original in readable English; it was rather the difficulty of deciding how to dispose of the very prominent "Romanism" of the "Confessions." To the credit of the translator, nothing seems to be shirked, much less obscured or falsified. The passages concerning prayers for the dead, the sacrifice of the Mass, and miracles, are presented as faithfully as any other pages of the great work. It is true, the translator gives way a little in the notes. For instance, to the celebrated words of Book ix., ch. 12, "the Sacrifice of our Redemption was offered up unto Thee for her," an annotation is appended, which had already done duty in Dr. Pusey's volume, and which belongs (and is here attributed) to Dr. Watts, the author of a well-known seventeenth-century translation. "Here," thus runs the note, "here my Popish translator" (this was Sir Tobie Matthews, who translated the "Confesssions" 1624) "says that the Sacrifice of the Mass was offered for the dead." And then, whilst admitting that "the ancients had communion" with their burials, he goes on to reject the doctrine of Purgatory. As to prayers for the dead, we have a long note (p. 237). Our translator, speaking this time in his own person, considers that the origin of prayers for the dead dates back probably to the close of the second century. But the note is concerned with approving of the suppression of such prayers by the Church of England, because they imply a belief in Purgatory. If they do, which no one doubts, it must surely be so much the worse for the Church of England, which rejects Purgatory. The note on "Miracles" (p. 59), is more offensive. It is written from that stand-point of a Protestant which is so exasperating, not to a Catholic mind merely, but to any one not brought up to accept the practical infallibility of the Book of Common Prayer; it assumes, with the utmost calmness, that all miracles, posterior to some hazy point of early history (for which we are referred to the "views" of Kaye and Blunt), must be false. On this assumption, the miracles attested by S. Augustine and S. Ambrose, as eye-witnesses, and with the utmost detail, are simply false. It may have been that the cessation of miracles may have gradually led stable professors of Christianity to invent miracles." This can mean nothing except that S. Augustine invented the miracles he ascribes to the bodies of SS. Gervase and Protase. It is not quite clear what Mr. Pilkington means by a " stable professor of Christianity"; probably S. Augustine would be considered "stable"; but it is, surely, only an Anglican clergyman, driven by stress of what is due to the Anglican "position," who could contemplate the possibility of S. Augustine "inventing" a miracle.

Stories of Martyr Priests. By M. F. S. With a Preface by the Rev. G. BAMPFIELD. London: R. Washbourne. 1876.

I'

T is impossible to read without emotion the pages of this little work, a brief and simple record of the lives and martyrdom of thirty-three out of the uncounted number of priests who, on English soil, in the days of persecution gave their blood as a witness to the faith, "in the midst of

falling churches and dishonoured altars and an apostate people." Here our own times seem to mingle with those of the martyrs. We have visited in the every-day life of these later years the scenes of their sufferings, their last journey, their final victory. A halo falls on the dark walls of Newgate, because, in the old prison on that spot, many awaited their crown. Some of these names, unknown save to a few, give the historic Tower a grander interest than all the rest of its eventful story. Gray'sInn Fields appears as the scene of an execution before the door of the house where the priest had been seized in his sacrificial vestments, and this death is linked with the story of two parted brothers, the beauty and simple pathos of which it would be hard to excel. Tyburn, now the site of a range of stables, was sanctified by many a martyrdom recorded here. We read of fetters loosed by miraculous power, of visions in prison-cells, of one priest on his way to execution raising his pinioned hands in a farewell blessing, as for the last time he looked up at the windows where dwelt his hidden people. This was in Holborn, where some of the oldest houses in London are still standing, with far-projecting upper stories. It may have been on those very dwellings that the blessing of the condemned pastor fell. The heads of several of these martyrs were exposed on old London Bridge, not far from the spot where hundreds throng daily now to cross the river. It was there his executioners placed the head of Father Garnet, the martyr to the secrecy of confession; and for twenty days the astonished people saw it unchanged, even as it was when he pronounced those words, "Adoramus te, Christe, benedicimus tibi, quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum," and fell hanging from the noose of ignominy and death.

