October I

Saint Remigius, Confessor

archbishop of rheims

From his ancient life now lost, but abridged by Fortunatus, and his life compiled by archbishop Hincmar, with a history of the translation of his relics. See also St. Gregory of Tours, l. 2; Fleury. l. 29, n. 44, &c.; Ceillier, t. 16; Rivet, Hist. Littr. de la Fr. t. 3, p. 155; Suysken the Bollandist. t. 1, Octob. pp. 59, 187.

a. d. 583.

St. Remigius, the great apostle of the French nation, was one of the brightest lights of the Gaulish church, illustrious for his learning, eloquence, sanctity, and miracles. An episcopacy of seventy years, and many great actions, have rendered his name famous in the annals of the church. His very birth was wonderful, and his life was almost a continued miracle of divine grace. His father Emilius, and his mother Cilinia, both descended of noble Gaulish families, enjoyed an affluent fortune, lived in splendor suitable to their rank at the castle of Laon, and devoted themselves to the exercise of all Christian virtues. St. Remigius seems to have been born in the year 439.* He had two brothers older than himself, Principius, bishop of Soissons, and another whose name is not known, but who was father of St. Lupus, who was afterwards one of his uncle’s successors in the episcopal see of Soissons. A hermit named Montanus foretold the birth of our saint to his mother; and the pious parents had a special care of his education, looked upon him as a child blessed by heaven, and were careful to put him into the best hands.

His nurse Balsamia is reckoned among the saints, and is honored at Rheims in a collegiate church which bears her name. She had a son called Celsin, who was afterwards a disciple of our saint, and is known at Laon by the name of St. Soussin. St. Remigius had an excellent genius, made great progress in learning, and in the opinion of St. Apollinaris Sidonius, who was acquainted with him in the earlier part of his life, he became the most eloquent person in that age.¹ He was remarkable from his youth for his extraordinary devotion and piety, and for the severity of his morals. A secret apartment in which he spent a great part of his time in close retirement, in the castle of Laon, while he lived there, was standing in the ninth century, and was visited with devout veneration when Hincmar wrote. Our saint, earnestly thirsting after greater solitude, and the means of a more sublime perfection, left his father’s house, and made choice of a retired abode, where, having only God for witness, he abandoned himself to the fervor of his zeal in fasting, watching, and prayer. The episcopal see of Rheims† becoming vacant by the death of Bennagius, Remigius, though only twenty-two years of age, was compelled, notwithstanding his extreme reluctance, to take upon him that important charge; his extraordinary abilities seeming to the bishops of the province a sufficient reason for dispensing with the canons in point of age. In this new dignity, prayer, meditation on the holy scriptures, the instruction of the people, and the conversion of infidels, heretics, and sinners, were the constant employment of the holy pastor. Such was the fire and unction with which he announced the divine oracles to all ranks of men, that he was called by many a second St. Paul. St. Apollinaris Sidonius² was not able to find terms to express his admiration of the ardent charity and purity with which this zealous bishop offered at the altar an incense of sweet odor to God, and of the zeal with which by his words he powerfully subdued the wildest hearts, and brought them under the yoke of virtue, inspiring the lustful with the love of purity, and moving hardened sinners to bewail heir offences with tears of sincere compunction. The same author, who, for his eloquence and piety, was one of the greatest lights of the church in that age, testifies,³ that he procured copies of the sermons of this admirable bishop, which he esteemed an invaluable treasure; and says that in them he admired the loftiness of the thoughts, the judicious choice of the epithets, the gracefulness and propriety of the figures, and the justness, strength, and closeness of the reasoning, which he compares to the vehemence of thunder; the words flowed like a gentle river, but every part in each discourse was so naturally connected, and the style so even and smooth, that the whole carried with it an irresistible force. The delicacy and beauty of the thoughts and __EXPRESSION__ were at the same time enchanting, this being so smooth, that it might be compared to the smoothest ice or crystal upon which a nail runs without meeting with the least rub or unevenness. Another main excellency of these sermons consisted in the sublimity of the divine maxims which they contained, and the unction and sincere piety with which they were delivered; but the holy bishop’s sermons and zealous labors derived their greatest force from the sanctity of his life, which was supported by an extraordinary gift of miracles. Thus was St. Remigius qualified and prepared by God to be made the apostle of a great nation.

The Gauls, who had formerly extended their conquests by large colonies in Asia, had subdued a great part of Italy, and brought Rome itself to the very brink of utter destruction,* were at length reduced under the Roman yoke by Julius Csar, fifty years before the Christian era. It was the custom of those proud conquerors, as St. Austin observes,⁴ to impose the law of their own language upon the nations which they subdued.† After Gaul had been for the space of about five hundred years one of the richest and most powerful provinces of the Roman empire, it fell into the hands of the French; but these new masters, far from extirpating or expelling the old Roman or Gaulish inhabitants, became, by a coalition with them, one people, and took up their language and manners.* Clovis, at his accession to the crown, was only fifteen years old: he became the greatest conqueror of his age, and is justly styled the founder of the French monarchy. Even while he was a pagan he treated the Christians, especially the bishops, very well, spared the churches, and honored holy men, particularly St. Remigius, to whom he caused one of the vessels of his church, which a soldier had taken away, to be returned, and because the man made some demur, slew him with his own hand. St. Clotildis, whom he married in 493, earnestly endeavored to persuade him to embrace the faith of Christ. The first fruit of their marriage was a son, who, by the mother’s procurement, was baptized, and called Ingomer. This child died during the time of his wearing the white habit, within the first week after his baptism. Clovis harshly reproached Clotildis, and said, “If he had been consecrated in the name of my gods, he had not died; but having been baptized in the name of yours, he could not live.” The queen answered: “I thank God, who has thought me worthy of bearing a child whom he has called to his kingdom.” She had afterwards another son, whom she procured to be baptized, and who was named Chlodomir. He also fell sick, and the king said in great anger: “It could not be otherwise: he will die presently, in the same manner his brother did, having been baptized in the name of your Christ.” God was pleased to put the good queen to this trial; but by her prayers this child recovered.⁵ She never ceased to exhort the king to forsake his idols, and to acknowledge the true God; but he held out a long time against all her arguments, till, on the following occasion, God was pleased wonderfully to bring him to the confession of his holy name, and to dissipate that fear of the world which chiefly held him back so long, he being apprehensive lest his pagan subjects should take umbrage at such a change.

