is the Holy Books, namely—the Psalter, the Book of Epistles and the Book of Gospels, the Missal, the Book of Hymns, the Manual, the Calendar, the Passional, the Penitential, and the Lectionary."

I have only to add, on the authority of the learned and eloquent author of the " Ages of Faith," that "long before the invention of printing versions of the whole Bible were given in most of the European languages. Before the Lutheran Revolution, several editions had been printed in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Holland, and Bohemia."* But the hearing ear is not the sole inlet to religious knowledge, there is the seeing eye.

The peasant to whom, for want of books to keep his learning up, the knowing how to read would have been of small avail, was never in his humble cottage home without sacred memorials of Christ crucified, which shewed him the good and the right way. If early dawn bade him speed on his labours ere his morning orisons were said, on the roadside, as he passed along, that Mother mild, embracing her Divine Incarnate Babe, invited him to kneel and pray. As up the steep, as hap might be, he toiled with feeble step, at every turn, by rude tracings of each event in his Saviour's passion, was

*Mores Catholici, book viii. page 523, small 8vo. Dolman.

he reminded that thus the pilgrim must, by the way of the Cross, climb to heaven. But in the churches it was that most of all provision was made for the poor-yes, for the poor; the rich and the scholar needed it not: for them the workmen, wise of heart, burnt in the glass those glowing colours, as fresh to-day as at the very first; for them sacred story and saintly legend crowded the fragile pane; for them the painter, with his magic pencil, wrought the wonders of his art above the golden altar and along the frescoed walls; for them the sculptor, chiselling exquisite net-work out of rude shapeless stone, exhausted his imitative skill; in them recognising Christ the Lord. Genius, as the magi of old, laid at their feet its best and purest offerings, happy in the consciousness of having ministered to the Saviour in the least of his brethren.

Reader, if you cannot bring yourself to allow that churchmen in those days, from the materials at their disposal, did enough for the instruction of the people, ask yourself this question, and answer it honestly, Have we, with far greater and better materials at our disposal, in proportion done more-nay, as much?

E

CHAPTER IV.

MISCONCEPTIONS EXPLAINED.

SINCE the Reformation, no complaints have been made of the ignorance of the Roman Catholic clergy; subtlety, cunning, wily craftiness, sophistry in argument, and fascinating manners, are the characteristics commonly ascribed to them: these expressions, setting charity aside, sound, it must be confessed, as if we were a little afraid of them. But it is still insisted upon as strongly as ever, that the priests keep the people in ignorance, especially of the Bible. Now, if all that is meant by this assertion be, that the Roman Catholic clergy do not allow their people to read our Protestant translation, that is generally true; neither do I believe that our clergy would allow their flocks to read the Roman Catholic translation, if they could help it; but if the assertion be carried further, and go to the denial of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue to the laity altogether, this statement is palpably incorrect; the Bible is read by the Roman Catholic in England, in English; in France, in French; in Germany, in German; in Italy,

in Italian; and so on of other countries. The notions which we take up upon this subject are, for the most part, derived from the descriptions of the religious novelists, who, usually being of the fair sex, are lavish of colours in the vivid pictures which they present to us. The story frequently runs thus:-A Bible finds its way into a convent, in which, of course, such a book has never been heard of before; it falls into the hands of a nun, who is described as an angel; she looks into it from a very natural feeling of curiosity as she reads, she is astonished beyond measure,-light breaks in upon her mind-the veil is removed from her eyes; she now sees the hollowness and corruption of the system in which she has been educated in all its native deformity. After a while, the attention of her sisters is drawn to her; her behaviour in the choir is observed to be less devotional and reverent; she looks at them askance-replies to their questions abruptly and sharply suspicion is excited-she is watched. On a certain day she is seen to hurry to her cell: she is followed, and discovered reading the prohibited book-the next day the cell is empty. To inquiries of the superior, evasive answers are given. Weeks elapse, other things intervene, the subject is forgotten,-when, by chance, a parlour boarder, a visitor to the convent, misses her way, and,

after threading passage after passage, finds herself at last in a dark, damp, dismal vault, in the midst of which there is a bier, and on that bier a body, in the pale and agonised countenance of which is recognised the lost

nun.

The above is the usual style of representation; but the fair authoress of "From Oxford to Rome" has considerably improved on the stock characters. Ernestine, we are informed in page 252, had been educated in Ultra-Protestant principles; a little after, we find that she occasionally, once in the way or so, attended the Church service; and, a little after that, we read of her being made a member by Holy Baptism of the Church of England. Now, as there is, so far as I know, but one denomination of Christians in this country who reject infant baptism, Ernestine must have been what, with her occasional church attendance, we may call a liberal Baptist. (By the way, that active community should take the alarm, and be on the look-out; there is plainly defection going on among their members.) Ernestine, it appears from extreme Protestantism flew at a bound into extreme Tractarianism, and having rested there just sufficient time to enable her to recover her breath, after so extraordinary an effort took another flight, and alighted on what the authoress appears to consider the terra firma of Popery. It happens,