v“. mûťm Leier '-30: Peter Martyr, Confessor. commos ie quiorno to Peter Martyr was an Italian Monk, who, leaving his monastery and taking up with a woman (a nun), for soine years passed his time in Ger many teaching heresy, till being sent for by Cranmer, he came over to England, and was make king's professor and canon of Christ's church in Oxford. On his first coming over he refused to wear the cap and surplice, as savouring too much of Popery, which occasioned great conten tion. Peter was not very fastidious in his opinions, but could bend him2 self easily to the times, a curious instance of which is related by father Parsons, in the 12th chapter of the second part of his Three Conversions of England. A strong contention existed between the chief reformers in the early part of king Edward's days whether the Lutheran or Zuinglian doctrine, concerning the sacrament of the altar, should prevail. Wagers were laid that Zuinglianism would gain the day, and the matter was kept before parliament upwards of four months, during which time religion was in suspense in England. Peter and Bucer had now taught in their respective universities more than a year, but kept themselves aloof on the sacrament, though much urged by their scholars, until parliament should decide. This decision was retarded longer than was expected, and Peter Martyr was therefore placed in a very awkward diJemma. "For," writes father Parsons, "having taken upon him to read and expound to the scholars of Oxford the first epistle to the Co rinthians (wherein the apostle, in the eleventh chapter, handleth the in-stitution of the blessed sacrament), he had thought to have come to that place just at the very time when the parliament should have determined this controversy. But the contention enduring longer by some months, than he expected, he was come to the eleventh chapter long before they could end in London; whereupon many posts went to and fro between him and Cranmer to require a speedy resolution, alleging that he could not detain himself any longer, but that being come to the words hor est corpus meum, he must either declare himself a Lutheran or a Zuinglian. But he was willed to stay and entertain himself in other matter until the determination might come, and so the poor friar did, with admiration and laughter of all his scholars, standing upon these precedent words, Haecepit panem, &c.; et gratias agens, &c.; fregit, &c.; et dixit, &c.; accepite et manducate, &c.; discoursing largely of every one of these points, and bearing off from the other that ensued. But when at length the post came that Zuinglianism must be defended, then stepped up Peter Martyr boldly the next day, and said, hoc est corpus meum-this is my body,' interpreting it, this is the sign of my body;' adding moreover, that he wondered how any man could be of another opinion, seeing this exposition was so clear; whereas, if the post had brought up other news, himself also would have taught the contrary opinion. And this story was testified (whilst they were alive) by Dr. Sanders, Dr. Allen, Dr. Stapleton and others that were present at this trifling and tergiversation of this apostate friar. And thus began our Zuinglian gospel in England under king Edward VI.%y $1655

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When Mary came to the crown, Peter thinking it best to save his bacon, betook himself to the continent again, and was chosen to attend a conference held at Poissy, in France, in 1561, where he was very vehement against the opinions of the Calvinists about the presence of

Christ in the sacrament. At length, having rendered himself obnoxious to all kinds of sects, he died, as some think, of grief of mind, in the year 1562, but others suspect of poison also; for so writeth bishop Genebrard, who was present at the conference of Poissy. "Peter Martyr (he says) gave up the ghost the 12th of November, 1562, not without suspicion of poison given by the Calvinists, from whom he had disagreed in the meeting at Poissy. And he died at the very time when he was preparing to write against Brentius the Lutheran, who endeavoured to bring in the monstrous heresy of ubiquity." Such was the end of this confessor of Fox's Protestant church.

31. King Edward the Sixth, Confessor.

We come now to the last saint of this month and of the whole calendar, whom Fox has made a rubricate confessor. "But," writes father Parsons, "why Fox determined to make this young king Edward the sixth a confessor of his church, I do not see any special reason, but only his own will, and for that he thought it honourable to have one king at least in his whole calendar, thereby to be able to compare in part with our Catholic calendar, that hath so many kings and queens, both martyrs and confessors, of English blood; but Fox found none of his religion, but only this child, to bestow this title on. For albeit he calleth king Henry the 8th, now and then, a gospeller, yet for that he burned so many of John's gospelling people, he durst not put him in for a saint in this his calendar. Queen Ann Boleyn also he praiseth exceedingly in his Acts and Monuments, as a more forward gospeller than the king himself, and holdeth her indeed for a very saint in his narration of her, and yet I know not how or why she came not into this calendar. But king Edward the sixth, at his very entrance to his government, though he were then but nine years old, yet doth Fox place him, as the head of the church, on a high throne, delivering the bible and distributing the gospel to the whole realm, and the like.

