the Virgin. The Bishop of Wirtsburgh, however, lost no time in consigning this unfortunate political economist to the flames. We find repeated notices of the peasantry being driven to arms by the oppression of the great barons; we will only indicate pages 214, 243, 244, 245.

In the year 1502,

"The marck grave and those of Neurenborch fell out because of their jurisdiction in consecrating of a church, whereof came no good, for it is the divell's feast."

Above 1000 lives were lost in the quarrel, and notwithstanding the interest which his satanic majesty took in the proceedings, the loss sustained by the citizens is imputed to the Divine displeasure at their presumption. Girald Cambrensis relates a somewhat similar case of disputed right, which however was not attended with such deadly consequences. Those who cannot have recourse to the work of the worthy archdeacon, will find the passage in vol. viii. of the Edinburgh Review.

We will now offer a specimen of our author's method of treating graver matter. Under the year 1242, speaking of the variances between the Papal See, and the empire, he says,

They that were for the Pope and the Roman church were called Gwelfs, and those who were for the emperour were called Gibellins, these made such parties and mutanies, that all the countrey of Italy was in an vproar, and lived with the sword in their hand, the father against the sonn, and the one friend against the other, so that nobody knew no friends nor relations.

"These divelish names were first invented by the Germans, and had their first birth, (as Ptolomeus saith,) in the citty of Luca, and were after heard in the citty Pistoria, which hath poisoned and made rebellious all Italy except Venice, and lasted about 250 yeeres, with such fury and madness, so that the Italians, amongst themselves, did more mischief to Italy in that time, then it had received from all the infidels and outlandish people; for in this madness, citties and countreys, and people tumultuously persecuting one another, and not onely their neighbours, but also them that lived affarr of, when they meet one another, as if by these names, they had bene bewitched, and as if they had taken an oath to defend the same, and every party, to the despite of the other, had their private mark, in collours, fruits, cloathes, walking, shewing with the finger, voice, talking, and gesture of the body." p. 135.

The succeeding extract contains the fruit of our author's inquiries into the invaluable discovery of printing. It will be observed that the claims of Laurence Coster and Haerlem are passed sub silentio :

"After the birth of Christ 1440, in the time of the Emperor Fridericus the 3, was found out the never too much extolled art of print

ing in Germany, by Johannis Gentfleysh at Mayence; yet some adscribe it to Johannis Guttenberch of Straesborch, by which the precious jewells, which were written, and had long bene hidden in the grave of oblivian, are made manifest, and brought to light, so that many rare, and for man's vse necessary, books, which in former time were not to be purchased without a great price, now may be had for a small matter; I would to God, it had been found out sooner, then so many rare books formerly written had not perished. A third sort say that this art was invented and brought forth by Johannis Guttenberch, a knight of Mayence, anno 1450.” p. 172.

The writer gives circumstantial accounts of the sieges of Buda, Vienna, and Belgrade, in the wars of the Turks and Imperialists, &c., and of the Anabaptists in Munster. Pages 187199 are occupied with descriptions of the voyages of Columbus and Vesputius; and pages 217-236 contain "A copy of a letter, written by Ferdinandus Cortesius, head captain of his emperial majesty, of his navigation in the zea oceanus, to the Pope."

*

In these instances, the details are very inartificially taken from the reports of persons concerned, and we may learn the manner in which this was done, from the author's notice at P. 236.

"Thus you have (my reader) an extract of the most remarkable passages of the voiage of the noble knight Ferdinandus Cortesius, sent vnto his majesty, what troubles, treacheries, conspirations and falsities he hath suffered by his enemies, and his owne people, so that one's hair might stand an end to read it, much more to vndergoe it; but his noble enterprises, prudence, stratagems in warre, and faith to his emperiall majesty, I could for brevetie's sake not enlarge upon, because it deserved a larger discription, but what is here wanting read yourselves in his book, published in lattin, and dedicated to his emperiall majesty, or else be satisfied with this."

Many of our readers, no doubt, remember the worthy cordelier in Peregrine Pickle, who, with all his indulgence to the trespasses of his travellers, is furiously enraged with the physician, who ventures a jest at the mysteries of the immaculate conception.

This doctrine, which, in the words of Gibbon,† "the Latin church has not disdained to borrow from the Koran," has long

*The spelling would seem to hint a translation from the Dutch, while conspirations in the next extract would intimate a Latin original. + Decline and Fall, chap. I. Gibbon states in his note, that, "it is darkly hinted in the Koran, (c. 3, p. 39,) and more clearly explained by the tradition of the Sonnites (Sale's note, and Maracci, tome ii. p. 112)."

been resolutely maintained, and as incessantly impugned, by different parties in the Roman Catholic church. During the XIIth century, the combatants did not lose sight of decency and moderation; but this Christian disposition did not long continue, and the fray was presently carried on, à toute outrance. The arguments, as may be supposed, were subtle in the extreme, the manner of producing them at least equally acrimonious; and polemics were happy in a subject which could not fail to furnish

Vitiorum alimenta suorum,

Ovid. Met. II. 769.

an inexhaustible supply of food and exercise for the odium theologicum of the disputants.

Leo Allatius + flatters himself that he has convincingly demonstrated the celebration of this feast, by several churches in the east, as early as the VIIth century, scil. in 744. Mosheim says," that about the year 1138, there was a solemn festival instituted in honour of this pretended conception, though we know not, with any certainty, by whose authority it was first established, nor in what place it was first celebrated." About 1140, certain churches in France began to observe it; but it had been observed in England before this period, in consequence of the zealous exhortations of Archbishop Anselm.§ The works of this prelate, under whom clerical celibacy was first made general in this country, contain several tractates in praise of the blessed virgin. At p. 144 (Opera, ed. Lyons, 1630) is a remarkably curious letter, enjoining the observance of the conception, which he fortifies with many miracles, the first of which is in the time of William the Conqueror.

