Being herself of the most sweet and peaceable disposition, she was always most active and industrious in composing all differences between neighbours, especially in averting war, with the train of all the most terrible evils which attend it. She reconciled her husband and son, when their armies were marching one against the other; and she reduced all the subjects to duty and obedience. She made peace between Ferdinand IV. king of Castile, and Alphonsus de la Cerda, his cousin-german, who disputed the crown; likewise between James II. king of Arragon, her own brother, and Ferdinand IV. the king of Castile, her son-in-law. In order to effect this last, she took a journey with her husband into both those kingdoms, and to the great satisfaction of the Christian world, put a happy period to all dissensions and debates between those states. After this charitable work, king Dionysius, having reigned forty-five years, fell sick. St. Elizabeth gave him most signal testimonies of her love and affection, scarcely ever leaving his chamber during his illness, unless to go to the church, and taking infinite pains to serve and attend him. But her main care and solicitude was to secure his eternal happiness, and to procure that he might depart this life in sentiments of perfect repentance and piety. For this purpose she gave bountiful alms, and caused many prayers and masses to be said. During his long and tedious illness he gave great marks of sincere compunction, and died at Santaren, on the 6th of January, 1325. As soon as he had expired, the queen retired into her oratory, commended his soul to God, and consecrating herself to the divine service, put on the habit of the third Order of Saint Francis. She attended the funeral procession, with her husband's corpse, to Odiveras, where he had chosen his burying-place in a famous church of Cistercian monks. After a considerable stay there, she made a pilgrimage to Compostella, and returning to Odiveras, celebrated there her husband's anniversary with great solemnity; after which she retired to a convent of Clares, which she had begun to rebuild before the death of her husband. She was desirous to make her religious profession, but was diverted from that design for some time upon a motive of charity, that she might continue to support an infinity of poor people by her alms and protection. She, therefore, contented herself at first with wearing the habit of the third Order, living in a house which she built contiguous to her great nunnery, in which she assembled ninety devout nuns. She often visited them, and sometimes served them at table, having for her companion in this practice of charity and humility her daughter-in-law, Beatrix, the queen then reigning. However, by authentic historical PRICE ONE PENNY proofs it is evinced, that before her death she made her religious profession in the aforesaid third Order, as pope Urban VIII., after mature discussion of those monuments, has declared. (To be concluded in our next.) TRUTH. ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, M. A.D. 107. (Concluded from our last.) The perfect spirit of humility, meekness, patience, charity, and all other Christian virtues, which the seven epistles of St. Ignatius breathe in every part, cannot fail deeply to affect all who attentively read them. Critics confess that they find in them a sublimity, an energy, and beauty of thought and expression, which they cannot sufficiently admire. But the Christian is far more astonished at the saint's perfect disengagement of heart from the world, the ardour of his love for God, and the earnestness of his desire of martyrdom. Every period in them is full of profund sense, which must be attentively meditated on before we can discover the divine sentiments of all virtues which are here expressed. Nor can we consider them without being inspired by some degree of the same, and being covered with confusion to find ourselves fall so far short of the humility and fervour of the primitive saints. Let us listen to the instructions which this true disciple of Christ gives in his letter to the Philadelphians. He begins it by a strenuous recommendation of union with their bishop, priests, and deacons; and gives to their bishop (whom he does not name) great praises, especially for his humility and meekness, insomuch that he says his silence was more powerful than the vain discourses of others, and that conversing with an unchangeable serenity of mind, and in the sweetness of the living God, he was utterly a stranger to anger. He charges them to refrain from the pernicious weeds of heresy and schism, which are not planted by the Father, nor kept by Christ. "Whoever belong to God and Jesus Christ, these are with the bishop. If any one follows him who maketh a schism, he obtains not the inheritance of the kingdom of God. He who walks in the simplicity of obedience, is not enslaved to his passions. Use one eucharist; for the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and the cup is one in the unity of his blood. There is one altar, as there is one bishop, with the college of the priesthood, and the deacons, my fellow-servants, that you may do all things according to God. My brethren, my heart is exceedingly dilated in the tender love which I bear you, and exulting beyond bounds, I render you secure and cautious: not I indeed, but Jesus Christ, in whom being bound, I fear the more for myself, being yet imperfect. But your prayer with God will make me perfect, that I may obtain the portion which his mercy assigns me." Having cautioned them against adopting Jewish cere monies, and