The Suevi and Alemanni in Germany assembled a numerous and valiant army, and under the command of several kings, passed the Rhine, hoping to dislodge their countrymen the Franks, and obtain for themselves the glorious spoils of the Roman empire in Gaul. Clovis marched to meet them near his frontiers, and one of the fiercest battles recorded in history was fought at Tolbiac. Some think that the situation of these German nations, the shortness of the march of Clovis, and the route which he took, point out the place of this battle to have been somewhere in Upper Alsace.⁶ But most modern historians agree that Tolbiac is the present Zulpich, situated in the dutchy of Juliers, four leagues from Cologue, between the Meuse and the Rhine; and this is demonstrated by the judicious and learned d’Anville.⁷ In this engagement the king had given the command of the infantry to his cousin Sigebert, fighting himself at the head of the cavalry. The shock of the enemy was so terrible, that Sigebert was in a short time carried wounded out of the field, and the infantry was entirely routed, and put to flight. Clovis saw the whole weight of the battle falling on his cavalry; yet stood his ground, fighting himself like a lion, covered with blood and dust; and encouraging his men to exert their utmost strength, he performed with them wonderful exploits of valor. Notwithstanding these efforts, they were at length borne down, and began to flee and disperse themselves; nor could they be rallied by the commands and entreaties of their king, who saw the battle upon which his empire depended, quite desperate. Clotildis had said to him in taking leave: “My lord, you are going to conquest; but in order to be victorious, invoke the God of the Christians: he is the sole Lord of the universe, and is styled the God of armies. If you address yourself to him with confidence, nothing can resist you. Though your enemies were a hundred against one, you would triumph over them.” The king called to mind these her words in his present extremity, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, said, with tears, “O Christ, whom Clotildis invokes as Son of the living God, I implore thy succour. I have called upon my gods, and find they have no power. I therefore invoke thee; I believe in thee. Deliver me from my enemies, and I will be baptized in thy name.” No sooner had he made this prayer than his scattered cavalry began to rally about his person; the battle was renewed with fresh vigor, and the chief king and generalissimo of the enemy being slain, the whole army threw down their arms, and begged for quarter. Clovis granted them their lives and liberty upon condition that the country of the Suevi in Germany should pay him an annual tribute. He seems to have also subdued and imposed the same yoke upon the Boioarians, or Bavariaus; for his successors gave that people their first princes or dukes, as F. Daniel shows at large. This miraculous victory was gained in the fifteenth year of his reign, of Christ 496.

Clovis, from that memorable day, thought of nothing but of preparing himself for the holy laver of regeneration. In his return from this expedition he passed by Toul, and there took with him St. Vedast, a holy priest who led a retired life in that city, that he might be instructed by him in the faith during his journey; so impatient was he to fulfil his vow of becoming a Christian, that the least wilful delay appeared to him criminal. The queen, upon this news, sent privately to St. Remigius to come to her, and went with him herself to meet the king in Champagne. Clovis no sooner saw her, but he cried out to her, “Clovis has vanquished the Alemanni, and you have triumphed over Clovis. The business you have so much at heart is done; my baptism can be no longer delayed.” The queen answered, “To the God of hosts is the glory of both these triumphs due.” She encouraged him forthwith to accomplish his vow, and presented to him St. Remigius as the most holy bishop in his dominions. This great prelate continued his instruction, and prepared him for baptism by the usual practices of fasting, penance, and prayer. Clovis suggested to him that he apprehended the people that obeyed him would not be willing to forsake their gods, but said he would speak to them according to his instructions. He assembled the chiefs of his nation for this purpose; but they prevented his speaking, and cried out with a loud voice, “My Lord, we abandon mortal gods, and are ready to follow the immortal God, whom Remigius teaches.” St. Remigius and St. Vedast therefore instructed and prepared them for baptism. Many bishops repaired to Rheims for this solemnity, which they judged proper to perform on Christmas-day, rather than to defer it till Easter. The king set the rest an example of compunction and devotion, laying aside his purple and crown, and, covered with ashes, imploring night and day the divine mercy. To give an external pomp to this sacred action, in order to strike the senses of a barbarous people, and impress a sensible awe and respect upon their minds, the good queen took care that the streets from the palace to the great church should be adorned with rich hangings, and that the church and baptistery should be lighted up with a great number of perfumed wax tapers, and scented with exquisite odors. The catechumens marched in procession, carrying crosses, and singing the Litany. St. Remigius conducted the king by the hand, followed by the queen and the people. Coming near the sacred font, the holy bishop, who had with great application softened the heart of this proud barbarian conqueror into sentiments of Christian meekness and humility, said to him, “Bow down your neck with meekness, great Sicambrian prince: adore what you have hitherto burnt; and burn what you have hitherto adored.” Words which may be emphatically addressed to every penitent, to express the change of his heart and conduct, in renouncing the idols of his passions, and putting on the spirit of sincere Christian piety and humility. The king was baptized by St. Remigius on Christmas-day, as St. Avitus assures us.⁸ St. Remigius afterwards baptized Albofleda, the king’s sister, and three thousand persons of his army, that is, of the Franks, who were yet only a body of troops dispersed among the Gauls. Albofleda died soon after, and the king being extremely afflicted at her loss, St. Remigius wrote him a letter of consolation, representing to him the happiness of such a death in the grace of baptism, by which we ought to believe she had received the crown of virgins.⁹ Lantilda, another sister of Clovis, who had fallen into the Arian heresy, was reconciled to the Catholic faith, and received the unction of the holy chrism, that is, says Fleury, confirmation; though some think it only a rite used in the reconciliation of certain heretics. The king, after his baptism, bestowed many lands on St. Remigius, who distributed them to several churches, as he did the donations of several others among the Franks, lest they should imagine he had attempted their conversion out of interest. He gave a considerable part to St. Mary’s church at Laon, where he had been brought up; and established Genebald, a nobleman skilled in profane and divine learning, first bishop of that see. He had married a niece of St. Remigius, but was separated from her to devote himself to the practices of piety. Such was the original of the bishopric of Laon, which before was part of the diocese of Rheims. St. Remigius also constituted Theodore bishop of Tournay in 487; St. Vedast, bishop of Arras in 498, and of Cambray in 510. He sent Antimund to preach the faith to the Morini, and to found the church of Terouenne. Clovis built churches in many places, conferred upon them great riches, and by an edict invited all his subjects to embrace the Christian faith. St. Avitus, bishop of Vienne, wrote to him a letter of congratulation upon his baptism, and exhorts him to send ambassadors to the remotest German nations beyond the Rhine, to solicit them to open their hearts to the faith.

