June III

St. Cecilius, C.

From Minutius Felix’s Dialogue, called Octavius; and Pontius, in his Life of Saint Cyprian. See Title mont, t. 3; Celllier, t. 2, p. 222. Reeve’s preliminary dissertations, and Orsi’s elegant abstract of this dialogue, Hist. t. 2, l. 5, p. 453.

A. D. 211.

St. Cecilius, Octavius, and Marcus Minutius Felix, were three eminent and learned men, who formed together a triumvirate of perfect friendship Minutius seems by his style, and by other circumstances, to have been originally an African, though he lived at Rome, and there pleaded at the bar with great reputation for eloquence and probity. He was called in an advanced age to the light of divine wisdom, as he testifies:¹ and he had humility enough to despise the rank which he held among the learned and the great ones in the world; and, by a happy violence, to enter heaven in the company of the ignorant, and the little ones, says St. Eucherius.² His two friends were also Africans, and all three were joined in a course of the same studies. They kept company a long time while they were engaged in the vices and superstitions of the age;³ but Octavius and Minutius first broke through the strongholds of education and interest, and every worldly temptation, to embrace the doctrine of the cross. Octavius seems to have had the glory of leading the way; for Minutius says he ran before him as a guide But like a true friend, he could not be content to be happy without his Minutius: and he gave himself no repose, so long as he saw his friend, his other half, remain in darkness, and in the shades of death. Words from the mouth of such a friend, drop like honey from the honeycomb, while from a harsh prophet whom we hate, truth itself becomes unacceptable. Minutius therefore was easily prepared to receive the impressions of virtue, and this blessed pair became one in religion as well as in friendship. Faith, far from abating, served only to refine and perfect their mutual affection, and these two heavenly friends congratulated each other upon their new life, in transports of holy joy, which all their oratory wanted words to express. They looked back on their past sinful lives with shame and sorrow, and could relish nothing for the future but the humiliations of the cross, and the severities of penance. Racks and tortures they overlooked with triumph; both turned advocates for the faith, and without any other retaining fee than the reward of their charity, and the expectation of a happiness beyond the grave, they strenuously pleaded the cause of the crucified Jesus. Arnobius seems to have had in his eye these two illustrious converts, when, answering the reproaches of the heathens, he lets them know, that orators and lawyers of the first rank had embraced the doctrine of the cross.³ Octavius and Minutius seemed now to want nothing themselves, but they were extremely desirous to make Cecilius, their third friend, as happy as themselves. This, however, was a work of difficulty, and called for the last efforts of their piety and friendship. Early prejudices from education leave a tincture upon the mind, which seldom wears out without much pains and ingenuity; and how supine soever such a conduct is in matters of this nature and importance men often are inclined to content themselves with the religion of their parents, almost as naturally as they take up with their language. Cecilius, moreover, was a man of the world, and of latitudinarian principles, and therefore was hardly to be come at with argument. He was a person of wit and abilities, but his own idol, and a great lover of applause and pleasure. Hence his chief religion seems to have been to serve himself. For we find him, in his disputation, one while for neither gods nor providence, and then again for both; and afterwards a bigot for all the gods in vogue all the world over. To complete his character, the philosophy he had imbibed only raised his vanity, and intoxicating his head with conceit, set him at the greatest distance from the reach of argument. But, notwithstanding this seemingly inaccessible temper of mind, we find Cecilius at length, by the power of divine grace made a glorious convert, an eminent saint, and, in all probability, the converter of the great St. Cyprian. Octavius and Minutius were the instruments which God was pleased to make use of to effect this great work. They began by recommending it to God by their earnest prayers. And their victory over him was the issue of a conference, the sum of which Minutius has left us in an elegant dialogue, which he entitled Octavius, in honor of his friend, who had departed this life when he committed this to writing.

In the structure of this dialogue, the design and order are extremely beautiful and taking, and speak a master builder: for in the very entrance he insensibly steals upon our passions with such bewitching blandishments in the character of his beloved Octavius, then leads us on to the occasion of the conference with such awaking descriptions, and sets off the minutest objects with such surprising embellishments, that he has in a manner got our hearts before he comes to open his cause.* He tells us that Octavius. an excellent and holy person, at his departure out of this world had left in him most eager desires and longings for such a friend: for, says Minutius “He always burnt with equal fire, and loved me so passionately in return that, both in our diversions and business, our minds continually played in concert to one another, insomuch that you would imagine there was but one soul between us both.” This author called to mind with gratitude the benefit of his example, and, ruminating on his virtues, rekindled his own devotion; while, by cherishing his memory in his breast, he studied to go after him in his thoughts, and to wean his heart more and more from the world. He then recapitulates their momentous discourse with Cecilius, whereby that friend was also brought over to the true religion. The occasion by which it was introduced is related as follows:

