the homely outpourings of medieval fervour. Like Santeuil's, the hymns of the Jesuit Oudin, in the Office of St. Francis Xavier, are of the purest latinity.

These thrilling emanations of devotion have ever been the theme of admiration. Dante, occasionally, and with reverential allusion, quotes them. Thus, in his Purgatorio, we find

"TE LUCIS ANTE, si devotamente,

Gli usci di bocca con si dolci note,

Che fece me a me uscir di mente.-Canto viii. 13.

And again, at the close of Canto IX.—

"Io mi rivolsi attento al primo tuono ;

Et TE DEUM LAUDAMUS, mi parea,

Udir in voce mista al dolce suono.'

Göethe and Scott have not less sensibly felt their deep impression, and, indeed, to these addresses to heaven may well be applied Milton's sublimity of thought—

"Of charming symphony they introduce

Their sacred song, and waken raptures high."

We have now to encounter our reverend historian on another field of contest, that of the relative merits of painters, formed under the auspices of our respective churches; for, in this art, with still less restrained hardihood of assertion than in that of which we have just combated his claim of superiority, he arrogates the pre-eminence also for his side. At page 242, of the third volume, he introduces on this subject, Lucas Cranach, a friend and follower of Luther, as the "great master of the age. " It would not be easy, indeed, to evince greater contempt for the taste or information of his readers than these words betray, and thus confidently to elevate in supremacy of talent, a comparatively obscure artist, in presence of the glories of the profession, and of that age which generated Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, Titian, the omniscient Leonardo da Vinci, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giulio Romano, Bastiniano, Corregio, Cellini, Holbein, with so many more, the contemporaries of M. D'Aubigné's little known and most ill-chosen champion. And if, in the comprehensive latitude of the eulogist's language, we stretch our comparison through the succeeding years of that century, what a brilliant mass of Catholic genius, signalizes, by

VOL. XX.-NO. XXXIX.

4

ness,

birth or achievement, its further course, from Paul Veronese to Claude Lorrain, born in 1600, and its last offspring! Until lately the name of Cranach would be vainly sought for in our dictionaries; nor until a recent period were his works apparent in the Louvre, where some now are to be seen. The most admired is, "St. John in the Wilderin which Melancthon figures as the Saint; but another, "Hercules and Omphale," represents John Frederick, the reformed Elector of Saxony, encircled by his mistresses, although the recognized head of Protestantism, and declared chief of its confederation, the league of Smalkalde. But in every sense, Cranach was of subordinate instead of primary talent, "son dessein étant mesquin, et d'un caractère appauvri," as stated by Huber, in his "Catalogue du Cabinet de M. Brindes," (Leipzig, 1793, 8vo.)

His

To the flood of light poured from the bosom of Catholicity on this ground of contention, what character of commensurate splendour can the adverse side produce, with the single exception of Albert Durer, whose genius, inferior perhaps to none in native power, solely wanted that refinement of taste, or ultimate finish, which the contemplation and rivalship of excellence, then and now chiefly presented in Italy, could alone impart, to rank amongst the foremost of his profession? M. D'Aubigné, however, most unauthorizedly assigns his master-pieces to the period which followed, in order to make them the inspirations of, the reformation; for the best of them, the "Crucifixion," which now enriches the imperial gallery at Vienna, bears the distinct and anterior date of 1511. "Execution of the Martyrs," is marked 1508, and the "Adoration of the Magi," with his "Adam and Eve," were also of an earlier period, while no subsequent production, during the few years he survived, were, in any degree, of equal merit. As an engraver, he was not less eminent, and, from the wider circulation of his works, much more generally celebrated. (See Jackson's "History of Wood Engraving," 1839, &c.) M. D'Aubigné ventures not an advertence to architects: he is right, and acts more prudently than in engaging in those other equally unsustainable contests; for even in England, her first in renown, Inigo Jones, was a Catholic; and so, we may proudly add, is Mr. Pugin, who now stands in similar eminence of fame. With equal consciousness of inferiority, he eschews all com

petition in statuary, as he discreetly should have done in painting. "The Church of Rome," wrote Sir D. Wilkie from Italy in 1827, (Life by A. Cuningham, vol. 1.) "has ever been the nurse of arts, but painting has been its favourite child. The art of painting seems made for the service of Christianity-would that the Catholics were not the only sect that had seen its advantages!" Mr. Westmacott, in his Lectures, is not less emphatic, while far more extensive in the assertion of Catholic patronage, embracing, as it has ever done, the whole circle of the Fine Arts. Their effects on man's devotion in temples of worship, contrasted with the coldness of feeling resulting from their absence, is forcibly portrayed in Schiller's "Maria Stuart," by Mortimer, nephew to the royal captive's keeper, Sir Amyas Paulet.

"Ich hatte nie der Künste Machte gefühlt,
Es hast die Kirche, die mich auferzog,
Der sinne Reiz, Kein Abbild duldet sie,
Allein des Körperlose Wort verehrend,
Wie wurde mir, als ich ins Innre nur,
Der Kirchen trat, und die Musik der Himmel
Herunterstieg, und der Gestalten Fülle,
Verschwenderisch aus Wand und Decke quoll,
Das Herrlichste und Höchste, gegenwärtig,
Vor den entzückten Sinnen sich bewegte,
Als ich sie selbst nun sah, die Göttlichen,
Den Gruss des Engels, die Geburt des Herrn,
Die heilge Mutter die herabgestiegne

Dreyfaltigkeit, die leuchtende Verklärung."

