read, in an unbroken flow of eloquence, as to send his hearers home both better instructed, and more ardent in the pursuit of religion. With no unbecoming gesticulation, with nothing exciting or declamatory, but perfectly under control, his delivery was yet such, that you felt the words to proceed from a fervent and sincere, yet a sober spirit withal.1 On no occasion did he preach to a wearisome length; nor did he make a parade of citing a variety of names, in the way that some do. For these will tack together formal extracts, now from Scotus, Aquinas, and Durandus; now from Canon and Civil Law Doctors; or again, from the philosophers, or the poets; that the people may think they know everything. The discourse he delivered would be all full of Holy Scripture, and his tongue could run on nothing else. His heart was in his subject. He was possessed, good soul, with an enthusiastic desire of drawing men to the pure wisdom of Christ.

1 In the Basle edition of the Ecclesiastes (1544), p. 530, there is an interesting reference to Vitrarius in connection with this subject. Erasmus has been describing various "sensational" modes of preaching. One Italian preacher, to point his invectives against pride and vanity, would pluck the feathers out of the hats of as many people as were within reach of him. Another would exhibit a bleeding crucifix. As a contrast to them, he continues: "Ipse familiariter novi quendam ejusdem ordinis, qui nec ambulabat nudis pedibus, nec humi cubabat, nec pane et aqua vivebat, nec ulli negabat sui copiam, pariter expositus omnibus, magnis et pusillis, bonis et malis, ubique venans lucrum Christo; breviter nihil habebat in rebus externis eximium. Is tamen doctrina non clamosa sed evangelica, tum moribus ab omni vitio puris, innumeros viros innumerasque feminas perduxit ad verum mundi contemptum." No person is named in this extract; but in the index at the end is the entry: "Joannes Vitrarius Franciscanus, 530." We have thus something like authority for applying this passage to Vitrarius; and the mention of innumeros viros, &c., will be noticed as an extension of what Erasmus says of him in the present account.

It was by labours such as these that he aspired to the glory of martyrdom. Nay more, he had once, as I learnt from his most intimate friends, obtained leave from his superiors to visit countries where Christ is either unknown or worshipped amiss; deeming his end a happy one, if, in the discharge of his duty, he should have earned the martyr's crown. But when already on his way, he was recalled by hearing as it were a voice from heaven, saying: "Return, John; thou wilt not want for martyrdom among thine own people." He obeyed the admonition, and soon found the truth of what that voice had foretold.

There was in his neighbourhood a convent of nuns, in which the whole system of religious life had sunk to such a low ebb, that it was in truth a house of ill fame rather than a convent. Not but that there were some among them, both capable and desirous of amendment. While seeking to recall these to Christ by frequent addresses and exhortations, a plot was laid against him by eight abandoned ones of the number. Having waylaid their victim, they dragged him to a secluded spot, and there flung their wimples about him and tried to strangle him. Nor did they desist, until some chance passersby interposed, and stopped their criminal outrage. The injured man was by that time unconscious, and breathing was with difficulty restored. Yet he made no complaint about the matter in any quarter, not even to his most intimate acquaintances; nor omitted any service in which he was accustomed to minister to the spiritual welfare of those nuns. Nay, even the very looks with which he regarded them never showed any unwonted sternness. He was well acquainted with the instigator of the plot, a Dominican, suffragan Bishop of

Boulogne;1 a man of notoriously wicked life. Yet he never troubled him either with any words about the matter; though there was no class of men to whom he was less favourably disposed, than to such as, being religious teachers and guides by profession, by their wicked life and doctrine estranged people from Christ.