Octavius came to Rome to pay Minutius a visit, forcing his way through the strong endearments of house, wife, and amiable little children, which he left at home. It was in autumn, and in vacation time, which gave our orator a relaxation from his business at the bar; and he took the opportunity which that time of leisure afforded him, to go to Ostia to bathe in the salt waters of the sea, which he looked upon as a proper remedy for drying up the humors with which he was afflicted. Octavius and Cecilius would needs bear him company. It happened, that as they were walking together in the town, towards the sea-shore, early in the morning, Cecilius spied a statue of Serapis; at which he put his hand to his mouth and kissed it. This was an act of adoration among the Greeks and Romans.* Octavius hereupon said to Minutius, that it was a crime and reproach in them that their friend should still remain involved in the darkness of error, and worship stones, which had indeed received a figure, and been anointed with oil, and crowned by way of consecration, but were still dumb and deaf stones. Cecilius was nettled to hear himself accused of ignorance, and challenged Octavius to hold a dispute upon that subject, telling him sarcastically, he would make him know that he never before had to do with a philosopher. The conference was immediately agreed upon, and down they sat upon a pile of stones thrown up for the shelter of the bath. Minutius was placed in the middle, in quality of arbitrator. Cecilius began the dispute by denying a providence, triumphing with an air of assurance and self-sufficiency, and swaggering with flashes of wit, and overbearing eloquence. He objected the poverty and slavery of the Christians, who were everywhere subject to he idolaters, whose empire was prosperous; he recommended the religion that is uppermost, calling the Christians sad, poor fellows, who choose obstinately to starve, and who suffer on with pleasure, make a jest of racks and torture, are careless of life and fortune, and every worldly comfort, and have not so much as churches wherein to worship their one God:^† that they are a most contented, pitiful, ragged tribe, skulk about in holes without a word to say for themselves, and only cant in corners about a resurrection, and the joys of another world. He spent a deal of his artillery against the resurrection of the body: which was a great stumbling-block to the ancient philosophers, as appears from the writings of Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, and other apologists of our holy faith. But calumnies were the chief strength of this champion of error. The gospel contains so lovely a system of manners, and advances moral virtue to such noble heights, that it could not but excite esteem and veneration in its greatest adversaries. In order to throw a blind over its amazing beauty, which bespoke its original divine, the devil had recourse to slanders, with which he stirred up his instruments to blacken and misrepresent it. Cecilius thought himself secure behind this false intrenchment, and flattered himself he should thence he able to annoy his adversary. He seemed impatient to come to this battery and he loudly objected nocturnal assemblies, solemn fasts, inhuman banquets, and crimes perpetrated under the name of religion. “I hear,” says he, ‘that they adore the head of an ass, the knees of their bishop or priest, and a man who was punished for his crimes, and the cursed wood of the cross.” He makes it a subject of ridicule that the Christians should despise present torments for fear of others that are invisible; that they abstain from lawful pleasures, from public shows, pomp, banquets, perfumes which they reserve for their dead, &c. In answer to these prejudices, Octavius demonstrates a divine providence superintending all human affairs, from the evident marks of order and design in all the works of nature: an argument so obvious and natural, yet so evident and strong, that no subtlety can foil or obscure it. For so admirable is the beauty and contexture which comes out and meets our eye in every part of the universe, that no one can be blind to its author. “Should you chance to come into a house,” says our Octavius, with Tully,⁴ “and see all the rooms exquisitely furnished, and kept in great order, you, would make no dispute but such a house is under the care and inspection of a master who is preferable to all the furniture. Thus, when you cast your eyes upon heaven and earth, and behold the admirable order and economy of things, can you question whether there is a Lord of the universe, and that he is more glorious than the stars, and more to be admired than all the works of his hands?” From providence he proceeds to prove the unity of God, and that he is the supreme spirit and intelligence, the universal parent, who gave beginning to all things, himself eternal: who, before the world was produced, was a world to himself; who is infinite and immense, and whose immensity is intelligible only by himself. “Our intellect,” says Octavius, “is too narrow to contain him; and we never conceive so worthily of him as when we apprehend him inconceivable.” He thence takes occasion to show the absurdity of polytheism, and the monstrous folly of the idolaters concerning their gods. Proving their idols and oracles to be devils, ho writes thus: “Most of you know very well* that the demons are forced to confess against themselves, as often as we rack them into confession by bare words only, and force them out of the bodies they possess, by such tormenting speeches as they cannot bear. You may well be assured they would never frame lies to their own shame, especially in the presence of you who adore them. Take their word then, and believe them to be devils, when you have it from their own mouths. For when we abjure them by the one living God, the wretches tremble, and either depart forthwith from the bodies they possess, or vanish by degrees, according to the faith of the patient, or the grace of the physician.”