Thus far, as relates to the FINE ARTS, our historian's pretensions, whether asserted or insinuated, will appear, we trust, neither unsuccessfully nor unfairly opposed, although the refutation for its necessary effect, has been more lengthened than we would have desired. And the same necessity will more or less apply, as we proceed to consider his further assumptions; for, as observed on a former occasion, and as a great French writer remarks, "Une ligne peut renfermer des erreurs, qu'il faut des volumes pour réfuter." Our authorities shall be, as they have studiously been, of M. D'Aubigné's own creed or favour, on any contestable point. No instance of the contrary, we expect, will be discoverable.

To proceed, then, with our author's claim of precedence for the partisans of Reform, we may ask, whether in litera

ture, when the study of the classics constituted its leading culture, were the Italian commentators, to whom Europe owes essentially the restoration of letters, were the Manutii, Victorius, Sigonius, Turnebus, Muretus, with numerous others, surpassed in critical acumen, inferior in elucidation, or less felicitous, in defining the genuine texts? And in native productions during that century, what rivals, within the precincts of Protestantism, can be opposed to Ariosto, Tasso, Vega, Ercilla y Zuniga, (author of the epic, "La Araucana,") Camoens, or Cervantes, except the solitary name of Spencer in England? The religion of Shakspere is nowhere unequivocally announced, a silence. which sufficiently establishes its character, at a time when the profession of the dominant creed was the only road to favour, and that of the persecuted faith, a sure exposure to every danger of fortune and person. His father's Catholic belief rests undisputed on the evidence of his extant will, given by Malone, vol. 1. p. 330, of his edition (1780) of the poet. The great and well-founded boast of Holland at that period, Justin Vanden Vondel, abandoned the Anabaptists, and became a Catholic. Again, in France, of which Calvin (p. 641,) is declared both the reformer of the country's creed and language, who does, or patiently could, read his compositions in his native tongue, while Comines, long anterior to him, and Amyot his coeval, are perused with constant pleasure. Yet we are aware that his French style is praised by D'Alembert and Villemain, nor is it depreciated by Bossuet, "Donnons lui donc,' says his great adversary, "cette gloire," (Variations, liv. ix.) words more of concession than conviction, in order not to dispute Calvin's claim to the merit, as advanced in his "Defensio contra Westphalum, (Opusc. p. 842.) But, as compared with Amyot, the opinion of a contemporary and most competent judge, Michel de Montaigne, decides the superiority. In his Essays, (livre. ii. ch. 4.) he says, "Je donne avec raison, ce me semble, la palme à Jacques Amyot sur tous nos écrivains François," and of Comines he is scarcely less laudatory, (liv. ii. ch. 10.) Of the old Flemish historian, Madame de Sévigné, no inferior authority, also observes, in her letter of 14th of November, 1678, "Son style donne une grâce particulière à la solidité de son raisonnement. Calvin's Latin diction is, indeed, entitled to praise, and the dedication of his great achievement, "Christianæ Religionis Institutio," to Francis I. is classed

66

with the few worthy of distinction, in that prostituted line of authorship. But the celebrated volume assuredly deserves not the absurd exaggeration of eulogy bestowed on it by its writer's disciple, Thury, (Thurius.)

"Præter Epistolicas post Christi tempora chartas,
libros secula nulla pares."

Huic

peperere

As for the reformation of morals in France attributed, as above, to Calvin, we have already discussed the subject; but we cannot pass unrebuked M. D'Aubigné's assertion, at page 241 of his third volume, "that the literary value of the Port-Royal productions was the result of the first Antoine Arnauld having been a Protestant. It is possible that in early youth, when following the fortunes of the arch-traitor Bourbon, who fell at the sack of Rome, in 1527, this patriarch of the family may, for a while, have swerved from his native faith; but he most certainly reverted to it when appointed AdvocateGeneral to Catherine of Medicis, and it is beyond doubt that his son and namesake, though adverse to the Jesuits, was not favourable to the Huguenots, much less one himself. Of the two-and-twenty children, fruits of his marriage with Catherine Marion, all the surviving daughters, six in number, including "La Mère Angèlique," and whom the impartial Peréfixe, archbishop of Paris, and biographer of Henry IV. described as pures comme des anges, mais orgueilleuses comme des démons," devoted themselves to religious lives of professed obligation in the monastery of Port-Royal. Four sons reached manhood, of whom the eldest, Arnauld d'Andilly, was author of numerous pious works; another was bishop of Angers, a diocese in which his memory is still revered, as we can attest; and the third, eminent, as previously stated, by the distinction of " Le Grand Arnauld," a doctor of Sorbonne, was the most formidable adversary, next to Bos

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* An English version by Monsieur Le Moine of this biography, still admired though somewhat antiquated in language, proceeded in 1785 from Didot's Parisian press. This sufficiently attests the merit of its execution; which, indeed, far exceeds the translator's performance. But a copy in our possession derives interest as that presented to the angelic sister of Louis XVI., Madame Elizabeth, whose distinctive royal insignia are impressed on the binding. Given to her unhappy brother while in the Temple, for his son's instruction, it bears some marks of his correction. We obtained it after his death, with a few other articles that had served for the deposed monarch's bodily and mental use in his last trying moments; but, however valued, the fear of detection in our own hour of danger compelled us to destroy nearly all these royal relics.