When Clovis was preparing to march against Alaric, in 506, St. Remigius sent him a letter of advice how he ought to govern his people so as to draw down upon himself the divine blessings.¹⁰ “Choose,” said he. “wise counsellors, who will be an honor to your reign. Respect the clergy. Be the father and protector of your people; let it be your study to lighten as much as possible all the burdens which the necessities of the state may oblige them to bear: comfort and relieve the poor; feed the orphans; protect the widows; suffer no extortion. Let the gate of your palace be open to all, that every one may have recourse to you for justice employ your great revenues in redeeming captives,” &c.* Clovis after his victories over the Visigoths, and the conquest of Toulouse, their capital in Gaul, sent a circular letter to all the bishops in his dominions, in which he allowed them to give liberty to any of the captives he had taken, but desired them only to make use of this privilege in favor of persons of whom they had some knowledge.¹¹ Upon the news of these victories of Clovis ever the Visigoths, Anastatius, the eastern emperor, to court his alliance against the Goths, who had principally concurred to the extinction of the western empire, sent him the ornaments and titles of Patrician, Consul, and Augustus: from which time he was habited in purple, and styled himself Augustus. This great conqueror invaded Burgundy to compel king Gondebald to allow a dower to his queen, and to revenge the murder of her father and uncle; but was satisfied with the yearly tribute which the tyrant promised to pay him. The perfidious Arian afterwards murdered his third brother; whereupon Clovis again attacked and vanquished him; but at the entreaty of Clotildis, suffered him to reign tributary to him, and allowed his son Sigismond to ascend the throne after his death. Under the protection of this great monarch, St. Remigius wonderfully propagated the gospel of Christ by the conversion of a great part of the French nation; in which work God endowed him with an extraordinary gift of miracles, as we are assured not only by Hincmar, Flodoard, and all other historians who have mentioned him, but also by other incontestable monuments and authorities Not to mention his Testament, in which mention is made of his miracles, the bishops who were assembled in the celebrated conference that was held a Lyons against the Arians in his time, declared they were stirred up to exert their zeal in defence of the Catholic faith by the example of Remigius, “Who,” say they,¹² “hath everywhere destroyed the altars of the idols by a multitude of miracles and signs.” The chief among these prelates were Stephen, bishop of Lyons, St. Avitus of Vienne, his brother Apollinaris of Valence, and Eonius of Aries. They all went to wait upon Gondebald, the Arian king of the Burgundians, who was at Savigny, and entreated him to command his Arian bishops to hold a public conference with them. When he showed much unwillingness they all prostrated themselves before him, and wept bitterly. The king was sensibly affected at the sight, and kindly raising them up, promised to give them an answer soon after. They went back to Lyons, and the king returning thither the next day, told them their desire was granted. It was the eve of St. Justus, and the Catholic bishops passed the whole night in the church of that saint in devout prayer; the next day, at the hour appointed by the king, they repaired to his palace, and, before him and many of his senators, entered upon the disputation, St. Avitus speaking for the Catholics, and one Boniface for the Arians. The latter answered only by clamors and injurious language, treating the Catholics as worshippers of three Gods. The issue of a second meeting, some days after, was the same with that of the first: and many Arians were converted. Gondebald himself, some time after, acknowledged to St. Avitus, that he believed the Son and the Holy Ghost to be equal to the Father, and desired him to give him privately the unction of the holy chrism. St. Avitus said to him, “Our Lord declares, Whoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father. You are a king, and have no persecution to fear, as the apostles had. You fear a sedition among the people, but ought not to cherish such a weakness. God does not love him, who, for an earthly kingdom, dares not confess him before the world.”¹³ The king knew not what to answer; but never had the courage to make a public profession of the Catholic faith.* St. Remigius, by his zealous endeavors promoted the Catholic interest in Burgundy, and entirely crushed both idolatry and the Arian heresy in the French dominions. In a synod he converted, in his old age, an Arian bishop who came thither to dispute against him.¹⁴ King Clovis died in 511. St. Remigius survived him many years, and died in the joint reign of his four sons, on the 13th of January in the year 533, according to Rivet, and in the ninety-fourth year of his age, having been bishop above seventy years. The age before the irruption of the Franks had been of all others the most fruitful in great and learned men in Gaul; but studies were there at the lowest ebb from the time of St. Remigius’s death, till they were revived in the reign of Charlemagne.¹⁵ The body of this holy archbishop was buried in St. Christopher’s church at Rheims, and found incorrupt when it was taken up by archbishop Hincmar in 852. Pope Leo IX., during a council which he held at Rheims in 1049, translated it into the church of the Benedictin abbey, which bears his name in that city, on the 1st of October, on which day, in memory of this and other translations, he appointed his festival to be celebrated, which, in Florus and other calendars, was before marked on the 13th of January. In 1646 this saint’s body was again visited by the archbishop with many honorable witnesses, and found incorrupt and whole in all its parts; but the skin was dried, and stuck to the winding-sheet, as it was described by Hincmar above eight hundred years before. It is now above twelve hundred years since his death.¹⁶

Care, watchings, and labors were sweet to this good pastor, for the sake of souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Knowing what pains our Redeemer took, and how much he suffered for sinners, during the whole course of his mortal life, and how tenderly his divine heart is ever open to them, this faithful minister was never weary in preaching, exhorting, mourning, and praying for those that were committed to his charge. In imitation of the good shepherd and prince of pastors, he was always ready to lay down his life for their safety: he bore them all in his heart, and watched over them, always trembling lest any among them should perish, especially through his neglect: for he considered with what indefatigable rage the wolf watched continually to devour them. As all human endeavors are too weak to discover the wiles and repulse the assaults of the enemy, without the divine light and strength, this succor he studied to obtain by humble supplications; and when he was not taken up in external service for his flock, he secretly poured forth his soul in devout prayer before God for himself and them.

St. Bavo, Anchoret, Patron of Ghent

This great model of penance, called Allowin, surnamed Bavo, was a nobleman, and native of that part of Brabant called Hasbain, at present comprised in the territory of Liege. After having led a very irregular life, and being left a widower by the death of his wife, he was moved to a sincere conversion to God by a sermon which he heard St. Amand preach. The apostolical man had no sooner finished his discourse, but Bavo followed him, and threw himself at his feet, bathed in a flood of tears. Sobs expressed the sorrow and emotions of his heart more eloquently than any words could have done, and it was some time before his voice was able to break through his sighs. When he had somewhat recovered himself, he confessed himself the basest and most ungrateful of all sinners, and earnestly begged to be directed in the paths of true penance and salvation. The holy pastor, who saw in his unfeigned tears the sincerity of his compunction, was far from flattering him in the beginning of his work, by which his penance would have remained imperfect; and while he encouraged him by the consideration of the boundless mercy of God, he set before his eyes the necessity of appeasing the divine indignation by a course of penance proportioned to the enormity of his offences, and of applying powerful remedies to the deep wounds of his soul, that his inveterate distempers might be radically cured, his vicious inclinations perfectly corrected and reformed, and his heart become a new creature. By these instructions Bavo was more and more penetrated with the most sincere sentiments of compunction, made his confession, and entered upon a course of canonical penance.* Going home he distributed all his moveables and money among the poor, and having settled his affairs, retired to the monastery at Ghent, where he received the tonsure at the hands of St. Amand, and was animated by his instructions to advance daily in the fervor of his penance, and in the practice of all virtues. “It is a kind of apostacy,” said that prudent director to him, “for a soul which has had the happiness to see the nothingness of this world, and the depth of her spiritual miseries, not to raise herself daily more and more above them, and to make continual approaches nearer to God.”