Cecilius pressed by these arguments, flies from his tenets, but thinks he can charge as much upon Christianity. This was at best to abandon the cause of idolatry, and a poor shift which discovered his distress. Neither could he object any thing to the evidence of the gospel revelation, except gross calumnies formed out of our doctrines disguised, or taken by halves and from our discipline either mistaken or traduced. The slanders therefore were easily wiped off by a flat denial of them, and by a plain exposition of the sanctity of our doctrine. As to the old calumny of an ass’s head being worshipped by the Christians, which imputation had formerly been cast upon the Jews, (as appears from Josephus, in his books against Appion,) Octavius contented himself with denying so groundless a charge: as he does likewise that we adore the knees of the bishop, which senseless slander arose from the custom of penitents kneeling before the bishop to receive his absolution or blessing, as Dr. Cave and others observe. To the accusation of incests in our mysteries, Octavius answers, that it was confute by the purity of our morals, and by the great number of those who vow chastity among us. But this argument he turns upon his adversary, loading paganism with that dishonor which she endeavored to blacken us with, and which she openly professed by placing Priapus among her divinities, sacrificing to Venus the prostitute, and celebrating the festivals of Bona Dea and others, with all imaginable abominations and lewdness. He shows that far from feeding on the flesh of children, or allowing any lewdness, Christians would not even see men justly put to death, or assist at public executions, and that they refrained from eating blood: that those who marry, onltake one wife: and that very many live in perpetual continency, yet with out glorying in their state;* and that the least thought of a crime was condemned by them.^† Our disputant observes, that Pythagoras. Plato, and other heathen philosophers, learned the immortality of the soul, and many other truths which they taught, (though mingled with much falsehood,) by an imperfect tradition from the divine revelation^‡ delivered to the ancient patriarchs. He says that we bury the dead instead of burning the corpses, because this was the ancient and better custom; but that God can equally raise our bodies again from ashes or from dust. He teaches the eternity of hell-fire,^§ which infidels and wicked livers justly deserve, “because it is not a less crime to be ignorant of the common Lord and parent of all men and all things, than it is to disobey him.” Octavius closes his discourses by a short, but amiable description of the Christian morality, where, in answer to the reproach of poverty, he says, “Who can be said to be poor who finds himself in no want? He rather is the poor wretch who is necessitous in the midst of plenty. There is no man can be poorer than he came into the world. The Christian art of possessing all things is, by desiring nothing. As a traveller, the lighter he is, the easier he finds himself; so in this journey of life, he is happier who is lightened by poverty, than he who groans under a load of riches. Did we conclude riches necessary, we should ask them of God. Innocence is the top of our desire; and patience the thing we beg for. Calamity is the school of virtue. How beautiful a spectacle in the sight of God is a Christian entering the lists with affliction, and with a noble constancy combating menaces, racks, and tortures! When, like a conqueror, he triumphs over the judge that condemns him! For he is certainly victorious who obtains what he fights for.” He says that our religion consists in practice, not in pompous words. “We do not look big, nor do we talk great things, but we live in them.”* When Octavius had done speaking, Cecilius cried out, “I congratulate both my Octavius and myself exceedingly: we are both conquerors. Octavius triumphs over me, and I triumph over error. But the chief victory and gain are mine, who, by being conquered, find the crown of truth.” This is the summary of this celebrated conference: but the fine train of ideas, and the beauty of the discourse are only to be understood from the original. If this excellent dialogue seems to have any fault, it is that it appears too short: for the reader, to his great disappointment, is sorry to find himself at the end so soon, and always lays down the book with regret, which is the true character of every excellent composition. The company in this conference promised themselves another meeting, which was to initiate Cecilius into Christianity, and instruct him in its discipline. From the excellency of this first part, which is chiefly a confutation of paganism, we have great reason to lament the loss of the second conference on so important a subject.^†

Baronius and other historians doubt not but this was Cecilius the priest, who afterwards converted St. Cyprian: for they were both Africans, of the same age and profession; and St. Cyprian, in his writings, borrows many things from this dialogue, which he probably received from Cecilius. Out of veneration for his memory, he took the agnomen of Cecilius, and would be called from him Cecilius Cyprianus. Pontius assures us that the priest Cecilius was a just man, venerable for his age, and worthy of eternal memory and praise; adding, that St. Cyprian ever respected him as his own father, and paid him all possible honor, deference, and gratitude. St. Cecilius is named in the Roman Martyrology.