I have known him preach as many as seven times in one day; nor, so long as Christ was to be his theme, did a fund of words full of matter ever fail him. In truth, his whole life was nothing else than one continued sermon. At table, he was lively, and without the least tinge of austerity; yet still in such a way as never to show any signs of frivolity or indecorum, much less of wantonness or excess. He would season the repast with learned conversation, generally on sacred subjects and conducive to religion. Such was his way of talking, if he received or paid a visit. But if on a journey when some of the influential friends he had would often lend him a horse or mule to ride on,2 for the sake of

1 The name of this suffragan was Ludovic Widebien. The Bishop of the Morini, though it is convenient to describe him as Bishop of Boulogne, had in early times two Cathedral cities, Tarvanna (Terouanne) and Boulogne. When the former of these was destroyed by the Spaniards in June, 1553, the diocese was subdivided into three, those of Boulogne, St. Omer, and Ypres. The Bishop of the Morini at the time referred to in the text was Philip de Luxembourg, the fifty-seventh in the long list of occupants of the see, who had been appointed in 1497. He had two suffragans, Johannes Vassoris, who died in 1507, and Ludovicus Widebien, a Dominican, who died in 1515. The fact of Vitrier's persecutor being a Dominican seems to leave no doubt that Widebien was the one referred to by Erasmus.-See the Gallia Christiana, tom. x. col. 1569.

2 Strictly speaking, this was against the rules of the fraternity. Riding on horseback was forbidden, except in cases of urgent necessity; and the use of an ass or mule instead of a horse was looked on as an

having a more convenient chat with him on the road-on such an occasion the good man would brighten up, and let fall sayings more precious than any jewels. He let no one ever go away from him disconsolate; no one that was not rather the better for his visit, and more encouraged to love religion. There was nothing to make you feel that he studied any private interests of his own. Neither gluttony, nor ambition, nor covetousness, nor love of pleasure, nor enmity, nor jealousy, nor any other bad passions, held him under their sway. He thanked God all the same, whatever befell him. His only joy lay in inspiring men to follow after the religion of the Gospel. And his efforts to this end were not in vain. Numbers both of men and women had he won to Christ, whose death-beds showed how far they differed from the common run of Christians in these days. For you might have seen his disciples meet death with the greatest cheerfulness of spirit, singing a truly swan-like song at its approach, and testifying by their utterances to a heart moved with a holy inspiration; while the rest, after performing the due rites, and making the customary professions, would breathe their last,-in assurance or doubt, as the case might be.

A witness of this fact was a distinguished physician of St.

evasion of the rule. The General Chapter of the order at Barcelona in 1451, before referred to, had decreed :-"Tollatur quoque abusus asinandi præterquam in casu necessitatis, ut regula concedit, attentis tamen verbis domini Bonaventuræ in sua declaratione super hoc passu, dicentis fratres non debere equitare neque bigare, neque quadrigare, nisi in manifesta necessitate . . .”. Monumenta Franciscana, ii. p. 95. What the editor (p. xxiv) calls “the miserable evasion of the rule by riding on asses when the use of horses is denied," had not, as we may see by the -present instance, entirely disappeared.

Omer, named Ghisbert,' a steady practiser of true religion, and one who was present at the death-beds of many persons of each party.

He had also won over some of the members of his own fraternity, though few by comparison; even as Christ could not do many mighty works among His own people. For men of his order are commonly best pleased with those who, by their teaching, bring most provisions to the kitchen; rather than with those who win most souls to Christ.

Averse from all vices as was that purest of souls, that temple truly dedicated to Christ, he recoiled most of all from licentiousness. The very atmosphere of such things was utterly repulsive to him: much less could he listen patiently to indecent language. Without ever indulging in bitter invectives, or disclosing anything gathered from private confessions, he would yet draw such a picture of virtue, that every hearer tacitly recognized himself by the contrast. In giving counsel he showed singular prudence, integrity, and tact. While he would listen to private confessions—not, indeed, with any particular goodwill, but following in this respect also the dictates of Christian charity-he openly expressed his dislike of over-solicitous and oft-repeated confessions. To superstitious rites and ceremonies he attached very little importance. He would eat of any kind of food that there might be, though soberly, and with giving of thanks; and his dress was in no respect different from that of others. It was his wont to take a journey occasionally for the sake of his health at times when he felt overcharged with bodily humours.

1 Erasmus mentions this physician in a letter to Linacre written from St. Omer, and dated 1514 [qu. 1516?]. He was at that time still practising in the town.-Epist. (1642), x. 7.