Bavo considered that self-denial and penance are the means by which a penitent must punish sin in himself, and are also one part of the remedy by which he must heal his perverse inclinations, and carnal passions. He therefore seemed to set no bounds to the ardor with which he labored to consummate the sacrifice of his penance by the baptism of his tears, the compunction and humiliation of his heart, the mortification of his will, and the rigor of his austerities. To satisfy his devotion, St. Amand after some time gave him leave to lead an eremitical life. He first chose for his abode a hollow trunk of a large tree, but afterwards built himself a cell in the forest of Malmedun near Ghent, where wild herbs and water were his chief subsistence. He returned to the monastery of St. Peter at Ghent, where St. Amand had appointed St. Floribert the first abbot over a community of clerks, says he original author of our saint’s life. With the approbation of St. Floribert Bavo built himself a new cell in another neighboring wood where he lived a recluse, intent only on invisible goods, in an entire oblivion of creatures. He died on the 1st of October, about the year 653, according to Mabillon, but according to Henschenius, 657.¹ Perier rather thinks it 654. The holy bishop St. Amand, the abbot of St. Floribert with his monks, and Domlinus the priest of Turholt, were present at his glorious passage, attending him in prayer. The example of his conversion moved sixty gentlemen to devote themselves to an austere penitential life. By them the church of St. Bavo was founded at Ghent, served first by a college of canons, but afterwards changed into a monastery of the holy order of St. Benedict. It was again reduced to its primitive state, being secularized by pope Paul III. in 1537, at the request of the emperor Charles V., who, building a citadel in that part, three years after, transferred the canons to St. John’s, which from that time possesses the relics, and bears the name of St. Bavo. When the bishopric of Ghent was erected by Paul IV. in 1559, at the petition of king Philip II. this church was made the cathedral. Cornelius Jansenius, author of a learned Concordance, or Harmony of the Gospels and other works, was nominated the first bishop. He is not to be confounded with the famous Cornelius Jansenius, bishop of Ipres. An arm of St. Bavo is kept in a silver case at Haerlem, of which church he is the titular saint and patron, in the same manner as at Ghent. See the life of St. Bavo, written in the eighth century, published by Mabillon, sc. 2, Ben. Another compiled by Theodoric, abbot of St. Tron’s, in the twelfth century, is extant in Surius, but not of equal authority. See also the history of many miracles, wrought by his relics, in three books. Among the moderns, Le Cointe, ad an. 649; Pagi, in Critica in Annal. Baron, ad an. 631, n. 13; Batavia sacra, p. 27; Ant. Sanderus Rerum Gandavensium, c. 4, p. 241,—this author gives us the history of the church of St. Bavo, now the cathedral, l. 5, p. 390; Perier the Bollandist, from p. 198 to 303, t. 1, Octob.

St. Piat, Apostle of Tournay, M.

St. Piat, or Piaton, a zealous priest, came from Italy, being a native of Benevento, to preach the gospel in Gaul, probably about the same time with St. Dionysius of Paris, and his companions. Penetrating as far as Belgic Gaul, he converted to the faith the country about Tournay, and was crowned with martyrdom, as it seems, under the cruel governor Rictius Varus, about the year 286, about the beginning of the reign of Maximian Herculeus, who then marched into Gaul. His body was pierced by the persecutors with many huge nails, such as were used in joining beams or rafters, and are de scribed by Galloni and Mamachi among the instruments of torture used by the Romans. St. Piat seems to have suffered torments at Tournay, the capital, but to have finished his martyrdom at Seclin. This martyr’s body was discovered in the seventh century at Seclin, pierced with these nails, by St. Eligius of Noyon, as St. Owen relates in his life of St. Eligius. He was before honored there, or St. Eligius would not have sought his body in that place. It is enshrined in the collegiate church which bears his name at Seclin, a village between Lille and Tournay, the ancient capital of the small territory called Medenentensis, now Melantois; and he is honored at the apostle and patron of that country. In the invasions of the Normans the relics of SS. Bavo, Wandrille, Aubert, Wulfran, Wasnulf, Piat, Bainus Winnoc, and Austreberte were conveyed to St. Omer, and there secured forty years, according to the chronicle of the Normans in Duchesne, and 846. Those of St. Piat were in another invasion conveyed to Chartres, and part still remains there in a collegiate church of canons, which bears his name. Fulbert of Chartres has left us a hymn in his honor. The body of St. Eubertus, or Eugenius, his companion and fellow-martyr, is kept in the great collegiate church of St. Peter at Lille, which was founded and richly endowed by Baldwin of Lille, earl of Flanders, in 1066. See Tillemont, t. 14; Molanus in Calend. Flandr. Stilting, t. 1, Octob. p. 1–26, who gives his most ancient Acts, since interpolated in two editions. See also Ado Usuard, Georgi, &c.

St. Wasnulf, or Wasnon, C.

patron of conde

The Scots from Ireland and North Britain, not content to plant the faith in the isles of Orkney, in the Hebrides or Western islands, and in other neighboring places, travelled also into remote kingdoms, to carry thither the light of the gospel. Thence came St. Mansuetus, the first bishop of Toul in Lorraine, St. Rumold, patron of Mechlin, St. Colman, M., &c. Several Scottish monasteries were founded in Germany by eminent monks who came from that country, as at Vienna in Austria, at Strasburg, Eichstade, Nuremberg, Constance, Wurtzburg, Erfurth, two at Cologne, and two at Ratisbon.* Out of these only three remain at present in the hands of Scottish Benedictin monks, those at Erfurth and Wurtzburg, and that of St. James at Ratisbon. In the seventh century St. Vincent, count of Haynault, invited many holy monks from Ireland and Scotland, then seminaries of saints, into the Nether lands. Among these St. Wasnulf was the most renowned. He was a Scottish priest and preacher, (not a bishop, as some moderns pretend,) and finished his course about the year 651, at Conde, where his body still reposes in a collegiate church endowed with twenty-four canonries. In his apostolical labors he illustrated that country with miracles, says Baldericus, or rather the anonymous author of Chron. Camer. l. 2, c. 42. See Molanus, in Nat. Sanct. Belgii, 1 Oct.; Mirus, and the Bollandists, t. 1, Oct. p. 304.

