a solemn process, under the especial cognizance of the Pope, has long been instituted, by which the pretensions of any deceased persons, for whom the honour of Sainthood is demanded, are strictly examined; particularly the sufficiency of the miracles alleged to have been wrought by him; for the working of miracles is always held to be an indispensable qualification. In this process all imaginable precautions are taken; the lapse of at least a hundred years after the disease of the saints is, if I mistake not, patiently expected, whether to collect evidence, to preclude partiality, or to remove prejudices. A dévil's advocate, as I believe he is called, is assigned for the purpose of suggesting every objection, and enforcing every reasonable doubt;-the inquest pro"ceeds," you tell us, through several stages, "until it is ascertained, by the most solemn "and strict proofs, that the party possessed "the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, in an "eminent, or,-to use the language of the

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proceeding,-in an heroic degree; and that "miracles were worked by him, or through "his intercession."* If, with all this care, a

* "Book of the Roman-Catholic Church," p. 280.

decree of the Pope be not infallible,* it is hard indeed.

The effect of a favourable sentence, under such circumstances, cannot fail to be that of giving confidence to the pious worshipper, and increasing the intensity of his devotion. Bulls of canonization do not often fall in our way; but from one which I have met with in favour of a countryman of our own, St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who is justly the object of your very high praise, I find that Pope Alexander enjoins and commands all the faithful to worship, venerate, and adore, all who are admitted into the number of saints.†

But I shall now proceed to a more particular enquiry into the sort of honour prescribed by your Church to be paid to them, especially in the case of the Virgin Mary. Let us see then, first, what is the notion of your Church respecting the personal dignity of the Virgin, and secondly, what are the devotions actually addressed to her. In following this course, I shall confine myself rigidly to authorities which you cannot reject: I will not make

* Bell. de Sanct. Beatit. lib. i, cap. 9. says that Catholics declare it to be certain, that the Church does not err in the canonization of saints.

+ Labbe, Concil. t. xiii, P. 1474.

use of any Breviary or Missal, but those which were reformed, and set forth according to the decree of the Council of Trent.

Now, in the reformed Breviary, your Church has thought proper to proclaim, that the birth of the Virgin was supernatural,* and to institute a festival in honour of her conception by her Mother Anna. Whether this conception was immaculate, so that she should in this respect be held equal to her blessed Son, as having been born without any taint of original sin, is well known to have been the subject of a long and obstinate contention between two of your greatest religious orders; the Franciscans, following the opinion of Duns Scotus, strenuously maintaining the affirmative, which was as strenuously denied by St. Thomas and the Dominicans. The former, however, was the more general opinion; and a festival, I repeat, was appointed in honour of her conception, for which, unless on account of its having been immaculate, it is not very easy to assign any sufficient reason.†

* Vid. Breviar. die xxi. Nov. In festo præsentationis B. M. † Bellarmine, afraid to pronounce that the Church positively affirms the doctrine of the immaculate Conception, and yet feeling the awkwardness of having the festival without the acknowledgment of the immaculacy of the Conception, says (De

Sixtus IV., in the bulls by which he institutes a particular office for this festival, and gives indulgence to those who celebrate it, seems to recognize the immaculacy of the conception; though he speaks of it as a point not yet decided by the Church.* The Council of Trent not only adopts and confirms the bulls of Sixtus, but also expressly declares, that it does not comprehend the Virgin Mary in its decre respecting original sin,† namely, that all mankind are infected with it by propagation from Adam. It is true, that by forbearing to say in terms, that the Virgin was free from original sin, the Coun

Cult. Sanct. lib. iii, c. 16,) that "the Conception was some how 66 6 or other sacred,' (aliquo modo sanctam) because there is a "festival in its honour."

* In the first of these bulls, (which are printed with the Acts of the Council of Trent, having been particularly confirmed and adopted by the council,) Sixtus speaks thus: "dignum, quin potius debitum, reputamus, universos Christi fideles, ut " omnipotenti Deo de ipsius immaculatæ Virginis mirá conceptione "gratias et laudes referant invitare." In the other bull, he uses the expression " ejusdem immaculate conceptionis:" in this latter bull, while he pours forth all sorts of vehement denunciations against those who speak of the belief of the article as heretical, condemning such speeches as "false, erroneous, and utterly "foreign from the truth," he censures the other party for uttering similar charges of heresy against their adversaries, merely "because the point has not yet been decided by the Church." + Sess. v.

cil left a small loophole for the Dominicans; and thus while Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, in his treatise against Luther, written before the Council, had treated it as a matter beyond all question, that the Virgin was "devoid of all "taint as well of original as of actual sin;”* Bellarmine, who wrote subsequently, was content to say, that it is quite certain, and the uni"versal opinion of the Church, affirmed by "the Council of Trent, that she was free from "actual sin, and it is pious to think that she "was also free from original sin." The Council, in the canon to which Bellarmine refers, goes so far as to declare, that "by the special privilege of God the blessed Virgin was, during her whole life, able to avoid all, even " venial, sins."t

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In accordance with this doctrine of the Council, she is spoken of in the Roman Breviary as having "a conscience absolutely devoid of "sin," and, again, as "stained by no earthly "affections."§ From this resemblance to her divine Son, in being "without sin," the transition becomes more easy to other points of resem

* Adv. Luther. art. xvii. p. 490.

† Sess. vi. c. 23.

In Oct. Assumpt. B. M.

§ In Assumpt. B. M.