December IV

St. Peter Chrysologus, C.

archbishop of ravenna

From his works, Rubeus in his elegant History of Ravenna, l. 2; Ughelli, Italia Sacra, t. 2, and Descriptio Paten ejus, &c., a Joan. Pastritio, in quarto, Rom, 1706; Agnellus, a schismatic of Ravenna, In the ninth age, in his Pontifical of Ravenna, or Lives of the Bishops, published by Muratori, Ital. Rerum scriptores, t. 2, p. 53, with notes, by which many mistakes of Rubeus and Agnellus are corrected. See also Muratori, Spicilegium Ravennat. Hist. t. 1, part 2, p. 529, and Ceillier, t. 14, p. 11.

a. d. 450.

St. Peter was a native of Imola, anciently called Forum Cornelii, a town in the ecclesiastical state, near Ravenna. He was taught the sacred sciences, and ordained deacon by Cornelius, bishop of that city, of whom he always speaks with veneration, and the utmost gratitude.¹ He calls him his father, and tells us, that in his whole conduct all virtues shone forth, and that by the bright lustre of his great actions he was known to the whole world. Under his prudent direction our saint was formed to perfect virtue from his youth by the exercises of an interior life, and understood that in command his passions and govern himself was true greatness, and the only means of learning to put on the spirit of Christ. For by the oracle of truth we are assured that to bear well an injury is something far more heroic than to vanquish nations, and when the noonday light shall break in upon us, and dispel the darkness with which we are at present encompassed we shall most clearly see that the least act of perfect meekness humility resignation, or patience, is of greater value than the gaming of millions of worlds. This is the most glorious triumph by which God is honored in us. and a soul enjoys interior peace, and his holy grace; all his affections being regulated by, and subjected to his will in all things. This domestic victory is something too great to be obtained without earnestness, and the difficulties which stand in the way are not to be vanquished or removed but by constant watchfulness and application. The more easily to accomplish this great and arduous work of subduing and regulating his passions, and forming the spirit of Christ in his soul, he embraced a monastic state, and had served God in it with great fervor and simplicity for some time, when he was placed in the archiepiscopal see of Ravenna,^* The archbishop John dying about the year 430, the clergy of that church, with the people, chose a successor, and entreated the bishop of Imola to go at the head of their deputies to Rome to obtain the confirmation of pope Sixtus III. Cornelius took with him his deacon Peter, and the pope (who, according to the historian of Ravenna, had been commanded so to do by a vision the foregoing night) refused to ratify the election already made, and proposed Peter as the person designed by heaven for that post; in which, after some opposition the deputies acquiesced.

