselves on possessing important testimony. But the personal character of the writers, and the circumstances in which they were placed, greatly affect the value of their evidence. Great as is the weight which is justly due to the statements of contemporary historians, we should remember that contemporaries, and especially men engaged in public life, are likely to feel in a peculiar degree the influence of partiality and prejudice. And inferior as may at first sight appear the evidence of those who lived somewhat later than the transactions they describe, we ought not to forget that when the excitement necessarily produced by great events has passed away, men are often in a more favourable condition for estimating their real character. The judicious inquirer will not therefore allow himself to be imposed upon by the high claims of a contemporary, nor despise the more modest testimony of a later historian. He will gladly consult and carefully examine even those who lived at a considerable interval from the times of which they wrote, well knowing that in many instances they were able to avail themselves of information which placed them almost, or altogether, in the position of original writers.

It is not the ecclesiastical historians merely whose testimony comes under this division of the sources of church-history. In our attempts to understand and illustrate the past condition and fortunes of the church, the writers of civil history, even such as were not Christians, no less demand our attention. Incidental notices are sometimes of more importance than more elaborate statements. And the evidence which is accidentally furnished by indifferent or hostile parties, is often more convincing than any thing which can be said by those who may be suspected of partiality.

But the rules which are generally employed in estimating this branch of historical testimony apply in their full force to the notices transmitted by historians respecting the history of the church. Their statements form an important class of authorities; and, though not always so important as at first sight they may appear, deserve to be placed in a high rank among the sources of church-history.

2. The biographers also form a very important class of witnesses. The relation in which biography stands to historical knowledge is well known and estimated. It is an almost inexhaustible source of the history of the church. From very early times the friends and disciples of eminent Christians have often recorded the most interesting particulars of their story for the instruction of posterity, and the lives of the Saints accordingly form a very extensive department of ecclesiastical literature. From the brief notices afforded by menologies* and

* An ample account of the Menæa, the Menologia, and the Synaxaria, is given by Leo Allatius, (de Libris Ecclesiasticis Græcorum, pp. 57–70. ap. Fabr. Bibl. Græc, vol. v.)

martyrologies, and the minute and copious imformation often communicated by admiring panegyrists, we are able to collect many valuable facts relating to the general history of the church, as well as abundant materials for the illustration of the history of personal religion. Besides the works of Palladius, Severus Sulpicius, Theodoret, Joannes Moschus, and others already alluded to in my former papers, we possess immense stores of ecclesiastical biography. The collections of Lipomanni,+ Surius,‡ the Benedictines,§ and the Bollandists,|| are composed entirely of this class of materials; and there are many important pieces of a similar nature to be found elsewhere. But there is no department of our subject which requires a greater degree of critical sagacity and skill. Many of the most ancient and valuable lives of the saints have been largely interpolated; many which claim a high antiquity are in reality the production of much later times. Those which are undoubtedly genuine do not always contain authentic information. They are generally written in a strain of extravagant hyperbole, and often exhibit a much greater desire to magnify the object of their panegyric than to record the simple truth. The judicious inquirer, therefore, employs them with caution. And while he reverently traces in them the operations of that Spirit who "divides to every man severally as he will," he is constantly on his guard against the superstition and fanaticism of the writers, and endeavours carefully to separate fact from fable.

3. Nearly all the writers who have written on theological and ecclesiastical subjects since the introduction of Christianity, deserve to be classed among the sources of church-history. Though they may not have been written with any intention of communicating historical information, the works of the Fathers** generally reflect great light on

A list of the martyrologies and calendars of the Latin church may be found in Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. vol. ix. pp 35—40.

↑ Aloysii Lipomanni, Veronensis Episcopi, Vitæ Sanctorum, Romæ, 1551-1560. In eight volumes 4to.

Laurentii Surii, Carthusiani, Vitæ Sanctorum Orientis atque Occidentis, ex variis auctoribus ac manuscriptis codicibus collectæ ac per anni seriem digestæ, Coloniæ, 1569, in six volumes folio. Also Venet. 1581; Colon. 1581; and Colon.

1618.

§ Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti in Sæculorum class distributa. Paris, 1668.

Lutet.

In nine volumes folio. I have transcribed the title at length, British Magazine, vol. xiii. p. 8.

Acta Sanctorum, quotquot toto Orbe coluntur; vel a Catholicis Scriptoribus celebrantur,-of which the first two volumes, containing the month of January, edited by Joannes Bollandus, and Godefridus Henschenius, on the basis of the labours of Heribert Rosweide, appeared at Antwerp in 1643. The work was continued by a succession of learned Jesuits to the fifty-third volume (folio), which was published in 1794, and brings it down to the 14th of October.