against divisions and schisms, he mentions one that had lately happened among them, and speaks of a revelation which he had received of it as follows: "When I was amongst you, I cried out with a loud voice, with the voice of God, saying, Hearken to your bishop, and the priesthood, and the deacons. Some suspected that I said this from a foresight of the division which some afterward made. But He for whom I am in chains is my witness, that I knew it not from man, but the Spirit declared it, saying, Do ye nothing without your bishop. Keep your body holy as the temple of God. Be lovers of unity; shun all divisions. Be ye imitators of Jesus Christ, as he is of the Father. I therefore did what lay in me, as oue framed to maintain union. Where disagreement or anger is found, there God never dwells. But God forgives all penitents." He charges them to send some person of honour from their church to congratulate with his church in Syria upon peace being restored to it, and calls him blessed who should be honoured with this commission. FALSEHOOD. MANICHEISM. of the Zoroastan religion, in which Manes was nurtured, formed the foundation of his system. Among these dogmas, we may enumerate the dualism of light and darkness, in the opposition of the good God, Ormuzd, and the evil principle, Ahriman; the invasion by the latter of the kingdom of Ormuzd; the existence of a world of pure light, which preceded the creation of the earth; Mithras, a genius of the sun, corresponding to the Manichean Christ; the mixture, and the antithesis of good and of evil, the former the works of Ormuzd, and the latter of Ahriman, which pervade all creation. But, nothwithstanding this uniformity in some points, the Manichean and Zend doctrines are essentially different; even the Manichean dualism is not the same as the Persian, for in this, matter is the radical evil which is opposed to the Deity; in the former, there is only a mingling of the pure and good creation of Ormuzd with the evil work of Ahriman. The Manichean metempsychosis contradicts also the Zend doctrine, which admitted rather a resurrection of the body, as does also the Manichean practice of abstaining from flesh meat, and of forbidding matrimony. Many other articles, upon which Manicheism departed from the Zend doctrines, may be found in the Buddhaist religion, which, at the time of Manes, had existed at least eight hundred years, and then prevailed over the greater part of Eastern Asia. Buddhaism considered the origin of all visible things as the source of all evil; it viewed the life of man as a time of penance and of purification; it placed his beatitude in his deliverance from whatever is material and sensual, and in the mortification of his passions and desires. The Manichean Christ occupies the same place as Buddha. Dochetism was taught of both, and in the doctrines of both religions it was predicted that the course of this world should cease when the spiritual should have divested itself of the material. Manes, moreover, had long sojourned in those countries where Buddhaism reigned, and still continues to reign. A Buddhas was said to have been his predecessor; and the later Manicheans taught that Zoroaster, Buddhas, Christ, and Manes, were one and the same person, who had appeared on earth at different times for the salvation of men. Hence it will appear at least probable that in Manicheism there were amalgamated Buddhaist and Zoroast an elements. But it is not difficult to point out a third source of these doctrines-the gnosis of Basilides-who, according to the account of Archelaus (Acta Disputat-Archel. c. 55, Rout iv. 275), taught in Persia, and in whose system are found the Manichean dogmas of the desires of the powers of darkness to ascend the hyle- of the efforts of those souls that are bound down in the hyle to obtain their liberation and their return into the happy region of light-of the creation of the world, springing from this mingling of light and darkness-of the existence of this world only as a process of purification of the imprisoned souls. The following review of the Manichean doctrines will present us with a proof that its substance may be found in the Zoroastan, Buddhaist, and Basilidian systems, and that Manes did no more than to unite them, reduce them into form, to define more accurately the absolute dualism and its consequences, and to clothe the whole with a garb of mythical poetry. The period during which Gnosticism stood in its vigour did not extend beyond a century. Towards the middle of the third age, evident symptoms of dissolution began to manifest themselves; and if for a short time the Gnostic deformation of Christianity had seemed to threaten a triumph, it served only to display more clearly the victorious power of the Church. But the magic charm which Gnosticism had thrown over the minds of men was not easily broken; this was shewn by the rapid and wide progress of another and cognate sect-Manicheism. Again the genius of the Eastern religion of nature collected all its might, and endeavoured to direct Christianity into a course that would have conducted it back to the ancient Paganism; again was the human soul pantheistically identified with the Deity, and both were reduced to the level of nature; again were ethical relations in nature restored, and in the place of the Christian doctrine of redemption there was substituted a tissue of speculations drawn from natural philosophy and fables. This new system was indeed more luxuriantly adorned with fable than most of the Gnostic sects; but as in these, so in Manicheism, these mythical forms were more than