It is a great proof of sincere virtue, a great, but rare victory over pride, for a learned man to own himself vanquished by truth in a disputation. Pride recoils at opposition, and however the understanding may be convinced, the will usually becomes by it more averse, and more obstinately fixed in error. On this account, he who would bring another over to the truth, ought to be careful not to alarm or awake so dangerous an enemy, but to insinuate virtue by such indirect means, that the person may almost seem his own instructor. Our three disputants all vanquished, because they were all armed with docility, charity, and humility; not like those vain combatants in the schools who love opinions, not for the sake of truth, but because they are their own, as St. Austin complains. In this happy company, though all were conquerors, yet no one prized higher his victory than Cecilius, who overcame both pride and error: according to the maxim of a great man, “Then we vanquish when we are instructed.”

St. Clotildis or Clotilda, Queen of France

Was daughter of Chilperic, younger brother to Gondebald, the tyrannical king of Burgundy, who put him, his wife, and the rest of his brothers, except one, to death, in order to usurp their dominions. In this massacre he spared Chilperic’s two fair daughters, then in their in ancy. One of them became afterwards a nun; the other, named Clotildis, was brought up in her uncle’s court, and by a singular providence, was instructed in the Catholic religion, though she was educated in the midst of Arians. It was her happiness in the true faith, to be inspired from the cradle with a contempt and disgust of a treacherous world, which sentiments she cherished and improved by the most fervent exercises of religion. Though she saw herself surrounded with all the charms of the world, and was from her infancy its idol, yet her heart was proof against its seductions. She was adorned with the assemblage of all virtues; and the reputation of her wit, beauty, meekness, modesty, and piety, made her the adoration of all the neighboring kingdoms, when Clovis I., surnamed the great, the victorious king of the Franks,* demanded and obtained her of her uncle in marriage, granting her all the conditions she could desire for the free and secure exercise of her religion.¹ The marriage was solemnized at Soissons, in 493. Clotildis made herself a little oratory in the royal palace, in which she spent much time in fervent prayer and secret mortifications. Her devotion was tempered with discretion, so that she attended all her business at court, was watchful over her maids, and did every thing with a dignity, order, and piety, which edified and charmed the king and his whole court. Her charity to the poor seemed a sea which could never be drained. She honored her royal husband, studied to sweeten his warlike temper by Christian meekness, conformed herself to his humor in things that were indifferent; and, the better to gain his affections, made those things the subject of her discourse and praises in which she saw him to take the greatest delight. When she saw herself mistress of his heart, she did not defer the great work of endeavoring to win him to God, and often spoke to him on the vanity of his idols, and on the excellency of the true religion. The king always heard her with pleasure; but the moment of his conversion was not yet come. It was first to cost her many tears, severe trials, and earnest perseverance. After the baptism of their second son, Clodomir, and the infant’s recovery from a dangerous indisposition, she pressed the king more boldly to renounce his idols. One day especially, when he had given her great assurances of his affection, and augmented her dowry by a gift of several manors, she said she begged only one favor of his majesty, which was the liberty to discourse with him on the sanctity of her religion, and to put him in mind of his promise of forsaking the worship of idols. But the fear of giving offence to his people made him delay the execution. His miraculous victory over the Alemanni,^† and his entire conversion in 496, were at length the fruit of our saint’s prayers.