Our saint, after receiving the episcopal consecration, was conducted to Ravenna, and there received with extraordinary joy, the emperor Valentinian III., and his mother Galla Placidia, then residing in that city The holy bishop extenuated his body by fasting, and offered his tears to God for the sins of his people, whom he never ceased to teach no less by example than by words. When he entered on his charge, he found large remains of pagan superstition in his diocese, and several abuses, had crept in among the faithful in several parts; but the total extirpation of the former and the reformation of the latter, were the fruit of the holy pastor’s zealous labors. The town of Classis, situate on the coast, was then the port of Ravenna. from which it was three miles distant; St. Peter built there a fountain near the great church; also St. Andrew’s monastery. He employed an extensive charity and unwearied vigilance in favor of his flock, which he fed assiduously with the bread of life, the word of God. We have a hundred and seventy-six of his discourses still extant, collected by Felix archbishop of Ravenna, in 708. They are all very short; for he was afraid of fatiguing the attention of his hearers.² He joins great elegance with extreme brevity. His style has nothing swelling or forced, though it is made up of short sentences or phrases, which have a natural connection together, the waters are very fit, simple, and natural, and the descriptions easy and clear. Yet his discourses are rather instructive than pathetic; and though the doctrine is explained in them at large, we meet with little that quickens or affects much. Neither can these discourses be regarded as models of true eloquence though his reputation as a preacher ran so high as to procure him the surname of Chrysologus, which is as much as to say, that his speeches were of gold, or excellent. He strongly recommends frequent communion that the holy eucharist, which he usually calls the body of Christ, and in which he says we eat Christ himself, may be the daily bread of our souls.³ He everywhere extols the excellency, and inculcates the obligation of almsdeeds, prayer, and fasting; the forty days’ fast of Lent, he says, is not a human invention, but of divine authority.⁴ Those whose health does not permit them to fast the whole forty days, he exhorts to redeem by abundant alms what they are not able to accomplish by fasting.⁵ Among the remains of heathenish superstition, which he labored to extirpate, he reckons the riotous manner of celebrating the New-year’s day; of which he says: ‘He who will divert himself with the devil, can never reign with Christ.”⁶ It appears that he often preached in presence of the emperor and of the Catholic empress Placidia, mother of three children, Valentinian III., Placidia, and Eudocia.⁷ He says that the episcopal see of Ravenna had been lately raised to the metropolitical dignity by the pope, and by the favor of a Christian prince.⁸ For though Ravenna had been long the metropolis of the Flaminian province or vicariat, the bishop continued suffragan to the archbishop of Milan, till about the time that St. Peter Chrysologus was exalted to this dignity. Eutyches, the heresiarch, having been condemned by St. Flavian, addressed a circular letter to the most distinguished prelates in the church in his own justification. Our saint, in the answer which he sent him, told him that he had read his letter with sorrow; for, if the peace of the church causes joy in heaven, divisions ought to beget sadness and grief; that the mystery of the incarnation, though inexplicable, is delivered to us by the divine law, and to be believed in the simplicity of faith. He therefore exhorted him to acquiesce, not to dispute, having before his eyes the rocks upon which Origen, Nestorius, and others had split, by taking that method. In 448, our saint received St. Germanus of Auxerre with great honor at Ravenna, and, after his death, esteemed it no small happiness to inherit his cowl and hair shirt. He did not long survive; for, in 452, when Attila approached Ravenna, John, St. Peter’s successor, held his see, and went out to meet him. The saint being forewarned of his approaching death, returned to Imola, his own country, and there gave to the church of St. Cassian a golden crown set with jewels, a gold cup, and a silver paten, preserved to this day with great reverence, and famed for miracles. Peter died at Imola, probably on the 2d of December, 450, and was buried there in St. Cassian’s church. The greatest part of his relics are preserved there; but one arm is kept in a rich case at Ravenna.

Learning is recommended by reason, authority, and the example of the saints, and, next to virtue, is doubtless the greatest improvement of the human mind, and instrument of piety and religion. By it the nobleman is qualified for the superior rank he holds among men, is made capable of directing himself and others, is drawn off from sotting, debauchery, and idleness, possesses the art of filling most usefully and agreeably all his vacant hours, and acquires a relish for the pleasure of true rational knowledge than which man can enjoy no greater or more noble, except those which piety and virtue infuse. By exercise and application the memory and other powers of the soul are perfected, the understanding is furnished with true ideas and a just way of thinking, and the judgment acquires true justice and taste. In a pastor of souls, and minister of religion, how essential the qualification of a consummate skill in sacred learning is, it is need less to show, the infinite obligations of that charge making it manifest to all men. How grievous, then, is the crime of those who are engaged in this state, yet idly throw away the time they owe to the study of the sacred writings, to holy meditation, and application to the science of morality and the pulpit!

St. Barbara, V. M.

This holy virgin and martyr is honored with particular devotion in the Latin, Greek, Muscovite, and Syriac calendars, but her history is obscured by a variety of false acts. Baronius prefers those who tell us that she was a scholar of Origen, and suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia, in the reign of Maximinus the First, who raised the sixth general persecution after the murder of Alexander Severus, in 235. But Joseph Assemani shows the acts which we have in Metaphrastes and Mombritius to be the most exact and sincere. By these we are informed that St. Barbara suffered at Heliopolis, in Egypt, in the reign of Galerius, about the year 306. This account agrees with the emperor Basil’s Menology, and the Greek Synaxary. There stood an old monastery near Edessa, which bore her name.¹ See Jos. Assemani in Calend. Univ. t. 5, p. 408.