"But, indeed, if it be true, which most men do think, that the inno cent child was made away afterwards, and brought to his death by those that reigned under him, and would be loth that he should have come to reign over them, but to serve to set up a new religion in his name, then may he better be called a martyr than a confessor of Fox's gospel, seeing it is

mutat most likely, that if that gospel had not entered, nor the fatal

been made from that which his father left, and that the faithful counsellors assigned by king, Henry had been suffered to continue about the child, who were removed by pretence of their not favouring this new gospel, most likely (I say) it is, that the said young king might have lived many years afterwards, yea, even to this time, seeing he would not have been so old, by divers years, as the late queen was at her death, and might have left behind him much fair issue, for so much as the principal cause, which the nobility and people of Scotland alleged in the year 1547, before the field of Mustleborough, why they would not consent unto the marriage agreed between the said king and their young queen (Mary), his majesty's (James I.) mother, was the difference of religion, and the late innovation made thereof in England.

"Now how heinous a crime it was in these English counsellors to imbue the innocent age of that young prince with a contrary religion to

his father, and all his ancestors, from the first conversion of England to his days, and contrary to the express will, order, and authority of their lord king Henry, and their oath and promise for the same, God. himself did shew soon after by the event that ensued, for that none of them all escaped unpunished, one cutting off the other, as was convenient, for the punishment of so barbarous and heinous a sin.

"In the Catholic doctrine, founded both in reason, law of nature, and word of God, it is held for a firm principle, that the power of the parent is so great over their children, until they come to full use of reason, that the children of very infidels may not be baptized, nor made of another religion than their parents are, without the free consent of their said parents; for that as their parents themselves may not be forced to the Christian religion by violence, except themselves will, so may not their children in prejudice of their paternal authority. And if this be true in drawing children to the Christian religion from infidelity, and that the ✨ same were a most wicked act in Catholic doctrine to attempt, how much more wicked was it in these men to instil into the young prince a plain contrary and opposite religion to the king his father, he being yet under years of discretion to judge thereof, and his said father having utterly forbidden the same upon his death-bed and testament. And albeit his said lord and father was now dead, yet did patrius potestas, his power both of father and king over him, continue all the time of his minority, and consequently, his will and commandment being known, together with his special detestation of the Sacramentarian sect, uttered at his death, did cry out against this so notorious an injury offered to his son and realm.

"I have heard (continues Parsons) a very wise and honourable man affirm, from the mouth of queen Mary herself (of whose council he had been), that she with tears would often lament the memory of her dear brother, king Edward, saying, that if he had lived, she hoped verily to have seen him a good Catholic, and to have punished exemplarily all those wicked men that so egregiously abused his youth and realm in his name. For that in divers speeches which she had with him, wherein she recounted to him what deadly hatred their father, king Henry, did bare against heretics in his days, but especially against the Sacramentarians, whom now they had brought into England under his authority, and that he was the first king of all English blood that ever allowed or embraced the same, or admitted it into that realm, and that all this would remain upon his soul afterwards; these things (I say) and other the like, when she told the young king, with those effectual words, which she well could, the innocent child would fall a weeping with her, and say that he was privy to none of these doings, but if ever God gave him life, he would take account of them all one day; and further promised his said sister to remember his father and grandfather, and to keep secret what she had told him, without uttering any of these conferences to his uncle the protector, or others, as indeed he did not (which shewed his discretion and fidelity to his sister), albeit those of the chamber seeing him sad after such talk, began to suspect some such thing, and thereupon in his latter years would not permit her to have access unto him but very seldom, and with great jealousy. And this was all the confession of Fox's faith which king Edward ever made, to our knowledge."

That no regard whatever was paid by the unprincipled evangelical re-formers to the conscience or feelings of this young prince, cannot be more clearly testified than in the force put upon him by the hoary hypocrite and traitor Cranmer, who, having determined upon the death of Joan Bocher, for denying that Christ took flesh of the substance of his mother, the youthful monarch refused to sign the death warrant. On which, Burnet says, "Cranmer persuaded him, that be, being God's lieutenant, was b bound, in the first place, to punish those offences committed against God: he also alleged the law of Moses, for punishing blasphemy; and he thought the errors that struck immediately against the apostles creed, ought to be CAPITALLY punished." By such dis-.. courses and other means was Edward constrained, with tears in his eyes, to put his sign manual to the instrument of death.

