fered, when nothing else would do, to commit himself to the ordeal trial, as the laws, still unrepealed, gave liberty. This was rejected by the Court, as a piece of ostentation. Again the King's counsel alleged that the ordeal trial was an obsolete law, and of no signification, by disuse. Upon this Mr. Gavan acquiesced, yet desired the Bench to consider, that nothing but innocence could provoke him to make that offer."-Dodd's Church History, vol. iii. p. 316.

Dodd, who is one of the worst of historians in all respects, has omitted to state the ground upon which this able and innocent man required the ordeal. Oates was the only witness against him. "My Lord," said he, "seeing there is only his oath for it, and my denial, I have only one demand: I do not know whether it be an extravagant one or no; if it be, I do not desire to have it granted." L. C. J. "What is that demand?" Gavan. "You know that in the beginning of the Church (this Learned and Just Court must needs know that) that for 1000 years together, it was a custom and grew to a constant law, for the trial of persons accused of any capital offence, where there was only the accuser's oath and the accused's denial, for the prisoner to put himself upon the trial of ordeal, to evidence his own innocency." He was answered by the Lord Chief Justice North that we have no such law now, and by Scroggs, more at length, with a disgraceful asperity, as if his object had been to impose upon the Court, by asking a thing which sounded much of a pretence to innocency, and which he knew he could not have.-Howell's State Trials.

The ordeal, as a mode of trial, was abolished in our Courts of Justice by an act of parliament in 3 Hen. III. according to Sir Edward Coke, or rather by an order of the King in Council.-Blackstone, lib. iv. c. 27.

It appears in Edward the Confessor's laws, that although condemnation by the ordeal was considered a certain proof of guilt, an acquittal was not regarded as so clear a proof of

innocence. "Die illo quo judicium fieri debet, veniat illuc minister Episcopi cum clericis suis, et similitèr justitia Regis cum legalibus hominibus provinciæ illius, qui videant et audiant ut æquè omnia fiant; et quos Dominus per misericordiam suam, non per merita salvare voluerit, quieti sint, et liberè recedant; et quos iniquitas culpæ non Dominus damnaverit, justitia Regis de ipsis justitiam faciat."

The marks of martyrdom are our insignia of honour.— p. 15.

This assertion I have found confirmed by the grave authority of F. M. Le Heurt, Doctor in Theology, and Guardian of the Cordeliers' Convent at Poictiers, in which city his Treatise on La Philosophie des Espritz was printed in 1612. "Et pour le général des martyrs," he says (p. 455-6), "nous disons que le Sauveur, qui a promis de rendre cent fois au double les biens de fortune delaissez pour l'amour de luy, sçaura très bien restituer la forme et la beauté aux corps mutilés pour le soustien de sa cause. Car comme luy mesme ressuscitant a retenu en ses pieds, en ses mains, et en son costé les pertuits des clouz et de la lance, pour marques très honorables de son victorieux combat contre l' Enfer et la Mort, ainsi les martyrs outre l'escharpe sanguine de leur ordre, auront en leurs corps les cicatrices de leurs playes resplendissantes d'un lustre, d'une grace, et d'une beauté admirable, qui met en évidence leur vertu, leur merite, leur honneur et gloire."

"Par

This passage occurs in his Discourse des Aureoles. les Aureoles," he says, (p. 463) 66 nous entendons les marques et livrées des trois principaux ordres des bien-heureux, qui sont les Martyrs, les Docteurs, et les Vierges. Si en une bataille le

Roy voit un de ses gendarmes, qui se face remarquer homme de recommandable vertu, par des effects advantageux pour la victoire générale, il ne faudra de la gratifier à la fin du combat, et volontiers luy donnera l'ordre de sa chevalerie, qui n'est point une richesse, mais un honneur grand, et digne recompense de sa vertu. Or nous sommes en continuelle guerre contre les trois ennemis de Dieu, le monde, le diable, et la sensualité. Et ceux qui remportent d'eux quelque victoire signalée, Dieu le Créateur leur donne la livrée honorable de ses ordres, pour tesmoigner à toutes ses créatures la fidelle affection qu'ils ont euë à son service. Ceste livrée, on remarque (quant au corps) est un special ornement et decoration, demonstrant de quel ennemy triomphe celuy qui porte ceste parure. De sorte que du premier traict d'œil que l'on jettera sur la personne, l'on cognoistra s'il est ou Martyr, ou Predicateur, ou Vierge."