veils beneath which abstract dogmas were concealed; an objective value was given to them, and in this consisted the vocation and pre-into the region of light-of the co-mixture of light with eminence of Manes, to cast aside figures and allegories, and to teach the pure and simple truth. Of Manes, the author of this heresy, we possess Oriental (modern indeed) and Greek records. In many particular points, however, they vary from each other. Of these different accounts, that upon which we can most depend is the following:-Manes was by birth a Persian, and founded a system of religion differing from the religion of his coun try. When he became acquainted with Christianity, he infused many ideas borrowed from it into his own system, that he might make it more acceptable to the Christians. These innovations in religion drew upon him a persecution in his native land, and he therefore retired to countries more to the east, to Hindostan, Turkeston, and Rhatai, the north of China. He returned to Persia; and, either on account of his apostacy from the religion of Zoroaster, or, as the Greek historians relate, on account of the death of the son of Batiram the schach, whom he had undertaken to restore from illness, he was executed by command of the schach, in 277, and his head was suspended over the gate of the city Dschondischapur. The Manichean system bears with it an appearance so wonderful-being evidently related to Gnosticism, yet differing from it in many respects-that at once the question arises, from what source has its author drawn, and what were the religious elements which he has mingled together? It is incontestable that several of the principal dogmas (To be continued in our next.) TRAVELS OF A PRINTER'S HAND.-Although a printer may be setting all day, yet, in his own way, he is a great traveller, or at least his hand is, as we shall prove. A good printer will set 8000 ems a day, or about 24,000 letters. The distance travelled over by his hand will average about one foot per letter, going to the boxes in which they are contained, and, of course, returning, making two feet every letter he sets. This would make a distance each day of 48,000 feet, or a little more than nine miles; and, in the course of a year, leaving out Sundays, that member travels about 3000 miles! Madame von Linden, a rich and noble widow, had lived in retirement at her country residence, from the period of her husband's death; and was universally revered and beloved in the neighbourhood for her prudence, unaffected piety, and charity to the poor. On one occasion she was called by affairs of importance to the capital, where she remained closely occupied for three weeks. On the evening of the day before her return, she wished to take a last walk through the city. It was a Sunday, and one of those lovely spring days which often come after a long succession of rainy weather, A stream of citizens in holiday attire and high spirits, was pouring towards the gate, to enjoy the charming evening in the open country. Madame von Linden too, was on her way towards the gate; and was just about to call upon a female friend to accompany her, when a thought suddenly struck her to pay a farewell visit to the Cathedral, the principal Church of the city, the gate of which she was passing at the moment. At this hour, she thought she could best examine this wondrous relic of ancient architecture, without disturbing any person in his devotions, or being her self interrupted in her survey of the building. Illustrious Apostles and Holy Martyrs; and a host of saintly women and virgins; were represented as vividly to the eye as though they were actually present in person. The leading events in the history of Jesus, of the Apostles, and of the early Church, passed, as it were, in review before her eyes, and awakened a crowd of holy thoughts and generous resolutions in her heart. She paused before each of the marble monuments, and read the inscriptions, which, in their strange old characters, told of illustrious knights and virtuous dames who had lived centuries ago. Not a soul was to be seen anywhere; unbroken silence reigned under the lofty arches. She heard no sound but her own footfal; and the bustle in the street echoed like a faint murmur from a distance. A shuddering consciousness of the transitoriness of life rushed through her soul, as she thus found herself the only living thing, treading upon the dust of past generations, and wandering among the monuments of the dead! She sorrowfully reflected how vain and fleeting is all upon the earth; she called to mind her departed parents, friends and relatives; and the thought of her own inevitable death filled her with anxiety and sadness. But the cheering words inscribed upon the monuments, brought consolation again to her sorrowing soul, and filled her with joyful hopes of immortality. With pious emotions she read upon one tomb, the words of Jesus: "1 am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live, and every one that liveth and believeth in me, shall not die for ever." And upon another, the assurance of Jesus went touchingly to her heart: "The hour cometh With a feeling of deep reverence, therefore, she entered wherein all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the great door. The lofty arches of the roof-the long row the Son of God. And they that have done good things of stately pillars-the gorgeous colours of the stained win-shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that dows-the high altar far away in the dim distance of the have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." choir-the