St. Fidharleus of Ireland, Abbot

The Irish calendars commemorate on this day St. Fidharleus, abbot of Raithen, who departed to our Lord in 762. See Colgan, MSS.

On The First Sunday of October

The Festival of the Rosary

This festival† was instituted to implore the divine mercy in favor of the church and of all the faithful, and to thank the Almighty for the protection he has afferded them, and for the innumerable benefits he has conferred upon them, particularly for his having delivered Christendom from the arms of the infidels by the miraculous victory of Lepanto in 1571,¹ through the patronage and intercesion of the Mother of God, implored with extraordinary fervor in the devotion of the Rosary. To the same means pope Clement XI. acknowledged the church to be indebted for the wonderful victory which prince Eugene of Savoy obtained over the Turks near Belgrade in 1716. Upon which account his holiness caused one of the five standards which were taken from the infidels, and which was sent him by the emperor, to be hung up in the Dominicans’ church of the Rosary in Rome. At that time the infidels, with an army of two hundred thousand men, held the Christian army, as it were, besieged near Belgrade, and had a garrison of twenty thousand men in that strong city, then the bulwark of their empire. The isle of Corfu was also beleaguered by an army of forty thousand of the same infidels. The victory of the Christians was followed by the taking of Belgrade, and the deliverance of Corfu, and also the preservation of all Germany and Italy, which were next threatened.

The Rosary is a practice of devotion, in which, by fifteen Our Fathers, and one hundred and fifty Hail Marys, the faithful are taught to honor our divine Redeemer in the fifteen principal mysteries of his sacred life, and of his holy Mother. It is therefore an abridgment of the gospel, a history of the life, sufferings, and triumphant victory of Jesus Christ, and an exposition of what he did in the flesh, which he assumed for our salvation. It ought certainly to be the principal object of the devotion of every Christian always to bear in mind these holy mysteries, to return to God a perpetual homage of love, praise, and thanksgiving for them, to implore his mercy through them, to make them the subject of his assiduous meditation, and to mould his affections, regulate his life, and form his spirit by the holy impressions which they make on his soul. The Rosary² is a method of doing this, most easy in itself, and adapted to the slowest or meanest capacity; and, at the same time, most sublime and faithful in the exercise of all the highest acts of prayer, contemplation, and all interior virtues. These are admirably comprised in the divine prayer which our Lord himself vouchsafed to teach us, which pious persons, who penetrate the spirit of each word in those holy petitions, can never be weary in repeating, but must recite every time with new fervor, and with more ardent sentiments of love and piety. To obtain mercy and all graces, no prayer certainly can be offered to God more efficacious or pleasing than that which was indited, and is put into our hearts and mouths by his divine Son, our blessed Redeemer himself. Neither can any acts of humility, compunction, love, or praise, be thought of more sublime. All other good prayers are but paraphrases or expositions of this. It is more especially agreeable and honorable to God, and beneficial to us, when it is offered in honor of the most holy mysteries of our redemption, to pay the homage of our love and thanksgiving for them, and to implore God’s tender mercy, love, and compassion by the same. To honor explicitly each mystery, some express it in the prayer, as adding to the name Jesus in the Hail Mary, who was born, crucified, &c. for us; but this is better done by representing to God in our minds the mysteries implied in those words. Thus, in repeating Our Father, &c., we bear in mind, by whose decree his eternal Son was born in a stable, or sweat blood in his agony, &c.: at Hallowed be thy name, we add in thought, particularly for his Son’s nativity, crucifixion, &c.

The Angelical Salutation is often repeated in the Rosary, because, as it contains a form of praise for the Incarnation, it best suits a devotion Instituted to honor the principal parts of that great mystery. Though it be addressed to the Mother of God, with an invocation of her intercession, it is chiefly a praise and thanksgiving to the Son, for the divine mercy in each part of that wonderful mystery. The Holy Ghost is the principal author of this holy prayer, which the archangel Gabriel, the ambassador of the Blessed Trinity in the most wonderful of all mysteries, began; St. Elizabeth, another organ of the Holy Ghost, continued, and the church finished. The first and second part consist of the sacred praises which were bestowed on the Blessed Virgin by the archangel Gabriel,³ and by St. Elizabeth inspired by the Holy Ghost.⁴ The last part was added by the church, and contains a petition of her intercession, styling her Mother of God, with the general counsel of Ephesus against the blasphemies of Nestorius.

We add to the angel’s salutation the name of this holy Virgin, this being a name of veneration and sweetness to every devout Christian. The word Miriam, or Mary, is expounded by St. Jerom, from different etymologies, to Signify in Hebrew, a Star of the sea, or Bitter sea, and in Chaldaic, Lady.⁵ Both the names Lady and Sea-star admirably agree to her who is the glorious queen of heaven, and our star and patroness in the stormy sea of this world. Other Hebrew women had borne this name, as the sister of Moses. but in them it was only a shadow; in the Mother of God it expressed the sublime dignity of her sacred person. We are not to pass over as insignificant those words of the evangelist, And the name of the virgin was Mary.⁶ For her very name is not without a mystery, and ought to be to us most amiable, sweet, and awful. “Of such virtue and excellency is this name, that the heavens exult, the earth rejoices, and the angels sound forth hymns of praise when Mary is named,” says St. Bernard.⁷ That devout client of Mary and holy father observes,⁸ that she is truly the star which arose from Jacob, and which being placed above this wide tempestuous sea, shines forth by the merits and example of her life. “O you,” goes on that devout father, “who find yourself tossed in the tempests of this world, turn not your eyes from the brightness of this star, if ye would not be overwhelmed by storms. If the winds of temptations rise, if you fall among the rocks of tribulations, look up at the star, call on Mary. If you are tossed by the waves of pride, ambition, detraction, jealousy, or envy, look up at the star, call on Mary. If anger, covetousness. or lust beat on the vessel of your soul, look up on Mary. If you begin to sink in the gulf of melancholy and despair, think on Mary. In dangers, in distresses, in perplexities, think on Mary, call on Mary; let her not depart from your mouth; let her not depart from your hearts; and that you may obtain the suffrage of her prayers, never depart from the example of her conversation. While you follow her you never go astray; while you implore her aid, you never sink in despair; when you think on her, you never wander; under her patronage, you never fall; under her protection, you need not fear; she being your guide, you are not wearied.” Such are the sentiments of confidence, devotion, and respect with which the name of Mary ought always to inspire us. Out of veneration, it has been sometimes an established custom in certain places that no women should take the name of Mary. When Alphonsus VI., king of Castile, was about taking a young Moor to wife, he made it a condition that she should not, at her baptism, take that name. Among the articles of marriage stipulated between Mary of Nevers and Uladislas, king of Poland, one was, that laying aside the name of Mary, she should be called Aloysia. From the time that Casimir I., king of Poland, upon marrying Mary, daughter of the duke of Russia, obliged her to change that name, it became a custom in Poland that no woman should bear the name of Mary:⁹ though this is now changed, and on the other hand, many adopt it with humility, out of devotion to this powerful advocate and patroness.