Clotildis, having gained to God this great monarch, never ceased to excite him to glorious actions for the divine honor: among other religious foundations he built in Paris, at her request, about the year 511, the great church of SS. Peter and Paul, now called St. Genevieve’s.* This great prince had a singular devotion to St. Martin, and went sometimes to Tours, to prostrate himself in prayer at his tomb. He sent his royal diadem, which is called, to this day, The Realm, a present to pope Hormisdas, as a token that he dedicated his kingdom to God. His barbarous education and martial temper made it, in certain sallies of his passions, difficult for Clotildis to bridle his inclination to ambition and cruelty, so that he scarce left any princes of his own relations living, except his sons.^† He died on the 27th of November, in the year 511, of his age the forty-fifth, having reigned thirty years. He was buried in the church of the apostles, SS. Peter and Paul, now called St. Genevieve’s, where his tomb still remains. An ancient long epitaph, which was inscribed on it, is preserved by Aimoinus, and copied by Rivet. His eldest son Theodoric, whom he had by a concubine before his marriage, reigned at Rheims over Austrasia, or the eastern parts of France, which comprised the present Champagne, Lorraine, Auvergne, and several provinces of Germany. Metz was afterwards the capital of this country. As to the three sons of Clotildis, Clodomir reigned at Orleans, Childebert at Paris, and Clotaire I., at Soissons. This division produced wars and mutual jealousies, till, in 560, the whole monarchy was reunited under Clotaire, the youngest of these brothers. St. Clotildis lived to see Clodomir defeat and put to death Sigismund, king of Burgundy; but soon after, in 524, himself vanquished and slain by Gondemar, successor to Sigismund; Gondemar overcome and killed by Childebert and Clotaire, and the kingdom of Bur gundy united to France. The most sensible affliction of this pious queen was the murder of the two eldest sons of Clodomir, committed in 526, by their uncles Childebert and Clotaire, who seized on the kingdom of Orleans. This tragical disaster contributed more perfectly to wean her heart from the world. She spent the remaining part of her life at Tours, near the tomb of St. Martin, in exercises of prayer, almsdeeds, watching, fasting, and penance, seeming totally to forget that she had been queen, or that her sons sat on the throne. Eternity filled her heart, and employed all her thoughts. She foretold her death thirty days before it happened, having been admonished of it by God at the tomb of St. Martin, the usual place of her tears. In her last illness, she sent for her sons Childebert, king of Paris, and Clotaire, king of Soissons, and exhorted them, in the most pathetic manner, to honor God and keep his commandments; to protect the poor, reign as fathers to their people, live in union together, and love and study always to maintain tranquillity and peace. She scarce ever ceased repeating the psalms with the most tender devotion, and ordered all she had left to be distributed among the poor; though this was very little; for she had always been careful to send her riches before her by their hands. On the thirtieth day of her illness she received the sacraments, made a public confession of her faith, and departed to the Lord on the 3d of June, in 545. She was buried, by her own order, in the church of St. Genevieve, at the feet of that holy shepherdess, and is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on the 3d of June See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., and Fortunatus, and among the moderns, Abbé Du Bos and Gilb. le Gendre, Antiquités de la Nation et Monarchie Françoise, &c.

St. Coemgen,* or Keivin, B. C.,

Was born of parents of the first rank in Ireland, in 498. He was baptized by Saint Cronan, a holy priest, and at seven years of age was put under the tuition of St. Petrocus, a Briton, who spent twenty years in Ireland, to improve himself in virtue and sacred learning. After five years spent with him, by his advice he was placed, in 510, under the care of three holy anchorets, Dogain, Lochan, and Enna, or Æneas, in the same cell. Three years he employed with them in the study of the holy scriptures, before he took the monastic habit. Some time after, he founded a great monastery in the lower part of the valley called Glean-da-loch,^† situated in the east of Leinster, in the territory of Forthuatha.^‡ The reputation of St. Keivin and his monastery, drew hither such a conflux of people, that it soon grew up into a famous and holy city. The founder being raised to the episcopal dignity, erected a cathedral church under the invocation of SS. Peter and Paul, near the church of his abbey.^§ In 549, St. Keivin took a journey to Clonmacnois, to pay a visit to St. Kiaran; but found him dead three days before his arrival, and assisted at his funeral obsequies. Saint Keivin lived to a great age, and having some time before resigned the episcopal charge to confine himself to his abbacy, died on the 3d of June, in the year 618, of his age one hundred and twenty. He is patron of Glendaloch, where his festival is celebrated on the 3d of June, on which day numbers of people resort to the Seven Churches. There is also a parish church in the suburbs of Dublin dedicated to this saint.