Saint Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, C.

Anno, a young nobleman, served in the army, but was very young when, by the exhortations of an uncle, a pious canon of Bamberg, he renounced all earthly pursuits, and dedicated himself to God in an ecclesiastical state, at Bamberg. His improvement in virtue and learning was much spoken of at court, and the emperor, Henry III., or The Black, called him near his person; and some time after nominated him provost of Goslar in Lower Saxony, and in 1056, archbishop of Cologne. The tears he abundantly shed during the whole ceremony of his consecration were a proof of has sincere humility and devotion. The foot of the altar was his soul’s delight, comfort and refuge. The poor he sought out in their cottages, and carried them sometimes on his own shoulders, blankets, and other necessaries. He fasted much, watched the greatest part of the night, subdued his body with hair shirts, and preached to his flock with the assiduity and zeal of a St. Paul. He reformed all the monasteries of his diocese, and built two of Regular Canons at Cologne, and three of Benedictins in other parts. After the death of Henry III., Anno was chosen by the empress Agnes and the states, regent and prime minister during the minority of Henry IV. Flatterers and debauched companions poisoned the mind of the young prince who, growing impatient at his remonstrances, at length removed him from the helm; but the extortions and injustices of those whom he employed, raised so loud a cry for recalling Anno, that, in 1072, the administration of affairs was again committed to him. He died on the 4th of December, in 1075. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. See his life written by Lambert, author of the Chronicle of Aschaffenburg; Fleury, b. 60, and Surius.

St. Osmund, Bishop, C.

Osmund (sometimes written Osimund, Edimund, or Edmund) was count of Seez in Normandy, and came over with William the Conqueror, by whom he was created earl of Dorset. His life in the world was that of a saint in all the difficult states of a courtier, soldier, and magistrate. Brompton tells us, that he was for some time lord high-chancellor of England. But the favor of his prince, and the smiles of fortune had no charms to a heart which loved and valued only heavenly goods: and he who had long enjoyed the world as if he enjoyed it not, fled naked out of Egypt, carrying nothing of its desires or spirit with him into the sanctuary, and embracing an ecclesiastical state, he chose to become poor in the house of the Lord. His sanctity and great abilities were too well known for him to be allowed to enjoy long his beloved obscurity, and, in 1078, he was forced from his solitude, and consecrated bishop of Salisbury,^* where his predecessor Herman had just before fixed his see. St. Osmund built the cathedral in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in 1087, placed therein thirty-six canons, and dedicated the same in 1092: and this fabric being burnt by lightning, he rebuilt it in 1099. St. Osmund was very rigorous in the sacrament of penance, and extended his charity so far as often to attend criminals in person to the place of execution. In March, 1095, in the assembly of Rockingham,¹ he was so far imposed upon as to be drawn into the measures of those who, in complacency to the king, opposed St. Anselm; but soon opened his eyes, repented, begged the archbishop’s absolution, and continued ever after his most steady friend. Being in every thing zealous for the beauty of God’s house, he made many pious foundations, beautified several churches, and erected a noble library for the use of his church. Throughout his whole diocese he placed able and zealous pastors, and had about his person learned clergymen and monks. Many whom the Conqueror invited over from France, and advanced to the first dignities in the English church, both secular and regular, were for introducing the particular ecclesiastical rites and offices of the places from which they came: whence great confusion was occasioned in the abbey of Glastenbury, under Thurston, a Norman, from Caen, whom the king had nominated abbot there, and in other places. To remove this inconvenience, and to regulate so important a part of the divine service with the utmost decency, piety, and devotion, St. Osmund compiled the Use, or Breviary, Missal, and Ritual since called, of Sarum, for his church wherein he ascertained all the rubrics which were before not sufficiently determinate, or where books were inconsistent with each other, as it often happened, while transcribers took the liberty of varying from their copies: he adjusted and settled the ceremonial of divine worship in points that were before left to the discretion of them that officiated, which created confusion and disagreement in the celebration of the divine office, though all churches agreed in the substance and, as Mr. Johnson observes,² it was established here by our first converters to say the divine office in Latin, which continued till the reign of Edward VI. several other English bishops made Uses or books of rubrics and rituals, which, is certain accidental points, differ from those of Sarum, though this better was so much approved as to be adopted in most dioceses of this kingdom,^* till, in the reign of Queen Mary, so many of the clergy obtained particular licenses of Cardinal Pole to say the Roman Breviary,³ that this because universally received.

