silly notion by a verse from the Psalms; He keepeth all his bones so that not one of them is broken.' A dew is to descend upon the earth preparatory to the resurrection, and quicken into life and growth these seeds of the dead. During the pontificate of Urban VIII. a large burial-ground of the Jews at Rome was broken up to make room for some new fortifications; and the Jews were particularly anxious to collect all the bones, paying the labourers a dear price for them. But not a single specimen of the Luz could they produce to their enemy Bartolocci when he called for it upon so favourable an opportunity. Another curious opinion is, that wherever their bodies may be buried, it is only in their own Promised Land that the resurrection can take place, and therefore they who are interred in any other part of the world must make their way to Palestine under ground, and this will be an operation of dreadful toil and pain, although clefts and caverns will be opened for them by the Almighty. It has been gravely objected to this notion, that although the bodies of the just, after the resurrection, will, according to the opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas, be endued with agility and penetrability, which would enable them to pass through any distance in the twinkling of an eye, and through any substance without experiencing resistance, yet this cannot be predicated of the Jews, whose bodies, they being to rise only for condemnation, will be gross and feculent. Whether it arose from this superstition, or from that love for the land of their fathers which in the Jews is connected with the strongest feelings of faith and hope, certain it is that many have directed their remains to be sent there. 'We were fraughted with wool,' says an old traveller, from Constantinople to Sidon, in which sacks, as most certainly was told to me, were many Jews' bones put into little chests, but unknown to any of the ship. The Jews, our merchants, told me of them at my return from Jerusalem to Saphet, but earnestly intreated me not to tell it, for fear of preventing them another time.' Sometimes a wealthy Jew has been known to import earth from Jerusalem wherewith to line his grave. This is a point of feeling, not of superstition: but superstition has made the Italians, in old times, import earth from the same country for whole churchyards. The Persians are persuaded that if a true Moslem dies among the infidels, the angel of the grave will not suffer his body to remain in such bad company, but will transport it through the earth to a country of believers. The intolerance of Catholic superstition is not so harmless as this belief. The story of Young's Narcissa is well known. Oh, the curs'd ungodliness of zeal!— O'er O'er dust! a charity their dogs enjoy. What could I do? what succour? what resource ? More like her murderer than friend, I crept In midnight darkness whispered my last sigh. It is not, however, generally known that the French have published a print of this midnight interment, because, Talma and Madame Petit, a few years ago, searched for the remains of Narcissa, found them, and made a funeral for them; and the story has thus become a proof of the sensibility of the French character! And yet what Young so properly calls the cursed ungodliness of zeal, is as ready to display itself at this time as ever; and in more than one part of Europe the Catholic clergy have shewn that they consider a dead heretic as no better than a dead dog. It is said that Lady Hamilton was not only refused Christian burial in France, but that she was even refused a coffin, and buried in a sack ; till an English gentleman, hearing of this brutal bigotry, interfered, and had the body taken up, placed in a coffin, and interred respectfully, though not in consecrated ground. A similar act of inhumanity has done some good in Switzerland, or rather prevented some evil. In that whole beautiful country there is no single spot more beautiful than the valley of Lungern with its little lake. The mountains at its head form a complete amphitheatre, and rise in three ranges one behind the other; first, the Brunig with its rocks and magnificent pine forest; next the bare line of the Scheideck, and behind all the snowy summits of the Wetterhorn, the Schreckhorn, the Eigir, and the Jungfrau, where Lord Byron's Manfred met the Devil and bullied him. Lungern lake is about the size of our Derwentwater; and the valley, which is of the happiest proportionate size, is as lovely as bright green fields, natural woods, and cottages, which have every appearance of com'fort, and are, at the same time, picturesque in the highest possible degree, can make it. If there be in all Switzerland one spot which for its peculiar beauty fixes itself upon the memory more than any other, it is this. But the inhabitants have resolved to do all they can to spoil it by draining the lake. For this purpose they employed a German engineer, who brought his family with him, and began to work. His wife died; happily she was a Protestant, they refused her Christian burial, and the husband, with a natural and just resentment, left them in disgust. The lake, therefore, is still in existence, and perhaps when they find that strangers begin to frequent it, for its incomparable beauty, they may suffer it to remain. Two remarkable instances of this bigotry are found in British history. history, Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, ordered the body of Fair Rosamond to be turned out of the quire at Godstow, forgetting her penitence, and the claim which, upon his own principles, she had to all the benefits which that place could procure for her. Jeremy Collier, with a kindred spirit, has recorded this fact to the bishop's honour! This,' he says, was done like a man of conscience and courage! This was like a primitive bishop, who was not afraid to censure vice, though under royal protection!' The other case occurred during the same age of rampant prelacy. Owen Gwyneth, the king of North Wales, was buried at Bangor. During his son's reign, Baldwin, the archbishop of Canterbury, came there to preach the crusade, and seeing his tomb he charged the bishop to remove the body out of the cathedral when he could find a fit opportunity, in regard that Archbishop Becket had excommunicated him heretofore, because he had married his first cousin, and that notwithstanding he had continued to live with her till she died. The bishop, in obedience to his charge, made a passage from the vault through the south wall of the church under ground, and so secretly shoved the body into the churchyard.' The question whether the dead are capable of being excommunicated or absolved has been discussed by Vigerius: the territory of the church, he says, is in this world, and the dead themselves are on the other side the border; but as their bodies still remain within the church's jurisdiction, the right remains of conceding to them church-burial, or depriving them of it. And in proof of this, St. Gothard once ordered all the excommunicated persons, who had been buried in his cathedral, to rise and walk out, which they accordingly did in the sight of the people. But the richest story in example of this doctrine is thus related by the Scotch historian Fordun. 