still and twilight air of the holy place-the majesty of the entire pile-filled her with astonishment; and feelings of reverential devotion, and a consciousness of the near presence of the Eternal One, were stirred up insensibly within her heart. She fell upon her knees at the nearest bench, and remained for a short time absorbed in deep recollection and silent prayer. "What a At length she arose, and advancing slowly into the nave of the church, paused at intervals to survey it. monument is this pale," she thought, "of the deep feeling of reverence and devotion to God, which distinguished the olden times! How powerful must this feeling have been-how deeply seated in the human heart, to have accomplished so grand an undertaking! How many men must have united in the effort! What sustained energy, what lavish expenditure, what perseverance were called into action, till—at the end of a century as the history tells-this temple was at last completed, and men could worship their Maker in common, within its walls !" After this general survey she turned to inspect each remarkable object in detail; visited the side altars and chapels of the vast and stately temple, and examined its noble old paintings, so full of power and expression that the subject of each-as the angel announcing the Incarnation to the Blessed Virgin; the Nativity of our Lord; his Life and Death; his Resurrection and Ascension; the But she was moved most of all by the tomb of a pious lady, who had "borne much sorrow, and done much good in this world." On her tablet stood in golden letters, the words of Holy Writ: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord! From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, for their works follow them." Madame von Linden resolved, like her, as long as she lived on earth, to bear the troubles of life with patience, and to do all the good which it lay in her power to accomplish. (To be continued.) Condell on last Monday evening, at Openshaw. The landMr. Cleary gained a glorious triumph over his opponent lord refused to give Condell the room which he had engaged for the lecture. An immense crowd from Ashton, Manchester, Droylsden, Openshaw, &c., assembled on the public highway. Mr. Cleary addressed the vast assembly from some steps, and afterwards a discussion took place which lasted till eleven o'clock, P. M. The public road was completely filled up the proceedings were highly interresting, and the bigots were completely vanquished. Mr. Cleary having suffered much from speaking in the night air, we are obliged to postpone a report of his speech at Ashton, until next week. V. "As we value, therefore," says St. Vincent, in continuation, a sound faith, we must be sure to profess Christ, not only to be one person now, but we must profess also, that he was never otherwise; because, notwithstanding you grant him to be one now, yet it is intolerable blasphemy to affirm, that once he was not one, but two: one, namely, after baptism, but two, about the time of his na tivity; which sacrilege of the highest kind, we cannot avoid otherwise, than by confessing man to be personally united to God; and moreover, that this unity of person was made, not after his Ascension or Resurrection, or Baptism, BUT EVEN IN HIS MOTHER, IN HER WOMB, AND IN THE VERY INSTANT OF HER VIRGINAL CONCEPTION. Upon the account of this personal union, it is, that we do indifferently and promiscuously give the attributes of God to man, and so again, the properties of human nature to the divine. Upon this account it is, that we find it said in Scripture, that the Son of man descended from Heaven,' John iii. 13, and that the Lord of glory was crucified on earth.' Acts iii. 15. 6 For the same reason it is, that the very Word of God is said to be made, because our Lord was made flesh, and the very fulness of divine wisdom styled, created wisdom, just as in the prophecy, His hands and feet' are said to be, 'pierced' Psalm xxi. 17; and lastly, from this unity of person, this other mystery also, like to the former, naturally arises, viz.-That the flesh of the Word being born of the Virgin Mother, the very Word himself, or God the Word, must be said to be born of the Virgin also. THIS IS MOST CATHOLICLY BELIEVED, AND IT CANNOT BE DENIED, WITHOUT THE GREATEST IMPIETY. Since this then, is the case, GOD FORBID THAT ANY ONE SHOULD BE SO WICKED AS TO SET HIS BRAINS A WORKING HOW TO DEFRAUD THE HOLY MARY OF THIS PRIVILEGE OF DIVINE FAVOUR, HER SPECIAL AND PECULIAR GLORY; FOR IT IS UPON THE ACCOUNT OF THIS SINGULAR BLESSING OF THE LORD, OUR GOD, HER SON, THAT SHE IS MOST TRULY TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED THE BLESSED MOTHER OF GOD; but not the mother of God, in that impious sense, as some heretics would insinuate, who will have her to be called the mother of God, because she was the mother of a man, who came afterwards to be a God; just as we are wont to say, such a one is the mother of a priest or bishop, not because she was delivered of a priest or bishop, but because she is the mother of a child, who in time came to be made a priest or bishop. But it is not in this sense, I say, that we are to hold the holy Mary to be the MOTHER OF GOD, but for the reason abovementioned; because that adorable mystery of the Incarna tion was accomplished in the consecrated temple of her womb, because of that singular, that only personal union of the divine and human nature, whereby the Word in the flesh, is man, as the man in God, is God. (Chap. xxi.) Oh glorious and illustrious Saint! in the last chapter which we have just transcribed you exclaim,-"God forbid, that any one should be so wicked as to set his brains a working how to defraud the holy Mary of this privilege of divine favour, her special and peculiar glory, &c. In our days there are many found wicked and blasphemous enough to do all this. Here we have a parliamentary church, and her parsons swear to believe her teachings, her articles, &c. and she compels her ministers to receive the decrees of the Councils of Nice, held in 325.