Saint Lifard, Abbot Near Orleans

His illustrious birth, the progress he had made in the study of the laws, and his extraordinary probity and piety, qualified him for one of the first dignities in the magistrature of Orleans. The constant attendance he gave to all the duties of his charge was no hinderance to his devotions, either public in assisting at all parts of the divine office, or private, in his closet; especially to his assiduity and fervor in frequenting the sacraments. To be more at liberty, and to disengage himself from the distractions of the world, in the fortieth year of his age he resigned his charge, and initiated himself in an ecclesiastical state: nor was it long before the bishop of Orleans ordained him deacon. We may easily imagine with what piety and devotion he acquitted himself of all the sacred duties of his state. So perfectly was he penetrated with respect and awe of the majesty and presence of God, and with love of his goodness, when he assisted at the celebration, that he appeared like an angel about the altar. The spirit of love and penance and holy contemplation daily growing stronger in his heart, he resolved to withdraw himself entirely from the world, and bury himself in close solitude. The place he chose for this purpose was near the river Maulve, not far from the mountain and castle of Mehun, or Meung, situated on the Loire, a little below Orleans.* Urbicius, his disciple, bore him company, and they built themselves a hermitage of twigs and rushes. The life which the saint here led was admirable. A little bread and water was all the subsistence he allowed himself, in sickness as well as in health, and his only garment was made of sackcloth. He often passed whole nights in prayer, and in all his employments his mind was so taken up on God as if he had lived without a body. Mark, bishop of Orleans, then lived at Cleri, two leagues below the city, famous for the collegiate church of the Blessed Virgin, still much resorted to by pilgrims to implore her intercession.^† This prelate was an eye-witness to the great virtues of St. Lifard, whose hermitage was very near his residence, ordained him priest, and allowed him to found a monastery on the spot where his hermitage stood. This happened before the fourth council of Orleans, in which bishop Mark subscribed in 541. St. Lifard soon assembled a numerous community, and was to it a bright model of Christian perfection. An extraordinary gift of miracles drew on him the admiration of men. The year in which he died is not known; but it was some time after the middle of the sixth century. His body was buried at Mehun; and over his tomb was built, first a chapel, afterwards a famous collegiate church, which is to this day enriched with his relics, and bears his name. A church in the city of Orleans, and several others in the diocese, are dedicated to God under his invocation. His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. See his life in Surius and Mabillon, sæc. 1, Ben.; also Saussaye, Annal. t. 3.

St. Genesius, in French Genes, B. C.

From his infancy he was a model of innocence and piety, and despising in his youth the honors which great riches and high birth insured to him in the world, he chose to serve God in the lowest rank among the clergy of the diocese of Auvergne, in which province his family was one of the most distinguished. Against his inclinations he was promoted to the dignity of archdeacon, in which his example was to the clergy under his care a spur to the perfect spirit and practice of all Christian virtues. Austere to himself, he treated his own body as an enemy, to prevent its rebelling against the spirit. His charity to the poor seemed to have no bounds. The respect with which he performed the sacred functions, inspired all the assistants with awe and devotion. God usually employs the ministry of saints to form others to perfect sanctity. The holy archdeacon was the instrument which he made use of to sow by his grace the seeds of virtue in the heart of St. Prix of Clermont, whose education was intrusted by his parents to the care of St. Genesius. But the master preceded him in the episcopal chair of Auvergne, or of Clermont, to which St. Genesius was promoted upon the death of Proculus in 656, and he was ordained by compulsion by the bishops of the province. He extirpated the seeds of the Novatian heresy and of that of Jovinian; spared nothing to make chastity, charity, and all virtues flourish in his flock; and to furnish perpetual examples of the perfect evangelical spirit, he founded the great abbey of Manlieu, in Latin Magnus Locus, now of the order of St. Bennet, in a borough of the same name. He founded a great hospital at Clermont, and died about the year 662. He was buried in the church which he had built under the title of St. Symphorian, the martyr of Autun, though it long since bears the name of St. Genesius. In the diocese of Clermont, and in the Gallican Martyrologies, he is honored on the 3d of June. See his life in John Savaron, in Origen. Claromont., et de SS. Ecclesiis Monast. Claromont.; also Branche, in Vies des SS. d’Auvergne, Gallia Christ. Nova, &c.

June IV

¹ In Octavio. c. 1.

² Ep. ad Valerian. De contemptu mundi.

³ patron of mariners, and called St. Elm.

³ Arnobius, I. 1.

* The purity and delicacy of the Latin language in this piece is not equalled by any pagan writer a that age if some passages savor of the African dialect, this is no more a wen than that Patavinity, of spice of a provincial dialect, which a nice Roman ear could discover in Livy. For Minutius, by conversing with the best company at Rome, and by pleading at the bar, had worn off the asperities of the African style, and had polished it to the standard of the Latin idiom. The beauty and justness of his thoughts bespeak his judgment; the candor with which he delivers himself, shows him good and gracious, frank and affable; his bold figures, his strong images, and the sweetness and easiness of his style, joined everywhere with a becoming gravity and strength, prove him to be perfectly skilled in the an of persuasion, and a great master of address. He seems made to charm his reader, and to carry him where he pleases He displays great erudition, and a perfect knowledge of the pagan theology: his reasoning is very close, he rallies delightfully, and cuts and cures with the same hand, so genteel is his satire, yet so agreeably sharp and poignant. His wit is true Stirling, both solid and bright, of intrinsic value and unallayed Instre, as the ingenious Mr. Blackwall remarks, (Introduction to the Classics, p. 140.) who adds: “The author clears Christianity from the vile aspersions of the pagans, and retorts their charge with such becoming vehemence and evidence of truth, that he demonstrates himself to be the most dangerous opponent that could be feared against a bad cause, as well as the ables; champion that could be desired for a good one.”