'When the blessed Augustine, preaching the divine word to the gentiles, according to his custom, came to a village in the county of Oxford, six miles distant from a place celebrated at this time, and called Vudiflix* Cumentona; there came to him a priest of the same town saying, "Reverend father and lord, I inform your holiness that the lord of this property, though by me admonished with many exhortations, will never consent to pay to the holy church of God, the tithe of those things which the celestial bounty has conferred upon him. Moreover, having often threatened him with sentence of excommunication, I find him more rebellious and obstinate than before: let your holiness therefore see what is to be done." When St. Augustine heard this, he made the soldier be brought before him, and said, what is this that I hear of thee! O son, * Long Compton seems to be the place designed, but it must be a lucky guess to discover what Vudiflix can stand for. VOL. XXI. NO. XLII. A A where wherefore do you refuse to render tythes to God, the giver of all good things, and to the holy church? Are you ignorant that they are not yours but God's? Therefore do thou with a ready and willing mind pay thankfully thy debt to Almighty God, lest the severe sentence of a rigorous judge should in the following year take from thee for thine obstinacy, that from whence thou shouldst pay it. At this the soldier being irritated, with the spur of anger, replied to the man of God: Who, said he, cultivated the land? who supplied the seed for it? who caused the ripe corn to be cut down? was it not I? All men therefore may know that he who has the nine sheafs shall have the tenth also. To whom St. Augustine, Speak not thus, my son! for I would not have thee ignorant, that if thou refusest to give thy tythes, according to the custom of the faithful, and the tradition of the holy fathers, without doubt I shall excommunicate thee. And this being said, he turned to the Lord's table, that he might celebrate divine service. And he said before all the people, with a loud voice, On the part of God, I command that no excommunicated person presume to be present at the solemnities of mass. Which when he had said, a thing marvellous and unheard of in former ages happened. For in the very entrance of the church a buried corpse arose, and going out of the cemetery stood there immovable, as long as the holy man was celebrating the solemnities of mass. Which when he had concluded, the faithful who were then present, being made almost beside themselves, came trembling to the blessed pontiff, and related what had befallen. To whom he said, Fear not! but let the standard of the cross of the Lord go before us, and holy water also, and let us see what this may be which is shown us. So the pious pastor preceding, the affrighted sheep of Christ went with him to the entrance of the burial place, and seeing the black and hideous corpse, he said, I command you in the name of the Lord, that you tell me who you are, and wherefore you come here to delude the people of Christ? To whom the corpse made answer, I have not come here to affright the people, neither to deceive them, most holy father Augustine; but when on the part of God you commanded, that no excommunicated person should be present at the solemnities of mass, then the angels of God, who always are the companions of your journeys, cast me from the place where I was buried, saying, that Augustine the friend of God had commanded the stinking flesh to be cast out of the church. For in the time of the Britous, before the fury of the heathen Angles had laid waste this kingdom, I was the patron of this town: and although I was admonished often by the priest of this church, yet I never would consent to give my tythes; but at last, being condemned by him in the sentence of excommunication, ah! me miserable! in the midst of these things I was cut off, and being buried in the place from whence I have now risen, I delivered up my soul to the infernal demons, continually to be tormented with hell fires. Then all who were present wept when they heard this: and the saint himself plentifully bedewing his face with tears, and manifesting the great grief of his heart by frequent sighs, said to him, Knowest thou the place where the priest who excommunicated thee was buried? He answered that he knew it well, and that he had his grave in that same cemetery. Augustine said, Go before us then, and show us the place. The dead man then went before, and came to a certain place nigh unto the church, where there appeared no sign of any sepulchre, the bishop and all the people following him. And he said with a clear voice, Behold the spot, dig here if it please you, and you will find the bones of the priest concerning whom you ask. Then by command of the pontiff they began to dig, and at length they found a few bones, buried very deep in the ground, and by reason of the length of time turned green. But the servant of God inquired if these were the bones of the priest, and the dead man answered, Yes, father. Then St. Augustine, having poured forth a long prayer, said, To the end that all may know, that life and death are in the hands of our Lord, to whom nothing is impossible, I say unto thee in his name, brother, arise! We have need of thee! O marvellous thing, and unheard of by human ears! at the command of the devout priest, all they who were present saw the dust unite itself to dust, and the bones join together with nerves, and thus at last an animated human form raised from the grave. And the blessed man, when he stood before him, said, Knowest thou this person, brother? He made answer, I know him, father, and wish that I had not known him. The benevolent priest rejoined, Hast thou bound him with an anathema? I have bound him, he replied, and worthily, according to his deserts; for he was a rebel in all things against the holy church: he was always a withholder of his tythes, and moreover, a perpetrator of many crimes even to the last day of his life. Then the man of God, Augustine, groaned deeply, and said, Brother, thou knowest that the mercy of God is upon all his works! therefore it behoves us also to have compassion upon the creature and image of God, redeemed by his precious blood, who now for so long a time shut up in a dark prison has endured infernal punishments. Then he delivered to him a whip, and the corpse kneeling before him and asking absolution with tears, the dead man absolved the dead man, through the great bounty of the grace of God, for manifesting the merits of his servant Augustine. When he was thus absolved, the saint commanded him that he should return to the sepulchre, and there await the last day in peace. He forthwith returning to the place from whence he had been seen to rise, en A A 2 tered |