Next to this holy name, the words of the salutation come to be considered. Hail is a word of salutation, congratulation, and joy. The archangel addressed it with profound reverence and awe to this incomparable and glorious virgin. It was anciently an extraordinary thing if an angel appeared to one of the patriarchs or prophets, and then he was received with great veneration and honor, being by nature and grace exalted above them; but when the archangel Gabriel visited Mary, he was struck at her exalted dignity and pre-eminence, and approached and saluted her with admiration and respect. He was accustomed to the lustre of the highest heavenly spirits; but was amazed and dazzled at the dignity and spiritual glory of her whom he came to salute Mother of God, while the attention of the whole heavenly court was with ravishment fixed upon her. With what humility ought we worms of the earth and base sinners to address her in the same salutation! The devout Thomas Kempis gives of it the following paraphrase:¹⁰ “With awe, reverence, devotion, and humble confidence, do I suppliantly approach you, bearing in my mouth the salutation of the angel, humbly to oiler you. I joyfully present it to you, with my head bowed out of reverence to your sacred person, and with my arms expanded through excessive affection of devotion; and I beg the same may be repealed by all the heavenly spirits for me a hundred thousand times, and much oftener; for I know not what I can bring more worthy your transcendent greatness, or more sweet to us who recite it. Let the pious lover of your holy Name listen and attend. The heavens rejoice, and all the earth ought to stand amazed when I say, Hail Mary. Satan and hell tremble when I repeat, Hail Mary Sorrow is banished, and a new joy fills my soul, when I say, Hail Mary My languid affection is strengthened in God, and my soul is refreshed when I repeat, Hail Mary. So great is the sweetness of this blessed salutation; that it is not to be expressed in words, but remains deeper in the heart than can be fathomed. Wherefore I again most humbly bend my knees to you, O most holy virgin, and say, Hail Mary, full of grace.—O, that to satisfy my desire of honoring and saluting you with all the powers of my soul, all. my members were converted into tongues and into voices of fire, that I might glorify you, O Mother of God, without ceasing! And now, prostrate in your presence, invited by sincere devotion of heart, and all inflamed with veneration for your sweet name, I represent to you the joy of that salutation when the archangel Gabriel, sent by God, entered your secret closet, and honored you with a salutation unheard of from the beginning of the world, saying, Hail, full of grace, our Lord is with you: which I desire to repeat, were it possible, with a mouth pure as gold, and with a burning affection; and I desire that all creatures now say with me, Hail,” &c.

In the like sentiments of profound respect and congratulation with the angel, we style her Full of grace. Though she is descended of the royal blood of David, her illustrious pre-eminence is not derived from her birth, or any other temporal advantages; but from that prerogative in which alone true excellence consists, the grace of God, in which she surpasses all other mere creatures. To others, God deals out portions of his grace according to an inferior measure; but Mary was to be prepared to become mother of the author of grace. To her, therefore, God gave every grace and every virtue in an eminent degree of excellence and perfection. Mary “was filled with the ocean of the Holy Ghost poured upon her,” says the venerable Bede.¹¹ It was just, that the nearer she approached to the fountain of grace, the more abundantly she should be enriched by it; and, as God was pleased to make choice of her for his Mother, nothing less than a supereminent portion of grace could suit her transcendent dignity. The church therefore applies to her that of the Canticles: Thou art all fair, and there is no spot in thee.¹² In those words, Our Lord is with thee, we repeat with the angel another eulogium, consequent of the former. God, by his immensity or omnipotence, is with all creatures, because in him all things have their being. He is much more intimately with all his just, inasmuch as he dwells in them by his grace, and manifests in them the most gracious effects of his goodness and power; but the blessed Virgin being full of grace, and most agreeable in his eyes above all other mere creatures; having also the closest union with Christ as his Mother, and burning with more than seraphic charity, she is his most beloved tabernacle, and he favors her with the special effects of his extraordinary presence, displaying in her his boundless munificence, power, and love.

The following praise was given to her in the same words, both by the archangel Gabriel and St. Elizabeth, Blessed art thou amongst women. Mary is truly called blessed above all other women, she having been herself always preserved from the least stain of sin, and having been the happy instrument of God in converting the maledictions laid on all mankind into blessings. When Judith had delivered Bethulia from temporal destruction, Ozias, the prince of the people, said to her, Blessed art thou, O daughter, above all women upon the face of the earth.¹³ And The people all blessed her with one voice, saying, Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honor of our people.¹⁴ How much more emphatically shall we from our hearts pronounce her blessed above all women, who brought forth Him who is the author of all manner of spiritual and eternal blessings to us! She most justly said of herself, in the deepest sense of gratitude to the divine goodness, Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.¹⁵ By bestowing these praises on Mary we offer principally to God a profound homage of praise for the great mystery of the Incarnation. The pious woman mentioned in the gospel, who upon hearing the divine doctrine of our Redeemer, cried out with admiration, Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and blessed are the breasts which gave thee suck,¹⁶ meant chiefly to commend the Son. In like manner the praises we address to Mary in the angelical salutation are reflected in the first place on her divine Son, from whom, and by whom alone she is entitled to them; for it is for his gifts and graces, and for his sake, that we praise and honor her. On which account this prayer is chiefly an excellent doxology for the great mystery of the Incarnation. Whence, having styled the Mother blessed above all women, we pronounce the Son infinitely more blessed, saying, And blessed is the fruit of thy womb. He is the source and author of all her graces and blessings; she derives them only from him; and to him we refer whatever we admire and praise in her. Therefore, in an infinitely higher sense of praise, love, and honor, and in a manner infinitely superior to her, we call him blessed forever by God, angels and men; by God, as his well-beloved Son, and in his divinity, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father; by the angels, as the author of their being, grace, and glory, inasmuch as he is their God; and in his Incarnation, as the repairer of their losses by men, as their Redeemer. We, considering attentively the infinite evils from which he has delivered us, the pains and labors which he sustained for us, the ransom which he has paid with his precious blood to redeem us, the everlasting and infinite advantages which he has purchased for us, with the boundless felicity of heaven, the excess of his goodness, love, and mercy, and his infinite majesty and perfections; we, I say, bearing all this in mind, ought, in a spirit of love and praise, ever to call her Blessed through whom we receive this so great a Saviour; but him infinitely more blessed both for his own adorable sanctity, and for all the graces of which he is the source to us.