No lives of great men can depict before youth so glorious a picture as these stories of martyred priests, and we trust they will be read far and wide by the Catholic boys of England, to whom they are fittingly dedicated. The work would also be acceptable in convents as a prize, for we must remember that in the hard bygone days, while the united stole and palm fell to the lot of son and brother, it was woman's humbler work to guard jealously and hand on to others the precious gift of Faith; and such is still, and will ever be, her noblest mission.

Life of Mother Maria Teresa, Foundress of the Congregation of the Adoration of Reparation. By the Abbé HULST. Translated by Lady HERBERT. London: Burns & Oates.

THE

HIS is a beautiful life, and is translated with the elegance that characterizes all the work of Lady Herbert. It is a strange life, and curiously inconsistent with the spirit of the nineteenth century; so much so, that were it not for the names and dates we should fancy ourselves back in the days of the post-mediæval saints at least. There is a vivid, indeed startling, resemblance in the subject of this biography to the great Carmelite Saint Teresa. In name, the spirit of vocation, the defects of youth, the

special kind of trials, the supernatural mysticism of life, the combination of enthusiasm and rare practical wisdom, and in many minor points that are visible throughout the life, the likeness is very striking. Like her great namesake, Mother M. Teresa also has written the pages which portray her own inner life, and it is the guarantee that we have the truth, however marvellous it may be, and not the imaginings of enthusiastic worshippers. “Quis enim hominum scit quæ sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est?" Much more is the mystical life of the saints beyond the knowledge of others, and it must be made known by themselves, or be left unrevealed, or very dimly discerned.

The life of Mother M. Teresa leaves Catholics no choice of opinions concerning her. She was a singularly-favoured servant of God, enriched with exceptional graces, and raised to a degree of perfection that is above the clear vision of ordinary intelligences, or she was—what we will not sully her name by linking with it. There is no possibility of separating the miraculous element from her life. It is more than the shadow that cleaves to it it is the atmosphere that constantly surrounds and interpenetrates it. It is a startling vision for the children of faith: for those who are not, it is baffling, incredible, a delusion. Both the author and the translator are thoroughly conscious of the fact, and of its probable result on the minds of the readers; yet wisely they do not attempt to tone it down or apologize for it, but warn off the weak or unsympathetic from the threshold. The one writes "the born enemies of mysticism will not like this book"; the other tells them plainly that they "would do well to leave these pages unread." And yet, although the supernatural character cannot be effaced consistently with any esteem remaining due to the life, it is not wanting in attractiveness, for much lower reasons. Without her special vocation and the admirable gifts that came with it-in the world in fact, and under the name of Theodelinda Dubouché,-Mother M. Teresa would have made her influence felt. Her intellect was of a high order; her love of art enthusiastic and well cultivated, for her skill as a painter seems to have been of a superior kind; and her beauty was striking enough to be a danger in her youth, if not to herself, at least to others.

The purpose of her vocation is summed up in the name of the Institute founded by her-The Congregation of the Adoration of Reparationwith perhaps the addition of one word to make it more explicit to the reader-"Perpetual." It was an offshoot from the Carmelite order grafted on to a new root. Mother M. Teresa did not leave the cloister; she opened a wicket for the outer world. She formed her sisters into choirs of perpetual worship, and invited all that would, to come in and share the grace. Nazareth was her model, for "this hidden life" (there is an implied antithesis we suspect) "appears to me to be the life of predilection of the Incarnate Word" (p. 273). For a full account of the conception and institution of the Congregation, we refer our readers to the work, and will merely give a passage from the chapter which specially treats of it. It is a continuation of the extract just given, and will be a revelation of the character of the holy foundress :—

"In these days, as at all times, we are struck by extreme poverty;

we pity and compassionate it. The poor man in the hospital is cared for; but what is thought of the workman who earns his bread? No particular interest attaches itself to him; there is no poetry in his life.

For this very reason Jesus became an artisan, and obeyed an artisan. Such is the life that I desire for myself, for my daughters. .. Labour is a divine precept, the first reparation demanded by God of the sinner. Labour regenerates man; it strengthens his faculties without satisfying his evil tendencies; it extinguishes concupiscence without ruining his body; it mortifies corrupt instincts without exalting self-love. A life of labour, to accomplish the precept of penance, appears to me to be far preferable to the austerities invented by fervour. This life agrees with all healths, all characters, and all educations. Jesus made Himself all to all; His daily life should be imitated by great numbers, and yet that life is contemned by even the good..... And I have loved it, as I consider it the most efficacious means of bringing men back to the belief that evangelical simplicity is not a mere fable."

