THE

Catholic Miscellany,

AND MONTHLY

REPOSITORY OF INFORMATION,

Vol. VIII.] FOR SEPTEMBER, 1827.

[No. 69.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF ARUNDEL CASTLE.

IN our number for July we were enabled, by the munificence of his grace the Duke of Norfolk, to present our readers with an engraving, representing the south-east, or principal front of Arundel Castle, as seen from the Brighton road, just above the entrance to Arundel. The liberality of the same noble patron affords us the opportunity of embellishing the present number with a view of the western front of that magnificent structure; and we feel assured that our readers will be gratified with it, as an accompaniment to the former engraving. This side or front of the castle is, as we noticed before, much superior in its composition to any of the others; and taken in connexion with the wide range of embattled parapets, and ivy-grown turrets which sweep from it in the northern direction, presents an outline of unusual grandeur to the eye of the beholder.

In the engraving, the object which immediately attracts the attention is the new gateway, which, however, is represented rather as it was originally designed, than as it is to be seen in the building.* By the late duke of Norfolk it was left unfinished, and the turrets in the upper part have never yet been added. If this, however, should lead, as we believe it probable, to the ultimate restoration of the old gateway, and the re-adoption of the ancient entrance to the castle, it will scarcely be considered as a subject of regret. The "castle

In our former number, on the authority of Dalloway, we erroneously stated the whole height of the gateway at 188 feet. The first figure should have been omitted. Eighty-eight feet was the intended elevation, and sixtyeight to the under side of the turrets.

of a thousand years' should not be approached through the infantile, though beautiful erection of yesterday; and, if time or circumstance have induced the necessity of remodelling the edifice itself, it is pleasing, at least, to have a something that will recall its ancient state, and conjure up the glories that have passed away. It is on the threshold of such a building that the mind loves to pause, and compose itself, as it were, for its entrance into the sacred precincts of another world. We acquire, in the identity of every thing around us, as it were, another existence; and we are prepared to tread the sumptuous halls with feelings that are linked with other days, and thoughts that mingle with the ages that are gone.

The old gateway is the building which occupies nearly the centre of the engraving. It was built by Richard Fitz-Alan, the third earl of that family, in the reign of Edward I., and was fortified by a portcullis and drawbridge over the ditch. It is flanked by two square towers, which were in good preservation at the beginning of the seventeenth century; but in the siege which the castle sustained against Sir W. Waller, in 1643-4, they were much defaced, and still bear the marks of cannon-shot visible on the outer walls.* It would appear, that when the late duke of Norfolk first determined upon the restoration of the castle, he consulted Mr. F. Hiorne, an eminent architect of Warwick, on the subject; and his suggestion was, to have restored the old gateway in the first instance, and to have connected it with other castellated buildings on a different site from the ancient castle. That the latter part of his plan was abandoned or neglected will never, we suspect, be regretted; that the period is not far distant which will witness the restoration of the gateway, must be the ardent wish of every lover of antiquity.

The apartments in the tower over the gateway, which we mentioned in our former number as being the original state apartments, are approached by a flight of steps leading from the court-yard. From these, on the first story, a gradual ascent, hastened occasionally by some steep steps, conducts the visitor to the keep-the building which is seen in the upper part of the engraving on the left hand. The second story is attained by a circular staircase, which winds up a turret on the left hand, as you pass towards the keep and hence the paved way upon the walls, mentioned in our former article, reconducts you, through the new gateway, and past the windows of the

* In these towers are the vaults, which are still shown as "the dungeons" mentioned in our former article.

barons' hall, to the gallery on the first floor of the castle. The barons' hall is visible on the right of the engraving, and, with the gothic chapel attached to it, which is distinguished by four of its pinnacles, extends from the new gateway to the projecting tower in the right-hand corner.

THE EDICT OF NANTES.

IN the following pages we mean to give a succinct account, I. Of some of the enormities of the French Calvinists from the commencement of the Reformation in France, till the Edict of Nantes II. Of this Edict: : III. Of the revocation of it by Louis XIV: IV. And of the Edict by which Louis XVI. restored. to his Protestant subjects all their civil and religious liberties.

1.—Enormities of the French Calvinists before the Edict of Nantes.

Most anti-Catholic writers have represented the French Calvinists as having uniformly been both models of toleration and victims of oppression; and have aggravated, on the account, every Catholic proceedings of harhness in their regard. This has been continued till our time, and is yet asserted; but it is a great misrepresentation. Far from having been models of toleration, they signalized themselves from the first by violence and outrage, both against the state, and against its religion.

In 1559, and in many years which followed it, the Calvinists incessantly destroyed the Catholic churches, and raised seditions in different parts of France: Languedoc, Guyenne, Poitou, and Saintonge, were the chief theatres of their excesses. They destroyed, in 1559, the abbey of St. Ligarius, in the diocese of Saintes; and in 1560, that of St. Cyprian, in Poitiers, and the abbey of Bellevaux, in the diocese of Névers. In the last, all the religious were massacred, and not one stone left upon another. Having obtained the ascendancy at Montauban, they expelled from it all the clergy, and the principal lay Catholics; they plundered the churches, chapels, and monasteries, and entirely prohibited the exercise of the Catholic religion. At Pamiérs, they destroyed a beautiful cathedral, the other churches of the city, all its convents, the mansion of the bishop, the houses of the canons, two hospitals, and many other buildings. On the 8th of December in the same year, they forcibly entered the cathedral at Amiens, and spilt blood of many. At Meaux, as soon as they acquired strength, they broke the crosses and images, and pil