** Abundant information respecting the works of the Fathers is furnished by the writers of the literary history of the church. Cave (Historia Literaria), Dupin (Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques), Oudinus (Comment. de Scriptoribus Ecclesiæ), Fabricius (in his various Bibliotheca), Ceillier (Histoire des Auteurs Sacrés), Lumper (Historia Theol. Crit. SS. PP.), Rössler (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter), and Schönemann (Bibliotheca Hist. Lit. Patrum Latinorum). Walch (Bibl. Patristica, edit. Danz.), indicates the best and latest editions; and Ittigius (de Bibliothecis PP.), points out the pieces which are contained in the collections published before 1707.

the events and condition of the age in which they were composed. The writings of those of them especially who were themselves prominent objects of church-history form evidence of the most important kind, particularly when they are not of a strictly literary nature, but were occasioned by the passing circumstances of the time. The writings, for instance, of such men as St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, and St. Austin, which were produced for the most part to meet particular emergencies, actually form part of ecclesiastical history, and illustrate the transactions in which the authors were concerned better than the narratives of the most accurate contemporary historians. Some writers of a very inferior rank often afford important information on particular subjects; and even the works which have come down to us of the declared enemies of the church deserve the most careful investigation. But it requires sound judgment and extensive learning to use this class of testimony with advantage. We must receive with caution the evidence of controversial writers even of the highest reputation. We must be cautious lest we draw too general conclusions from particular facts. The works of the fathers have, as there is often reason to suspect, been mutilated and interpolated; and spurious pieces have frequently been ascribed to the most illustrious names. Their genuine writings are sometimes obscure, and rarely to be understood without attentive study. And great as is the importance of this branch of testimony, inasmuch as some of the most interesting and instructive points of church-history, (the progress of doctrine and opinion, for instance,) are traced almost exclusively in the works of the Christian doctors, we must not assign it a disproportionate value, or allow the veneration which we ought to entertain for the worthies of the Church to relax the caution with which we ought to pursue our inquiries. J. G. D.

THE CONVERSION OF JOHN THAULER, A DOMINICAN MONK. (Continued from p. 133.)

WHEN Thauler had endured the heaviest temptations-the great contempt of all his friends, and poverty so urgent that he was compelled to borrow money on some of his books, and had submitted to great infirmity of his whole constitution with much humility, it happened on the night preceding the festival of St. Paul's conversion that a most fearful temptation fell on him, such as the human mind can scarcely imagine. It caused such utter weakness in him that he was unable that night to go and chant mattins, but remained sitting in his cell, resigning himself wholly to God with great and true humility, and entirely destitute of all comfort and aid of any mortal creature. While under the influence of this infirmity, he began to meditate among other things on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, thinking what great love his God had shewn to him; and then, on the other hand, he looked at his own life, considering how insignificant it was compared with his Lord's, and how little had been his love compared with that infinite love of the Saviour. This led him to a deep contrition and grief for all his sins, and the time he had spent badly and wasted. He

said, therefore, with all his heart and soul to the Lord, "Oh! merciful and pitiful Lord God, pity me of thine infinite mercy since I am unworthy to tread the earth." While he said this with heart and voice, and was fully awake, though he saw nothing, he heard with his bodily ears a voice saying to him," Have now thy peace, and trust in God; and be assured that while he was on earth, whatever sick in the body he healed, he healed their souls also." When these words were ended, Thauler was rapt into an ecstacy, and deprived of all his intellectual powers, so that he knew not what was done with him, where he was, or whither he was carried. But when he came to himself, he found in the whole of his nature a great and new virtue and fortitude, such as he confessed he had never experienced in his whole life, and a clear and luminous discernment, or illuminated reason, which had been utterly unknown to him before. In amaze, he wondered whence those things had so soon befallen him, and began to consider thus with himself," You will never make this out of yourself. Send therefore and fetch your excellent friend, and tell him all that has happened." And so he did. And so he did. The layman when called, obeying Thauler, came to him, and heard from him all which had happened. After which he thus spoke:

LAYMAN. I have heard these new tidings, Sir, with real pleasure. Know that you now for the first time have truly experienced the true grace of God, and are now touched for the first time by a strength superior to your own. Know, too, that as before the letter killed you, so now it will make you alive; as all scripture flows from the Holy Spirit. And doubt not that your knowledge of scripture will in future profit you much, after your deserving to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. For now you will learn many things by the scriptures which before were altogether unknown to you. For you are aware that to you and other divines scripture seems in some places to contradict itself. But he who looks at it in the light of the Holy Spirit, as you will see it in future, truly feels how entirely self-consistent it is. You will therefore now, for the first time, understand the scriptures wisely, and rightly follow the true image and exemplar of truth, our Lord Jesus Christ. You must now resume your attention to preaching, which you have for a time given up, that you may edify and instruct your neighbour in the word. Now, too, the time is come when your books must be looked to, consulted, and examined; and be assured that one sermon from you now will be of more value than a hundred of your former ones. For they who now hear you will profit much more, and will be more amended, than before, because the words which you will now utter will come from a clean vessel, and will therefore be agreeable and acceptable to the soul that is pure and loves God. Know, too, that as thus far you have been despised by many, and appeared despicable, you will now appear a hundred times more amiable, and will be much more acceptable than you ever were before. And now, first of all, a multitude of the people will flock to hear you preach, so that for this cause it will be necessary for you to keep yourself in great humility, and watch yourself more carefully. For as you know yourself, whoever has a very great treasure must be most careful in watch