St. Osmund wrote the life of St. Aldhelm, and disdained not, when he was bishop, to copy and bind books with his own hand. The saint, though zealous for the salvation of others, and for the public worship of God, was always solicitous, in the first place, for the sanctification of his own soul Being perfectly dead to the world, he was totally a stranger to ambition and covetousness, and lived in continual war with the pleasures of the senses His patience having been exercised, and his soul purified by a lingering sickness, he departed to God, whose glory alone he had sought on earth, on the night before the 4th of December, in 1099. He was buried in his cathedral; his venerable remains were afterwards translated into the new cathedral, and, in 1457, were deposited in the chapel of our Lady in that church. His sumptuous shrine was destroyed in the reign of Henry VIII; his bones remain still interred in the same chapel and are covered with a marble slab, on which is the inscription only of the year M, XCIX. He was solemnly canonized by Calixtus III. in 1456. See Malmesbur. de Pontif. Angl. l. 2, fol. 142; Godwin, de Prsulibus Angli cum Annot. per D. Ricardum, t. 1, p. 337; Brompton, Chron. p. 976; Knyghton, l. 2, p. 1351; Waverleienses Annales (inter Hist. Angl. 5, Oxoni 1687) anno 1092; Wikes, Chronicon Sarisb. monas terij (ib.) an 1092; Petrus Bles. ep. 133, not. p. 747; Florentius, Simeon Dunelm. Obituar. Sarum. S. Anselm. l. 3, ep. 30; Tanner, in Bibl. Brit. p. 515; Chron. S. Crucis Edinburg. ap. Wharton in Angli Sacr, t. 1, p. 159; Alford, Annal. an. 1091, &c.; Hist. Littr. de la Fr. t. 8, p. 573.

St. Maruthas, B. C.

This holy prelate was an illustrious father of the Syriac church about the end of the fourth century; and was bishop of Tagrit, in Mesopotamia, a that time subject to the Oriental empire, though near the borders of Persia. He compiled the Acts of the martyrs who suffered in that kingdom during the forty years of Sapor’s persecution, from 340 to 380, part of which valuable collection has been recovered and published by Stephen Assemani, in 1748. St. Maruthas wrote several hymns in praise of the martyrs, which together with others of St. Ephrem, are inserted in the Chaldaic divine office, and are sung by the Maronites, Jacobites, and Nestorians, who use that tongue in the church office. St. Maruthas gathered the relics of many Persian martyrs, and distributed them over the Roman empire, that the people might everywhere receive the divine blessing by those sacred pledges. Isdegerdes having ascended the Persian throne, in 401, St. Maruthas made a journey to Constantinople in 403, in order to induce Arcadius to use his interest with the new king in favor of the distressed Christians. But he found the court too much embroiled in carrying on an unjust persecution against St. Chrysostom. Maruthas hastened back into Mesopotamia. The year following he made a second journey to Constantinople, and St. Chrysostom recommended him to the widow Olympias, entreating her to assist him, and promote what he himself had begun in favor of the church of Persia, for which he expressed an extraordinary zeal.¹ Theodosius the Younger having succeeded his father in the empire, honored St. Maruthas with the commissions of two successive embassies to Isdegerdes, to settle a lasting peace between the two empires. The Persian monarch conceived the highest esteem for the saint, and by his prayers was cured of a violent headache, which his Magians had not been able to believe, as Socrates relates.² This historian adds, that the king from that time usually called him The friend of God; and the Magians, fearing that the prince should be brought over by him to the Christian faith, had recourse to a wicked and base contrivance. They hid a man under the ground in the temple, who when the king came to adore the perpetual fire, cried out: “Drive out of this holy place the king who impiously believes a priest of the Christians.” Isdegerdes hereupon was going to dismiss the bishop; but Maruthas persuaded the king to go again to the sacred place, assuring him that by causing the floor to be opened, he would discover a wicked imposture. The king did so; and the issue was, that he commanded the Magians who attended the place to be decimated, and publicly gave Maruthas leave to erect churches wherever he pleased. The holy bishop rebuilt a considerable number in several parts of Persia, and in his second embassy thither made a long stay, and held two synods at Ctesiphon: in the latter, in 414, Arianism was condemned, and several regulations of discipline were made. St. Maruthas, in his old age, returned into Mesopotamia, and brought back with him many relics of martyrs, and enriched his own church with such a multitude, that the city of Tagrit was from that time called Martyropolis.