THE CATHOLIC CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER.

296,1 St. Olympiad, Martyr. 187 17 St. Lazarus, Bishop and Conf. 352 2 St. Bibiana, Virgin and Martyr. 252 18 St. Gatian, Bishop & Confessor. 1903 St. Lucius, King and Confessor. 233 19 St. Nemesion, Martyr. 1099 4 St.Osmund, Bishop & Confessor 340/20 St. Philogonius, Bishop & Conf. 5315 St. Sabas, Abbot, dows75 21 St. Thomas, Apostle... 320 6 St. Nicolas, Bishop & Confessor. 850 22 SS. Cyril Mart

Methodius, Confs.

and Doctor of the Church. 253 24 Forty Virgins and Martyrs. A8 Conception of the B. V. Mary. 25 25 The Nativity of Christ; or Christ298 9 St. Leocadia, Virgin and Martyrimas Day.. 313 10 St. Melchiades, Pope. 27 26 384 11 St. Damasus, Pope & Confessor. 28 27 St. John, Apostle Evangelist. 250 12 SS. Epimachus and Alexander, 29 28 The Holy Innocents.club Yael Martyrs, hangods 1172 29 St. Thomas, Archbishop of Can299-13 St. Lucy, Virgin and Martyr. terbury, Martyr 138 14 St. Spiridion, Bishop and Conf. 290 30 St. 'S Sabinus, Bishop, and Com371 15 St. Eusebius, Bishop and Conf.panions, Martyrs. 875 16 St. Ado, Archbishop and Conf. 335 31 St. Silvester, Pope & Confessor.

290 30

We shall be brief and select in our remarks on the list here presented to the reader of Catholic saints, because it may be said to speak for itself. Most of the holy men and women lived in the primitive ages, and many laid down their lives for the faith of Christ, which the Catholic church has preserved untainted through a succession of more than eighteen centuries. Of the prelates and confessors, the first we shall name is St. Ambrose, the great doctor of the church in the fourth cen tury, and bishop of Milan. His father was prefect of the prætorium of Gaul, who, dying when the saint was an infant, his mother had the care of his education, and she was diligent in having him grounded in the school of virtue as well as in human literature and the sciences. Hav ing finished his studies, he was taken notice of, and his friendship was courted by the first men of the empire. He was soon made governor of Liguria and Emilia, comprehending the territory of Milan, Turin, Genoa, Ravenna, and Bologna, and by his watchfulness, probity and mildness, gained the confidence of the people, The Arians at this time were very powerful in the empire. The see of Milan had been kept va cant nearly twenty years, during which the city had been distracted with tumults, arising out of the various factions occasioned by the Arian party. To prevent an open sedition, the new governor visited the city, and made an oration to the people assembled in the church, when both Catholics and Arians simultaneously and unanimously proclaimed Ambrose bishop of Milan. He was then but thirty-four years old, and had not been baptized. The unexpected elevation he declined for some time, but the reigning emperor joining with the clergy and people, and the canons being dispensed with, Ambrose at length consented, was baptized, and, after due preparation, received the episcopal consecration on the 7th of December, 374. He was no sooner placed in the episcopal chair, but considering that he was no longer a man of this world, and resolving to break all ties which could hold him to it, he gave to the church and the poor all the gold and silver of which he was possessed. His lands and estates he gave also to the church, reserving only an income for the use of his sister during her life. It was an inviolable rule with the holy bishop never to recommend persons to places at court. St. Ambrose suffered much through the intrigues and persecuting spirit of the Arians, but he preserved t the most heroic inflexibility in defence of the true faith. To enter into the whole life of this illustrious ornament of the Catholic church would fill a volume, we must, therefore content ourself with stating one incident which redounds so highly to his episcopal character, that it would be unpardonable to omit it. A dreadful massacre of the people having been committed at Thessalonica by the emperor Theodosius's order, the good bishop was filled with horror at the circumstance, and the first time the emperor presented himself to enter the church, after the bishop had received the account of the massacre, he ordered the doors of the cathedral to be closed, and going out to meet the monarch at the church porch, he thus addressed him :-"It seems, Sir, that you do not rightly apprehend the enormity of the massacre lately committed. Let not the splendour of your purple robes hinder you from being acquainted with the infirmities of that body which they cover. You are of the same mould with those subjects which you govern, and there is one common Lord and Emperor of the world. With what eyes will your