* Hence the words adorare and πρυσκυνεῖν. See Job 31:26, 27, 28, &c.

^† The Christians had churches built under the favorable reign of Alexander. Baronius observes that they wear in this dialogue the sad face of affliction under a persecution, which must have been that of severus. And St. Jerom in his catalogue places Minutius Felix in that over of time, about the year 211.

⁴ L. 2, de Nat. Deor. c. 6.

* Hæc omnia sciunt plerique vestrum, ipsosque dæmoues de seipsis confiteri, quoties a nobis, tormentis, verborum, de corporibus exiguntur.

* Plerique inviolati corporis virginitate frountur potins quam gloriantur.

^† Apud nos et cogitare peccare est, (p. 250.) These slanders sprung from the malice of the heathens, and from our doctrines and mysteries, either corrupted or not understood. The filthy abominations of the Gnostics and Carpocratians, who called themselves Christians, might give a hint to those who were willing to deceive themselves in slandering us. The heathens also reproached us, that we venerate all criminals who are crucified, as appears from origin, (I. 2, contra Gels. p. 87.) and Cecilius gives the same hint as to crosses. But Octavius answers, that we do neither adore nor wish for crosses. “The external respect which Christians showed, and their frequent use of the cross, gave occasion to the heathens (who were apt to wrest every thing) to give out that they worshipped a cross.” says Mr. Reeves. (Notes, ib. p. 136, t. 2.) Cecilius says we have no temples, no known images. Nulla nota simulacra: which words seem to imply some imges, though not of the gods known in the empire.

^‡ Corruptâ et dimidialâ fide tradiderunt.

^§ Nec tormentis ant modus ullus ant terminus, Illic sapiens ignis membra urit et reficit. carpit et nutrit Pœnale illud incendium. non damnis ardentium pascitur, sed inexesâ corporuir laceratione nutritur. Eosautem merio torqueri qui Deum nesciunt, ut impios, et injustos, nisi profanus, nemo deliberat: Cum Parentem omnium, et omnium Dominum, non minoris sceleris sit ignorare quam lædere p. 251.

* Non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus, p. 252.

^† The best editions of this dialogue of Minutius Felix are those of Leyden, in 1552, in 4to.; of our cambridge, 1678; of London, 1711, 8vo. &c. Ablancourt has given a French translation of it.

* Clovis began his reign in 481, being scarce fifteen years of age. After the defeat of Syagrius, he fixed his residence at Soissons, in 486. He afterwards made Paris the capital of his monarchy, in 508. That city first began to be considerable from the time that Julian the Apostate resided there when he commanded in Gaul, and except under the last Merovingian, and most of the Carlovingian kings, has been the capital of France ever since the time of Clovis.

¹ See on this at length, Du Bos, Hist. de l’Etablissement de la Monarchie Françhise, t. 1, l. 1.

^† The name of Alemanni, from Allerley-mann, signifies all sorts of men, and was given to a people among the Suevi, who inhabited the country between the Danube, the Upper Rhine, and the Mein, about the Duchy of Wirtemberg. See Martiniere and Grace’s additions to Pudendort’s Modern History, t. 8. D’Anville, Etats formès après la Chûte de l’Empire Romain, p. 12, shows that the Alemanni were the first league of different nations formed in Germany, consisting of troops assembled out of the tribes of the Suevi, as Procopius assures us, (Procop. 1. 1, Gothicor.,) and is otherwise proved by Paulus Diaconus, (t. 3. c. 18; t. 2, c. 15.) Part of their lands, called by Tacitus Decumates, paid a tax of a tenth penny; it is now called Suevia, or Souabe. (See Schoeplin, Alsaia Illust. t. 1, pp. 174, 201, and Brotier in Tacit. t. 4, p. 42.) The Alemanui then inhabited both banks of the Main and other parts towards the Rhine. The French gave the same of this nearest people of Germany to the whole country.

* When the Normans plundere the suburbs of Paris, in 856, this church was twice pillaged by them; from which time the secular canons who served it became very remiss. Pope Eugenius III., in the reign of Louis VII., coming to Paris, in 1148, converted this church into an abbey of regular canons, placing there eleven canons, under an abbot, chosen out of the abbey of St. Victor. The eminently pious cardinal de la Rochefoucault, was nominated abbot by the king in 1619, and by him an excellent reformation was established in this abbey, in 1624, under an abbot, who is chosen for three years, and general of a numerous congregation; for many other houses adopted this reform, so that the congregation of the regular canons of St. Genevieve is now very numerous in France, and comprises in that kingdom sixty-seven abbeys, twenty-eight conventual priories, two provostships, and three hospitals; and in the Low-Countries three abbeys, and three priories, besides a considerable number of curacies. When the shrine of St. Genevieve is carried in procession on extraordinary public occasions, the abbot walks on the right hand of the archbishop and the canons of the cathedral. He also gives his benediction in the streets, as the archbishop does See Helyot.