The most holy and glorious name of Jesus which is added to this doxology, is a name of unspeakable sweetness and grace; a name most comfortable and delightful to every loving soul, terrible to the wicked spirits, and adorable with respect to all creatures; so that at its very sound every knee, in heaven, earth, and hell, shall bend, and every creature be filled with religious awe, and profound veneration and respect. The last part of this prayer is a supplication. The prayer of the blessed spirits in heaven consists chiefly in acts of adoration, love, praise, thanksgiving, and the like. We, in this vale of tears and miseries, join sighs even to our hymns of praise and adoration. So extreme are our spiritual miseries and wants that we never present ourselves in prayer before Almighty God, but we make it one part of our addresses to implore his mercy and graces with the greatest earnestness possible, and the deepest sense of our wants. It is in this sincere feeling of our sinful necessities, and the most humble and earnest cry of our heart, that the fervor and very soul of our prayer consists. God knows and with infinite tenderness compassionates the depth of our wounds, and the whole extent of our numberless and boundless spiritual miseries. But our insensibility under them provokes his just indignation. He will have us sincerely to feel and to acknowledge the weight of our evils; our extreme spiritual poverty and total insufficiency, the baseness of our guilt, the rigor of his judgments, the frightful torments of an unhappy eternity which we deserve for our sins, and the dangers from ourselves and the invisible enemies with which we are surrounded. He requires that we confess the abyss of miseries in which we are sunk, and out of it raise our voice to him with tears and groans, owning our total dependence on his mercy and infinite goodness. If a beggar ask an alms of us, his wants make him eloquent; he sums them all up to move us to compassion; sickness, pains, hunger, anguish of mind, distress of a whole family, and whatever else can set off his miseries in the most moving manner. In like manner when we pray, we must feel and lay open before our heavenly Father our deep wounds, our universal indigence, inability, and weakness, and, with all possible earnestness, implore his merciful succor. We must beg that God himself will be pleased to form in our hearts such continued sincere desires, that he inspire us with so deep a sense of all our miseries, and teach us to display them before him in such a manner as will most powerfully move him to pity and relieve us. We have recourse to the angels and saints to beg their joint intercession for us. For this we address ourselves in the first place to the blessed Virgin, as the refuge of the afflicted and sinners. In this prayer we repeat her holy name to excite ourselves to reverence and devotion. By calling her Mother of God, we express her most exalted dignity, and stir up our confidence in her patronage. For what cannot she obtain for us of a God, who was pleased himself to be born of her! We at the same time remember, that she is also spiritually our mother; for, by adoption, we are brothers and co-heirs of Christ. She is to us a mother of more than maternal tenderness; incomparably more sensible of our miseries, and more ready to procure us all mercy and assistance than carnal mothers can be, as in charity she surpasses all other mere creatures. But to call her Mother, and to deserve her compassion, we must sincerely renounce and put an end to our disorders, by which we have too often trampled upon the blood of her Son.

These words, Holy Mary, Mother of God, are a kind of preface to our petition, in which we humbly entreat her to pray for us. We do not ask her to give us grace; we know this to be the most precious gift of God, who alone can bestow it on us. We only desire her to ask it for us of her Son, and to join her powerful intercession with our unworthy prayers. We mention our quality of sinners, to humble ourselves in the deepest sentiments of compunction, and to excite her compassion by laving our extreme miseries and necessities before her, which this epithet of sinners expresses beyond what any created understanding can fathom. Mary, from her fuller and more distinct knowledge of the evil of sin, and the spiritual miseries of a soul infected with it, forms a much more distinct and perfect idea of the abyss of our evils than we can possibly do, and in proportion to them, and to the measure of her charity, is moved to compassionate us under them. But we must mention our sins with sincere sentiments of contrition and regret; for the will which still adheres to sin provokes indignation, not compassion, in God, and in all the saints who love sovereignly his sanctity and justice. How dare impenitent sinners present themselves before God with their hands yet stained, as it were, with the adorable blood of his Son, which they have spilled, and which they still continue, in the language of St. Paul, to trample upon? We must therefore mention our guilt with the most profound sentiments of confusion and compunction. In proportion to their sincerity and fervor we shall excite the pity and mercy of God, and the tender compassion of his Mother. Mary, having borne in her womb the Author of grace and mercy, has put on the bowels of the most tender compassion for sinners. By this mention of our quality of sinners, we sufficiently express what it is that we beg of God; namely, the grace of a perfect repentance, the remission of all our sins, and strength to resist all temptations to sin. We ask also for all graces and virtues, especially that of divine charity. All this is sufficiently understood by the very nature of our request, without being expressed; for what else ought we to ask of God, through the intercession of her who is the mother of the Author of grace? We beg this abundance of all graces, both at present, because we stand in need of it every moment of our lives; and for the hour of our death, that great and most dreadful moment which must be a principal object in all our prayers. The whole life of a Christian ought to be nothing else but a constant preparation for that tremendous hour, which will decide our eternal lot, and in which the devil will assail us with the utmost effort of his fury; and our own weakness in mind and body, the lively remembrance of our past sins, and other alarming circumstances and difficulties, will make us stand in need of the strongest assistance of divine grace, and the special patronage of her who is the patronage of all in distress, particularly of her devout clients in their last and most dangerous conflict. Amen, or So be it, expresses an earnest repetition of our supplication and praise. As the heart, in the ardor of its affections, easily goes far beyond what words can express, so neither is it confined by them in the extent and variety of its acts. In one word, it often comprises the most perfect acts of faith, hope, charity, adoration, praise, and other such virtues. Thus, by Amen, it with ardor repeats all the petitions and acts of the Lord’s Prayer and Angelical Salutation. Some devout persons have made this short but energetical and comprehensive word one of their most frequent aspirations to God, during the course of the day; meaning by it to assent, confirm, and repeat, with all possible ardor and humility, all the hymns and most perfect acts of profound adoration, humility, love, praise, zeal, thanksgiving, oblation of themselves, total resignation, confidence in God, and all other virtues, which all the heavenly spirits offer to God, with all their power and strength, and with the utmost purity of affection, without intermission, to eternity. In these acts we join by the word Amen, and desire to repeat them all with infinite fervor, were it possible, forever; and with them we join the most sincere sentiments and acts of compunction, and a particular humility, condemning ourselves as infinitely unworthy to join the heavenly choirs, or faithful servants of God, in offering him a tribute of praise; most unworthy even to pronounce his most holy name, or mention any of his adorable perfections, which defiled lips and faint divided affections rather profane and depreciate than praise and honor.