...

I of Rev. Mother St. Joseph, Foundress of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Bordeaux. By L'Abbé P. F. LEBEURIER. Translated from the French by a SISTER OF ST. JOSEPH. London: Burns, Oates & Co., 1876.

A

N incident related by the author in the preface will fairly introduce us to the devout soul whose life he has written. He tells us that, having been invited to give a retreat to the nuns of her community, and having preached the first sermon with complete satisfaction to himself, he returned to his room, followed by Mother St. Joseph, who, without any ceremony, said to him: "Father, if you continue the retreat in this style, all the fruit is lost. Put aside your flowery sermons, we are not literati, but simple religious, assembled to occupy our minds with the affairs of our salvation!" Frankness seems to us to have been a leading trait in the character of this gifted woman, who is put before us in the "life" as one of the many uncanonized saints of the present century. Her life lies between the years 1795 and 1854, and during the forty years that preceded her death, was devoted to religious work, under the rule of the "Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph." The zeal with which she laboured, the firmness and ability of her administration, the unreserved confidence she had in the providence of God in all her spiritual and temporal needs, and the marvellous ways in which that confidence was always rewarded, are admirably told. Our special recommendation of the biography to our readers is that it is very interesting. It is the record of a noble life struggling earnestly to accomplish whatever work it discerned to be for God's honour, never taking into consideration any difficulties, and never failing in a faith which, in turn, never failed to repay her with its promisea effects. We may say that our first glance into the work was the least satisfactory; but once the preface was overcome-vires acquirit eundo-and our interest was sustained to the end.

A Devout Exposition of the Holy Mass, with an ample Declaration of all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to the same. Composed by JoHN HEIGHAM. The Second Edition, 1622. Edited by AUSTIN JOSEPH ROWLEY, Priest. London R. Washbourne, 18, Paternoster-row.

1876.

ΤΗ

HERE is a place vacant in English Catholic literature for a comprehensive work on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We need not point out the abundant materials that exist for a theological, historical, and expository treatment of the subject. While awaiting, however, such a work, we have, in the excellent volume before us, a very full and clear explanation of the prayers and ceremonies of the Mass; and we doubt not that it will be found to satisfy the requirements of the laity. The old author happily has called his work "A Devout Exposition"; and the reader must take him on his own plan, and not look for argument or criticism where there is no pretence of them. The Exposition flows in a quiet, reverential way, that carries the reader's thoughts with it; and rarely interposes a show of learning or argument that could distract attention from the Sacred Mystery. One of the Censors, who examined the first edition of the work in 1612, was quick to discern the predominant character of it. He wrote, "Nec sese intromisit auctor in materias sublimes aut questiones controversas, sed omnino devotionem et affectus inflammationem spectavit." Yet the work is the result of great learning, although the learning be hidden away like the foundations of a building. The ablest writers, such as Rupertus, Hugh of S. Victor, Durandus, Innocent III., Cardinal Bona, and many others, have had their treasures laid open; but only the practical part of their stores has been brought together in this work.

For the same reason—namely, that the "Exposition" is of a devotional kind-the reader must not be surprised if he finds some views that appear somewhat far-fetched. Every Catholic finds at times some prayer or ceremony of the Holy Sacrifice peculiarly suggestive to himself, and he must not quarrel with the pious author and the many authorities from whom he has drawn his materials if they enjoyed the same grace or used the same liberty. But under every heading-and what this means we shall see many suggestive thoughts are given; and although they may seem, in some instances, to be rather additions to their text, than deductions from it, they are always unexceptionable in themselves.

We can hardly put before our readers anything like a fair idea of the minute and detailed way in which the old author has carried out his Exposition. Even the Nicene Symbol is explained almost word by word. For the addition of the Alleluia to the Gradual, or for an action like the Lavabo, as many as six, seven, or more, reasons are given. From the prayer Communicantes, we give an extract showing the clear method of treatment as well to the eye as to the mind.