-of Constantinople, held in 381.-of Ephesus, held in 431,-and of Chalcedon, held in 451. They maintain that in those times the Catholic Church was pure, and free from any corruptions or errors in faith; yet they blasphemously deny that the B. V. Mary is the Mother of God. If they have any regard for the obligation and sanctity of an oath, they ought to stop in their mad career to learn the faith of antiquity, or remove the whole of revealed Religion. Here, in our own locality, we have three men, who have, if we are not much mistaken, the learned initials, A. M., appended to their names; three men known as parsons of the Law Church, who a few months ago gave to a certain individual a sum of money, in the presence of eight or nine thousand persons, at one of their Anti-Catholic meetings. And for what, O truly orthodox Father, St. Vincent! was this sum awarded? For nothing else but for defrauding "the Holy Mary of this privilege of divine favour, her special and peculiar glory; &c.-for blasphemously attacking her Divine Maternity! Oh! my God, how long will you endure that Stowell, M'Grath, Richardson, and other false teachers, who wickedly teach as thou indeed knowest, that we are unworthy of credit on oath, because we value neither its obligation nor its sanctity,-should live in the constant violation of their oaths; swearing that they believe in certain doctrines, and yet rewarding those, who blas phemously write against and otherwise impugn them? Oh! patient God,-we have now given the powerful testimony of thy intrepid champion, and most learned doctor, St. Vincent, and he has placed beyond all doubt or controvery this great fact, viz., that when the Church was pure, even in the estimation of the deluded heretics of our times, it was an article of the Catholic faith, that the B. V. Mary was truly the MOTHER OF GOD. The faith of thy Church has undergone no change in this particular since 431, when she solemnly condemned in the Council of Ephesus, the impious heretic, Nestorius. If this faith was agreeable to thee then, it must be so now; if Nestorius was justly condemned by those who had legitimately succeeded to the apostles, and that he was so even the Apostate Church of England maintains, as we find by the 1st of Elizabeth, S. 1., then it follows, as a necessary consequence, that Stowell, M'Grath, Richardson, and other false teachers, and such deluded men as Knowles and his admirers and patrons, are also justly condemned, and ought to be shunned by all good men, until by penance and full satisfaction they make reparation for their impiety, and endeavour to atone for the horrible calumnies they have vomited forth against thy Church, and her pure, holy, and sublime teachings. "But now," continues St. Vincent, "what I have briefly declared concerning the foregoing heresies, and the Catholic faith, it may not be amiss, for the help of memory, to go over again more briefly; for this is the way to give a more clear view of things, and to make a more lasting impression upon the mind. First then, for Photinus, let him be anathema, for not admitting the plenitude of the Trinity, and for preaching up Christ to be a mere man only. Let Apollinaris also be anathema, for asserting the Divine Nature in Christ to be converted into flesh, and for denying him the properties of a perfect man. And for Nestorius, let him likewise be anathema, for disowning the Virgin to be the Mother of God, and for asserting two Christs, and for exploding the doctrine of the Trinity, and introducing a quaternity into the world. But blessed be the Catholic Church, for worshiping one God in the fulness of the Trinity, and an equality of the Three Persons in one Godhead; for worshiping the Trinity in such a manner, that neither the singularity of the substances, confounds the propriety of the persons, nor the distinction of persons divides the unity of the Godhead. Blessed be the Church, I say, for believing two real perfect natures in Christ, and but one person; so, that neither the difference of natures destroys the unity of person, nor the unity of person confounds the difference of natures. Blessed be the Church for professing Christ to be, and always to have been but one person; and that the human nature was united to the Divine, not after the delivery, but in the very womb of his Mother. (Chap. xx11.) THE ILLUMINATOR. MANCHESTER, SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1850. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. But here an apparent difficulty presents itself. Some may say, why did St. Augustin send to Rome for missionaries?