* The chronology of this saint’s life is determined by the following circumstances: historians agree that he was made bishop when he was twenty-two years old. The saint says, in a letter which he wrote in 512, that he had then been bishop fifty-three years, and St. Gregory of Tours says that he held that dignity above seventy years. Consequently he died in 533, in the ninety-fourth year of his age: was born in 439, and in 512 was seventy-five years old.

¹ L. 9, ep. 7.

† The origin of the episcopal see of Rheims is obscure. On Sixtus and Sinicius, the apostles of that province, see Marlot, l. 1, c. 12, t. 1; Hist. Metrop., Rhem., and chiefly Dom. Dionysius de Ste. Marthe Gallia Christiana, Nov. t. 9, p. 2. Sixtus and Sinicius were fellow-laborers in first planting this church; Sinicius survived and succeeded his colleague in this see. Among their disciples many received the crown of martyrdom under Rictius Varus, about the year 287, namely Timotheus, Apollinaris, Maurus a priest, Macra a virgin, and many others whose bodies were found in the city itself, in 1640 and 1650, near the church of St. Nicasius: their heads and arms were pierced with huge nails, as was St. Quintin under the same tyrant: also St. Piat, &c. St. Nicasius is counted the eleventh, and St. Remigius the fifteenth archbishop of this see.

² L. 8, c. 14.

³ L. 9, ep. 7.

* See D. Brezillac, a Maurist monk, Histoire des Gaules, et des Conquêtes des Gaulois, 2 vols. 4to., printed in 1752: and Cæsar’s Commentaries De Bello Gallico, who wrote and fought with the same inimitable spirit. Also Observations sur la Religion des Gaulois, et sur celle des Germains, par M. Freret, t. 34, des Mémoires de Littérature de l’Académie des Inscriptions, An. 1751.

⁴ De Civ. l. 19, c. 7.

† The Gauls became so learned and eloquent, that among them several seemed almost to rival the greatest men among the Romans. Not to mention Virgil. Livy, Catullus, Cornelius Nepos, the two Plinies, and other ornaments of the Cisalpine Gaul; in the Transalpine, Peronius Arbiter, Terentius Varro, Roscius, Pompeius Trogus, and others are ranked among the foremost in the list of Latin writers. How much the study of eloquence and the sacred sciences flourished in Gaul when the faith was planted there, appears from St. Martin, St. Sulpcius Severus, the two SS. Hilaries, St. Paulinus, Salvian of Marseilles, the glorious St. Remigius, St. Apollinaris Sidonius, &c.

Dom. Rivet proves (Hist. Lit. t. 1) that the Celtic tongue gave place in most parts to the Roman, and seems long since extinct, except in certain proper names and some few other words. Samuel Bochart, the father of conjectures, (us he is called by Menage in his Phaleg.) derives it from the Pheniclan. Borel (Pref. sur les Recherches Gauloises) and Marcel, (Hist. de l’Origine de la Monarchie Françoise, t. 1, p. 11.) from the Hebrew. The latter ingenious historian observes, that a certain analogy between all languages shows them to have sprung from one primitive tongue; which affinity is far more sensible between all the western languages. St. Jerom, who had visited both countries, assures us that, in the fourth age, the language was nearly the same that was spoken at Triers and in Galatia, (in Galat. Præf. 2. p. 255.) Valerius Andræus (in Topogr. Belgic., p. 1) pretends the ancient Celtic to be preserved in the modern Flemish; but this is certainly a bastard dialect derived from the Teutonic, and no more the Celtic than it was the language of Adam in Paradise, as Goropius Becanus pretended. The received opinion is, that the Welsh tongue, and that still used in Lower Brittany, (which are originally the same language,) are a dialect of the Celtic, though not perfectly pure; and Tacitus assures us that the Celtic differed very little from the language of the Britons (Vitâ Agricolæ, c. 11) which is preserved in the Welsh tongue.

Dom. Pezron in his Antiquities of the ancient Celtes, has given abundant proofs that the Greek, Latin, and Teutonic, have borrowed a great number of words from the Celtic, as well as from the Hebrew and Egyptian. M. Bullet, royal professor of the university of Besançon, has thrown great light on this subject; he proves that the primeval Celts, and Scytho-Celts, have not only occupied the western regions of Europe, but extended themselves into Spain and Italy; that in their progress through the latter fine country, they met the Grecian colonies who were settled in its southern provinces; and that having incorporated with one of those colonies on the banks of the Tiber, the Latin tongue had in course of time been formed out of the Celtic and Greek languages. Of this coalition of Celts and Grecians in ancient Latium, and of this original of the Latin language, that learned antiquary has given unexceptionable proofs, and confirms them by the testimonies of Pliny and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

In its original, the Celtic, like all other eastern tongues, after the confusion at Babel, was confined to be between four and five hundred words, mostly monosyllables. The wants and Ideas of men being but few in the earliest times, they required but few terms to express them by; and it was in proportion to the invention of arts, and the slow progress of science, that new terms have been multiplied, and that signs of abstract Ideas have been compounded. Language, yet in its infancy, came only by degrees to the maturity of copious __EXPRESSION__ and grammatical precision. In the vast regions occupied by the ancient Celts, their language branched out into several dialects; intermixture with new nations on the continent, and the revolutions incident to time produced them; and ultimately these dialects were reduced to distinct tongues, so different in texture and syntax, that the tracing them to the true stock would not an easy, had we not no inerrable clue to lead us in the multitude of Celtic terms common to all. The Cumaraeg of the Welch and Gadelic of the Irish, are living proofs of this fact. The Welsh and Irish tongues preserved to our own time in ancient writings, are undoubtedly the purest remains of the ancient Celtic. Formed in very widow periods of time, and confined to our own western isles, they approached nearer to their original than the Celtic tongues of the continent; and according to the learned Leibnitz, the Celtic of Ireland (a country the longest free from all foreign intermixture) bids fairer for originality than that of any other Celtic people.

It is certain that the Irish Celtic, as we find it in old books, exhibits a strong proof of its being the language of a cultivated nation. Nervous, copious, and pathetic in phraseology, it is thoroughly free from the consonantal harshness which rendered the Celtic dialects of ancient Gaul grating to Roman ears; it furnishes the poet and orator very promptly with the vocal arms, which