The principal work of this father is a Syro-Chaldaic Liturgy, which the Maronites, who employ that language in celebrating the divine office, still make use of on certain days. A manuscript copy of his Syriac commentary on the gospel of St. Matthew is preserved in the Vatican library: out of which Joseph Assemani has extracted many testimonies to prove the belief of the real presence of Christ’s body in the eucharist.³ A history of the council of Nice, with the canons, translated into Syriac, compiled by St. Maruthas, is mentioned by Ebedjcsus; which, if ever discovered, will be a most valuable treasure. This holy bishop died at his own see before the middle of the fifth century, and was there interred. During the incursions of the Persians and Arabs his body was conveyed into Egypt, where it still remains in an honorable monument in the monastery of our Lady, in the desert of Scet, inhabited by Syrian monks. Stephen Assemani saw there a Syro-Chaldaic manuscript, containing a long history of the life of St. Maruthas, and several of his writings; but was not able to procure a copy. The Cophtists in Egypt honor St. Maruthas on the 19th of February: the Syrians and Melchites on the 6th of that month: the Greeks and Latins on the 4th of December. See Jos. Assemani, in Bibl. Orient, and Steph. Assemani, in Acta Mart. Orient. Also Socrates, Sozomen and Photius. Ceillier, t. 10, p. 466.

St. Siran, Or Sigirannus, Abbot in Berry, C.

He was a native of Berry, and of noble extraction, studied in his youth at Tours, and was afterwards cupbearer to king Clotaire II. While he lived at court he always wore a rough hair shirt under his garments, and devoted the greatest part of his time to holy prayer. To give himself up wholly to this heavenly exercise he took holy orders at Tours in 625, and served that church some time in quality of archdeacon. In 640 he made a penitential pilgrimage to Rome, and after his return founded two monasteries in the diocese of Bourges, the one called Meobec or Millepecus, and the other Lonrey, now St. Siran’s, near Maisiers. This latter he governed with great sanctity till his death, which happened in 655. He is honored in France among the saints. See his life in Mabillon, Act. Ben.