-could he not have procured the required assistance without going so far as Rome? Why did he not apply to the ancient Britons; for amongst them there were several bishops, and a great number of the inferior clergy? All this is very true. But almost all the historians observe that the Britons hated the Saxons with a deadly hatred, for having driven them out of their native country; and that they could not be prevailed upon to lend their aid in the work of their conversion. Moreover, it is attested by Gildas, that they were fallen into so great a decay of piety, and into such a corruption of manners, that the major part of the clergy, as well as the laity, had in a manner lost all sense of religion; and the zeal for God's glory and the conversion of souls, was utterly extinguished in their hearts. So that instead of coming to the assistance of St. Augustin, and of working in harmony with him, they became spies to watch his actions, they were jealous of his authority, and they were also envious of the great reputation he had obtained among the people. Indeed, Bede, L. 2. C. xx. relates that a certain king of the Britons, named Caedwal, though he was a Christian, and made open profession of the faith, rebelled against Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, who, but six years before had been converted, and received into the Church by St. Paulinus, and who was a most religious prince. The same Caedwal joined himself to Penda, the Pagan king of the Mercians, against the Christian Northumbrians, and became more barbarous and cruel than Penda himself. "For he neither spared the female sex, nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them to tormenting deaths, resolving to cut off the race of the English within the borders of Britain, without having any regard to the Christian religion, which had newly taken root among them." And the same author adds, that even in his time it was the custom of the Britons not to have any regard to the faith and religion of the English, nor to correspond any more with them than with Pagans. Such was their hatred to the Saxons; which, however, did not hinder St. Augustin from using his utmost endeavours to bring them to a more Christian disposition; and, in order to do it, being supported by the interest of king Ethelbert, he prevailed upon the British bishops and doctors to come to a public conference with him. administering baptism after the Roman rite, they parted from one another with disagreeing minds." This is a short account of the conference, as given by Cambden, and is very exact as far as it goes. But since the learned writer, Mr. Collier, in his ecclesiastical history of Great Britain, has been pleased to draw some consequences from the subject and the particular circumstances of it, which appear to us not to be so solid and conclusive as might be expected from a person of his learning and abilities, we shall recite to you the whole relation of it, word for word, from Bede, who writes thus, L. 2. C. 2.: — "In the meantime, Augustin, with the aisistance of king Ethelbert, drew together to confer with the bishops and doctors of the next province of the Britons, at a place which is to this day called Augustin's Ac; that is, Augustin's Oak; on the borders of Wiccii (Worcestershire), and the West Saxons; and began by brotherly admonitions to persuade them to preserve Catholic unity with him, and undertake the common labour of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. For they did not keep Easter at the proper time; besides they did several other things which were against the unity of the Church. They, after a long disputation, not complying with the entreaties, exhortations, or rebukes of Augustin and his companions, but preferring their traditions before all the churches in the world, which in Christ agree among themselves, the holy father Augustin put an end to this troublesome and tedious contention by saying, Let us beg of God, who causes those who are of one mind to live in his father's house, that he will vouchsafe by his heavenly tokens to declare to us which tradition is to be followed, and by what means we are to hasten to the entrance of his kingdom. Let some infirm person be brought, and let the faith and practice of those by whose prayers he shall be healed, be looked upon as acceptable to God, and to be followed by all. "The adverse party unwillingly consenting, a blind man of the English race was brought, who having been presented to the priests of the Britons, and finding no benefit or cure by their ministry, at length Augustin, compelled by real necessity, bent his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying that his lost sight might be restored to the blind man, and that by the corporeal enlightening of one person, the brightness of spiritual grace might shine in the hearts of many. Immediately the blind man received his sight, and Augustin was by all declared the preacher of sovereign light. The Britons then confessed they were sensible that the true way of righteousness was that which St. Augustin taught; but that they could not depart from their ancient customs without the consent and leave of their people. They, therefore, desired that a synod might be appointed, at which more of their number would be present. "This being decreed, there came (as is asserted) seven bishops of the Britons, and many very learned men ; par Cambden, in his account of Worcestershire, give the ticularly from their noble monastery, which in the English following brief relation of this assembly:-"About this tongue is called Bancornaburgh, over which the abbot territory (he says) there is a place, but the position of it Dinooth is said to have presided at the time. They that is uncertain, called Augustin's Ake, or Oak, at which were to go to the aforesaid council, repaired first to a Augustin, the apostle of England, and the British bishops certain holy and discreet man, who was wont to lead an met: and after many hot disputes about celebrating | eremitical life amongst them, advising with him, whether Easter, preaching the word of God to the Saxons, and they ought at the preaching of Augustin to forsake their |