Father Paul traces the origin of the virgin's being supposed in her conception and birth to be untainted with the sin of our first parents, from the system of the Nestorians in the Vth century. These held, that there are two persons ¶ in Jesus

* It will be acknowledged that we have not exaggerated its value, when we mention that the pains-taking diligence of Peter d'Alva and Astorga has amassed forty-eight volumes, in huge folio, upon its mysteries.

+ Prolegomena ad Joannem Damascenum, § lxviii. The day of the conception, in the calendar, is the eighth of December.

"MABILLON Annal. Bened. tome vi. p. 327. 412.-Gallia Christiana, tome i. p. 1198." from Mosheim Eccl. Hist. Cent. xiii. p. ii. ch. iv. § 2.

Mosheim, Cent. xii. P. ii. ch. iv. § 19.

|| Council of Trent, p. 170 of the edition quoted infrà.

¶ The reader must take care not to confound person and nature. It is scarcely possible, in a note, to convey any idea of the multiplicity

Christ; and that the virgin was not his mother, as God, but only as he was man. The church, in order to counteract the progress of this heresy, and "to inculcate the catholic truth in the minds of the faithful, made often mention of her in the churches, as well of the East as of the West, with this form of words in Greek, Maria OEOTOKOS,* in Latin Maria Mater Dei. This being instituted only for the honour of Christ, was by little and little communicated also to the mother, and finally applied to her alone; and therefore, when images began to multiply, Christ was painted as a babe in his mother's arms, to put us in mind of the worship due unto him; even in that age. But in progress of time, it was turned into the worship of the mother without the son, he remaining as an appendix in the picture......in so much, that about the year 1050, a daily office was instituted to the blessed virgin, distinguished by seven canonical hours, in a form which anciently was ever used to the honour of the Divine Majesty; and in the next hundred years, the worship so increased, † that it came to the height, even to attribute that unto her, which the Scriptures speak of the Divine wisdom. And amongst these invented novities this was one, her total exemption from original sin." It appears, however to have been confined to individuals, till, about the year 1136, the canons of Lyons "dared" to insert it in the ecclesiastical offices. St. Bernard, who can never be accused of disrepect to our Lady, immediately condemned this presumptuous innovation, objecting that it attributed to the virgin a privilege due to Christ alone. It was urged, likewise, that the same reason, which induced the celebration in her case, would conclude the like for her parents and ancestors, up to Adam,-at least as far as Abraham, who received the promise of a Redeemer. This presently gave rise to a dispute, in which, for some centuries, the Scotists and Thomists stood forward as the principal belligerents.

The first of these, were the disciples of the celebrated John Duns Scotus, THE MOST SUBTLE DOCTOR, who was a native

of combinations of these two words, variously modified.-Mosheim Cent. v. P. ii. ch. v. § 12.

* It was against this epithet, that Nestorius, or rather his friend the presbyter Anastasius, in 428, inveighed with great warmth; XpioToTékos was not equally liable to objection.

+ Warton, Hist. E. P. iii, p. 29. ed. 8vo. note, attributes the exaggerated honours paid to the virgin, in some degree to the gallantry of the dark ages. It is impossible to quote this work, without regretting that the new edition has entirely discarded the pagination of its predecessor. Perhaps the supplementary volume, whose appearance we shall gladly hail, may, in some degree, supply a remedy.

of this island, born about the end of the XIIIth century. He was a Franciscan at Newcastle upon Tyne, and originally a follower of Thomas of Aquino; but, holding different opinions on the subject of divine grace, he formed a distinct school.-The Thomists assumed their name from St. Thomas Aquinas, THE ANGELIC DOCTOR, who was born in 1224, died a Dominican in 1274, and was afterwards canonised by John XXII. in order to depress the Franciscans.

Of the immaculate Conception, Duns Scotus was a strenuous assertor and some have even considered him as the first propounder. He is said to have broached it in the University of Paris, in which he was placed at the head of the Theological School, and his two hundred arguments were so conclusive in its favour, as to induce that learned body to apply it as a test to those who sought to graduate. He enlisted upon his side the followers of St. Francis; the Dominicans, as in duty bound, took part with Aquinas. The Catholic schoolmen were thus divided into two great parties, differing from each other in several points with violent animosity, and especially distinguished by their respective tenets with regard to the conception of the virgin mother.†

The flame was fanned at Paris in 1384, when an Arragonese Dominican, John de Montesono, affirmed, inter alia, that all believers in the doctrine of the immaculate conception were to be considered enemies of the true faith. Harmony might have been restored, had he not repeated his assertion in 1387, with increased virulence. His propositions were condemned by the University, but his party appealed to the French anti-pope, under the name of Clement VII. at Avignon, exclaiming loudly that the character of St. Thomas himself was lightly treated by this decree. Before Clement's decision was given, Montesonus fled to the Pope, Urban VI. at Rome, and was consequently excommunicated. There is great discord respecting the excommunication, which some maintain to include his opinions, others insisting that it was solely incurred by his flight. As, however, the Dominicans denied the validity of the sentence of the University, they were expelled in 1389, and not restored before 1404.

* See Bayle, art. Bzovius, &c.

+ According to Father Paul, the Franciscans pushed the doctrine of Duns Scotus farther than Scotus himself, affirming "absolutely for true, that which he had proposed as possible and probable, under this doubtful condition, if it be not repugnant to the Orthodox Faith."

Mosheim, Cent. XIV. P. II. ch. iii. § 10. A previous exclusion of the Dominicans took place in the controversy which raged from 1228 to 1259. Mosheim, Cent. XIII. P. II. ch. ii. § 27.