bration of this Feast would tend to the greater glory of God, did all in his power to prevent it. He could not now prevent its institution, at least in the Diocese of Liège, but he was resolved to do all he could to prevent its celebration. This great enemy of all that is good, therefore, moved some to oppose it; others to treat it with indifference; others to consider it as an innovation; in fine, in a thousand ways he raised up obstacles to the celebration of the Feast.

Juliana, who placed all her hopes in God, when she saw the celebration of the Feast surrounded with so many difficulties, had recourse to Him, Who always listens to His faithful servants. He heard her, and although her desires were not as yet fully satisfied, God did not, however, entirely leave His servant without consolation. Our Saint had always been in high favour with the canons of the collegiate church of St. Martin, and she spoke to them so movingly upon the celebration of the Feast, that they resolved to comply with the decree issued by the bishop. John of Lausanne, whom, the reader will remember, had already been a friend to our Saint upon many occasions, also strongly supported her representations, so that the chapter of St. Martin's unanimously resolved to celebrate the Feast upon the very day appointed by the bishop. The bishop had, by his pastoral, instituted the Feast in 1246; but the day he appointed for its first celebration was the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, in the year 1247; it was upon this day that the canons of St. Martin first celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi, with all possible splendour, magnificence and devotion.

It is easier to imagine than to describe the joy of Juliana, Eva, Isabella of Huy, and the others, who had been so zealous in promoting the institution of this Feast, when they saw their desires for

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the first time satisfied by its celebration. But although there were many reasons to rejoice and be glad, yet, notwithstanding, Eva had many doubts and fears, concerning the ultimate success of the undertaking. In the whole diocese of Liège, she saw only one church complying with the orders of the bishop. There were even some to be found who openly opposed the celebration of the Feast, and declared it to be an innovation, or at least a singularity. Seeing this, and knowing that the universal Church had not yet spoken, she had great fears for its success. Eva communicated these fears to Juliana; but the latter removed her fears by a very consoling prediction. "Cease, my dear Eva," she said to her, cease to trouble yourself; the decrees of God are infinitely of more weight and value than those of men ; what He has resolved upon, He will establish so firm and solid, that all the efforts of men to overthrow His work will be vain and useless. There will, I assure you, come a time when the Feast will be celebrated, not only in the Diocese of Liège, but also throughout the universal Church. All Christendom shall receive it; all the faithful will greatly rejoice in its celebration; it will be a Feast of joy and triumph throughout the whole Church. It is true many obstacles will have to be overcome; there will be much opposition, but who can fight against God? or who can resist His Will ?"

Happily we have seen the accomplishment of this prediction of Juliana. In every part of the Catholic world this Feast is now celebrated with gladness and joy, with piety and devotion: all that is beautiful in nature or art; all that is splendid, grand, and magnificent, Catholic piety now uses to render this Feast more solemn and imposing. It is everywhere considered as a Feast

of triumph. Jesus, it is true, has been blasphemed in the very sacrament in which He hath shown all the riches of His boundless love; but, to atone for these blasphemies, as far as possible, the faithful throughout the world, upon each recurrence of this Feast of Corpus Christi, seem to vie with each other in rendering homage, respect, veneration, and adoration, to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who is truly present in this sacrament of love.

Thus we see that Juliana's prediction is accomplished to the very letter; and the foresight of all this honour and glory rendered to God by the celebration of this Feast, must have been a source of great and abundant consolation to our saint in all her troubles and trials. So that she could well say with St. Paul: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, who consoleth us in all our tribulations." ""*

CHAPTER XII.

MORE TROUBLES AT CORNILLON.

JULIANA, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, having already experienced many contradictions and much persecution, had endured all with patience and resignation; thus she had prepared herself to receive one of the greatest graces God bestows upon His elect: more crosses. The lives of the saints always present to us these features; crosses, tribulations and afflictions. If

* 2 Ccr. i.

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they have their consolations, they have their corresponding trials; they have to suffer and endure the persecutions and assaults of the demons, to struggle against their own nature, and they are hated and despised by the world. Our Lord Himself declared that this last would be the portion of His true disciples. "If the world hate you," He says, know ye that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."* Our Blessed Lord here gives us the secret of the world's utter incapability of enduring the saints, "because He has chosen them out of the world, therefore the world hateth them." No wonder that it should be so; the maxims and ways of the saints are entirely different to those of the world. The saints seek after God alone, but the world understands nothing of those mysterious and intimate relations and attractions which unite the soul to God. Those who follow the ordinary ways of life, generally prosper in the world; but the saints, whom God usually conducts by extraordinary ways, appear in the world as strangers and foreigners, as inhabitants of a superior world in the midst of society. The order of society is for the saints disorder, and they are for society an object of scandal; thus, no place is found for them in the world. Earth is not their centre of gravity, they cannot place their feet upon it. They are more accustomed to fly than walk; their centre of gravity is God, to Him they continually tend; by Him they are constantly attracted. Their souls are tuned after quite another scale than that of ordinary souls, and nothing but the greater honour and glory of God

* St. John, xv. 18, 19.

is to them harmonious. Nature and society are too strong and powerful to be turned from their ordinary, low, groveling ways by the exhortations and examples of the saints, however powerful these exhortations and examples may be; the saints have, therefore, to suffer all the consequences of the discord there is between themselves and the world. They have consequently to suffer physically, by sickness, infirmities, and pains of every kind; and they have to suffer morally, by continual trials, which assist them to overcome their nature completely, and which also give them an opportunity of practising patience and resignation in the most heroic degree.

Juliana was no exception to this general law: she, like other saints, suffered physically and morally. We have seen how patiently she bore her former trials, we have now to see her exposed to new ones. As soon as Bishop Robert, who had protected her, was dead, her enemies again sought to persecute her, and she soon became the victim of their malice. The episcopul see having been. vacant a year; in the midst of many troubles and much discord, Henry of Gueldre at length obtained the dignity. He certainly was not a very fit subject for a bishop; he was more like a prinee than a bishop, extremely devoted to pleasure, having more the spirit of a warrior than a shepherd and pastor of souls, and seeking for anything and everything but peace.

All the historians of Liège are unanimous in describing the period of Henry's administration as one of the most disastrous for the country, as well morally, as also for that which regards the material peace of the country. Some writers, however, out of enmity to the Church, have greatly exaggerated these evils, in order thus to bring discredit upon religion. Fortunately, these disorders will not