^† Clovis slew his cousin Sigehert, who reigned at Cologne. Canarie king of the Morini, Ranac, who reigned at Cambray, and Renomer, king of Mans, and possessed himself if all their territories. His name was the same with Louis; for the French anciently added a C to such names of their kings, as in Clotaire for Lotaire. The two kings of this name of the first race, are not brought into the number of the Louis, or Lewises, the Dèbonnaire being called Lewis I. Most historians follow the same rale as to our Edwards that reigned before the Norman conquest.

* Coemgen signifies in the Irish language the fair begotten, pulchrum genitum.

^† Glean-da-lnch signifies the Glin, or Valley of the two Lakes; from whence Hoveden hath taken occasion to call the bishopric of Glendaloch, Episcopatus Bistagneusis; and the bull of pope Lucius III. mentions it under the title of Episcopatus insularum.

^‡ Harris is mistaken in thinking it should be Tirthuathail; for the territory of the O’Tooles bore the name of Hy-murray. See the life of S. Laur. O’Toole, 14th of Nov.

^§ Both these churches stood about the middle of a long valley, surrounded with very high mountains; from whence the water falls over many craggy rocks, and feed, the two lakes and rivers which run through the valley below; in the most fruitful and agreeable part of which are seen at this day the ruins of many churches and monasteries built of stone, the windows of which were adorned with great variety of curious work. The walls of seven or eight buildings, now called the Seven Churches, are still standing and one of these, together with its chancel, and a handsome round belfry of stone, with a vaulted stone roof, remain firm to this day. There stands separate from any of the buildings a large round tower, like that at Kildare, ninety-five feet high; and at the west end of one of the building, near a quarter of a mile distant from the former, stood another now almost demolished. Among the ruins many crosses and other figures appear to have been curiously carved on a great number of stones. The celebrated bed of Saint Keivin is shown on the south side of the lough: it is a cave hewed in a solid rock on the side of the mountain, exceeding difficult in the ascent, and terrible in prospect; for it hangs almost perpendicular over the lough about three hundred feet above the surface of the water, says Harris. Not far beyond this bed, on the side of the same mountain, are to be seen the ruins of a stone building, called St. Kelvin’s Cell. Probably the saint sometimes hid himself in this cell for a closer retreat; as St. Martin used to do in a like cave on the side of a rock at Marmoutier, near Tours. Glendaloch, now commonly called the Seven Churches, is about twenty-three miles from Dublin, in the county of Wicklow.

The diocese of Glendaloch was of great extent, containing all the country on the south side of Dublin, yet the abbey far exceeded the bishopric in temporal wealth; as we are assured by the author of the life of St. Laurence O’Toole, archbishop of Dublin, (who had been abbot of Glendaloch,) published by Messingham. At that time the see of Dublin was confined within very narrow limits: but when cardinal John Paparo, legate of pope Eugenius III., conferred on this see the archiepiscopal dignity, with the pall, in the year 1152, he ordered that upon the death of the bishop of Glendaloch then living, this see should be forever united to Dublin. The union of the two bishoprics was afterwards confirmed by the pope, and king of England, and carried into execution upon the death of William Piro. or Peryn, the last legal bishop of Glendaloch, in 1214. It was further confirmed by a bull of Honorius III. to Henry Loundres, archbishop of Dublin, dated Oct. 6, 1916. Notwithstanding this union, so firmly established, both by papal and regal authority, some few attempts were made to usurp the see of Glendaloch until the year 1497, since which period, its very name is sunk in that of Dublin. However, to perpetnate the memory of that ancient church, the archdeaconry of Glendaloch is still preserved, and belongs to the chapter of the cathedral of Saint Patrick’s. See Harris, on Ware’s bishops, from p. 371 to 378. Usher’s Primord and Colgan In MSS and 3 Jun.

* Mehun in Orleanois is, by mistake, confounded by several with Mehun In Berri, four leagues from Bourges, where was a royal castle now falling to ruin, in which Charles VII., who had recovered France from the English, suffered himself to die of hunger for fear of being poisoned, In 1461, not Charles V., as Dom. Valssette mistakes.

^† The marble tomb of Lewis XI., who chose to be burled there out of devotion to the B. Virgin, is still shown there, though the Huguenots plundered it, and burnt his bones.

 Butler, A. (1903). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (Vol. 2, pp. 477–487). New York: P. J. Kenedy.