St. Clement of Alexandria

father of the church

Titus Flavius Clemens was a native of Athens, began his studies in Greece, continued them in Italy, Asia Minor, Assyria, and Palestine, and ended his days in Egypt: for an insatiable desire of knowledge made him compass almost the whole world to improve himself in human literature. He mentions five eminent masters he had, one in Greece of the Ionic sect,^* two in Calabria, and two more in the East. He was well skilled in the Platonic philosophy, but leaned more to the principles of the Stoics, and without tying himself to any particular institute, chose freely what appeared most excellent wherever he found it. One of the masters whom he had in Palestine was of Jewish extraction, and probably a Christian: but the last he met with, whom he preferred before all the others, was Pantnus, who taught the catechetical school at Alexandria. In this search of truth he discovered the errors of idolatry, and came to the light of faith: for when he was rich in all the opulence of profane learning, he saw, nevertheless, that there was another kind of knowledge of more importance to the happiness of man, which was to be learned only from religion. From that instant his thirst after knowledge took a different turn, and lived upon theology, “aiming at nothing,” as he says, “but a life perfected with all virtues.” He tells us that some of those who immediately succeeded the apostles, and preserved the true tradition of the blessed doctrine from St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and St. Paul. “have lived down to our time, to shed into our hearts the seed which they had received of the apostles their predecessors.”¹ Pantnus being sent by the bishop Demetrius into the Indies, in 189, Clement succeeded him in the great school of the Christian doctrine at Alexandria, in which he taught with great success, and, among other scholars of great eminence, had Origen and St. Alexander, afterwards bishop of Jerusalem and martyr. His method of instructing consisted in teaching his scholars first what was good in the heathenish philosophy, and so leading them by degrees to Christianity; which they embraced more readily when they had relished many of its sublime maxims of morality derived from the light of nature, and scattered in the writings of the philosophers.² Clement was promoted to the priesthood about the beginning of the reign of Severus; for Eusebius gives him that title in the year 195. The persecution which that emperor raised against the church in 202, obliged him to abandon his employment. He went over to Cappadocia. Soon after we meet with him at Jerusalem, where he preached with great constancy and success, as appears in a letter written by Alexander.³ Thence he passed to Antioch, and wherever he came he confirmed and enlarged the flock of Christ. From Antioch he returned to Alexandria.

The ancients have left great eulogiums of the virtue and learning of St. Clement; but his greatest and standing eulogium are his writings, in which he communicated to others part of the treasure he had amassed. In his Exhortation (or advice) to the Gentiles, he laid open the absurdity of idolatry by giving an historical account of its mythology: through this work he has interspersed many curious discoveries he had made in his travels, by which he gave great force to his reasoning, and a surprising agreeableness to his work. His next composition is called Stromata, a word which signifies variegated hangings, or tapestry made up of great variety or mixture. It is a miscellany in eight books, without much order, which the author compares, not to a curious garden where the trees and plants are set in exact order, but to a thick shady mountain, where trees of all kinds grow promiscuously together. In this work (which he says he made to serve him as a collection in his old age, when his memory should fail him) he is thought to have shown too much of the philosopher, and to have expressed some things unwarily, which yet will generally admit a candid interpretation. The style is harsher than in his other works: yet there runs through it a surprising vein of materials and richness of sentiment, with a profusion of learning which seems prodigious: and many discourses on morality, metaphysics, various heresies, idolatry, and theology are joined together by a thread of reasoning. In the sixth book he draws a character of the true Gnostic, or good Christian. The principal strokes in his picture are, that the true Gnostic has the command over his passions, is exactly temperate, and allows his body no more than what is necessary: he loves God above all things, and creatures for God’s sake, and the relation they bear to him, and nothing is able to separate him from this love. He bears with patience all unfortunate accidents, and makes it his business to learn all things which relate to God. He is never overcome with anger; and prays continually by charity that unites him to God, begging the remission of his sins, and grace not to sin any more, but to do good. In the seventh book he goes on describing the virtues of his Gnostic; and says he employs himself entirely in honoring God, in loving him, in understanding, hearing, and imitating his Word, which was made man for our salvation; that he is gentle, courteous, affable, patient, charitable, sincere, faithful, and temperate; that he despises the good things of this world, and is ready to suffer every thing for Jesus Christ; that he does nothing out of ostentation, fear, or desire of being rewarded, but acts out of pure love to the goodness and justice of God; lastly that he is entirely holy and divine. The Gnostic prayeth in all places, but this he does in secret, in the bottom of his heart; whether he be in public places, or in conversation, or at work. He praiseth God continually, not only in the morning when he riseth, and at noonday; but when he is walking, resting, or dressing, he is always glorifying God like the seraphim mentioned by Isaias. St. Clement distinguishes the true from the false Gnostics, or heretics in his time who disturbed the church by abominable novelties and pretences to an imaginary perfection. The errors and extravagances into which many fall concerning perfection, demonstrate that this subject is to be handled with extreme delicacy. St. Clement, to guard against the dangers of false mystics, lays down the nature and extent of each theological virtue, and particularly the purity of the love of God. He judiciously marks out the bounds between resignation and indifference, and treats on Activity, Transformation, and Union, so as to hold the form of sound words, and to shun obscurity, the language of the deceiver, and the illusions of fanaticism. St. Clement’s short treatise entitled, Who is the rich man that shall be saved? is an exposition of the words of Christ to the young rich man, Mark 10, showing that in order to be saved it is not necessary for a person absolutely to quit his riches, provided he make a good use of them. Here the author discourses of the love of God and our neighbor, and of repentance; to prove the efficacy of which he relates the famous history of the young robber reclaimed by St. John.