Still more authentically is it confirmed by the Revelations of Saint Elizabeth of Sconauge, who was one of the Sister Nativités of the twelfth century. Every saint's day this nun saw the saint of the festival, this gave her ample opportunities of observing their costume; and she says of the martyrs, "habebant autem et ipsi signa victoriæ atque martyrii, videlicet fulgidas in manibus palmas, et coronas in capitibus valdè radiantes, et rubore signatas in fronte. Talibus enim insigniis decorati videntur sancti martyres, quandocumque mihi apparere dignantur."-Acta SS. Jun. tom. iii. p. 613.

The purple collar remained after a stupendous miracle,.. in proof of which charters have been produced and altars erected. The Moors were besieging Montemor; there was no hope of relief or of escape; and a certain Abbot D. Joam, who then acted as Governor, proposed at last, that to save the women and children from perishing by hunger, or the worse fate of falling into the hands of the unbelievers, he and his companions should put them to death with their own hands,

and then sally to take vengeance, and to die. He set the example by cutting the throats of his sister and her children,.. the others followed his example; ... they then sallied, and to their astonishment completely routed the besiegers. But, to their greater astonishment, they found all the persons whom they had killed alive and well again on their return, and each with a red line, like a scarlet thread, in remembrance of the miracle,.. which mark also appeared at the same time upon the image of N. Senhora de Ceyça, and of the infant in her arms, that it might be known by whom the miracle was wrought. . And, moreover, children have sometimes been born in Montemor with the same mark. The whole story, which is related at length by many veracious historians, may be found in Bernardo de Brito's Chronica de Cister, lib. vi. c. 27, 28. and in the Santuario Mariano, tom. iv. lib. ii. tit. 14.

...

The Physicians at Prague once obtained the King's permission to put on the head of a criminal-if they could, after it had been cut off. The subject was a young man: no sooner was the head off than some of the assistants applied an unguent to the vessels, others in an instant replaced the head, a third party were ready with a plaister and warm bandages, and a fourth applied the most restorative perfumes to his nostrils. This, it is said, made him wink, at which, as a hopeful symp→ tom, a great shout was set up by the spectators. "Elevatus deindè lentissimè, et tractus magès quam ductus in `vicinam domum, postquam parva vitæ indicia dedisset, inter medicorum et chirurgorum manus, sine dubio vulnere illo debilitatus, et sanguine forsitan qui semel efferbuerat, et contineri jam non poterat, expiravit." If the experiment had succeeded, this person would have had a mark upon his neck.- Garmann. de Miraculis Mortuorum, lib. ii. tit. 5. § 45.

Earthly affections after death.-p. 17.

"It was a question," says Jackson, " amongst the Heathen Philosophers, an res posterorum pertineant ad defunctos? whether the ill or welfare of posterity did any way increase or diminish the happiness of their deceased ancestors? The negative part is determined by the great Philosopher in his Morals. And I know no just cause or reason why any Christian Divine should either appeal from his determination or raise the doubt."-vol. ii. p. 270.

Sir Thomas More was "fond of seeing strange birds and beasts, and kept an ape, a fox, a weasel, and a ferret."-p. 22.

Erasmus gives the same account of Sir Thomas More's fondness for animals. "Præcipua illi voluptas est spectare formas, ingenia, et affectus diversorum animantium. Proindè nullum ferè genus est avium quod domi non alat, si quod aliud animal vulgò rarum, veluti simia, vulpes, vivera, mustela, et his consimilia. Ad hæc si quid exoticum, aut alioqui spectandum occurrat, avidissimè mercari solet, atque his rebus undique domum habet instructam, ut nusquam non sit obvium quod oculos ingredientium demoretur: ac toties sibi renovat voluptatem, quoties alios conspicit oblectari."-Epist. lib. x. ep. 30. p. 536.

Verily there is a God that judgeth the earth!—p. 26.

"It would be more easy than safe," says Jackson, after alluding to the story of Abimelech and Jotham, "out of histories times ancient and modern, domestic and foreign, to parallel