The Pedagogue of St. Clement, in three books, is an excellent abridgment of Christian morality, and shows in what manner all good Christians lived in those early ages. In the first book, the author shows that Christ is the pedagogue, conductor, and pastor of men, and all stand in need of instruction; for a Christian’s whole life ought to be a continued series of virtuous actions. In the second book, rules are laid down for the regulation of certain particular duties, especially relating to abstinence, mortification, modesty, humility, silence, prayer, alms, and chastity, both in the state of marriage and in that of virginity. He prescribes plain food, barely as conducing to health and strength; but one meal a day, in the evening; or at the most only two, that is, besides the great meal, a breakfast of dry bread without drinking. He proves the moderate use of wine to be lawful against the encrati, but forbids it young persons, and will have it only drunk at the evening meal, and then very sparingly. Luxury in furniture and apparel, he condemns and inveighs against, better than Juvenal or any ancient satirist had ever done before him. Sleep he orders to be moderate, and never allows it in the day: he requires the night to be begun by repeating the divine praises, and that we rise several times in the night to pray, and get up in the morning before day. Against the licentiousness of the pagans he shows that all impurities are sins against reason. In the third book, he speaks of modesty, &c., and shows that none but Christians are truly rich, their treasure being frugality. He concludes by exhorting men to hearken to the saving precepts of Christ, to whom he addresses a prayer, praising Him with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and returning Him thanks for making him a member of the church. In this work many excellent rules are land down for conducting souls to true perfection; but in a translation in would be necessary that certain __EXPRESSION__s should be made agreeable to the manners of our times.^*

St. Clement’s style in his Pedagogue, and especially in his exhortation to the Gentiles, is florid, elegant, and sublime, as Photius observes, but the diction is not Attic or perfectly pure. Great erudition is displayed in all his writings, especially in his Exhortation to the Gentiles. St. Jerom calls him, “the most learned of our authors.”⁴ And Theodoret says:⁵ “That holy man surpassed all others in the extent of his learning.” St. Alexander of Jerusalem and other ancients exceedingly commend the sanctity of his life. The late pious French author of the Bibliothque portative des Pres de l’Eglise, observes, that Clement is one of the great masters of an interior life among the ancient fathers of the church, and that his principal maxims are, that the Gnostic or spiritual Christian ought to pray at all times, and in all places, both in the secret of his heart, and often by singing psalms and hymns to the Lord: that he must have crucified all inordinate desires, and must hold his passions in perfect subjection, and that though he be united by charity to his beloved, he pray assiduously for the pardon of his sins, and for the grace not to sin. St. Clement died at Alexandria, before the end of the reign of Caracalla, who was slain in 217. His name had a place in the Martyrology of Usuard, which was long used in most churches in Gaul, but never in the Roman. Pope Benedict XIV., in his learned dissertation, addressed in the form of a brief to the king of Portugal, prefixed to the edition of the Roman Martyrology, made in 1749, excellently shows, that there is not sufficient reason for ever inserting his name in the Roman Martyrology. The authority of certain private calendars, and the custom of sacred biographers suffices for giving his life in this place. See Tillemont, t. 3, Ceillier, t. 2, and John Potter, then bishop of Oxford, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, in the accurate edition of the works of St. Clement of Alexandria, which he published with notes, at Oxford, in 1715, t. 1, p. 1, t. 2, pp. 10, 40 et seq.