a man with his whole heart renounces his sins, and with his whole heart places his hope of forgiveness in God."

He was soon recalled from his second banishment under the mild government of King Hilderic. The return of the persecuted confessors was a festival for the Carthaginian people. Multitudes flocked to meet them at the port; but Fulgentius was received with the greatest love and veneration. When he returned from Carthage to his church, great crowds met him all the way with torches and garlands. Yet he who had remained steadfast in his faith amidst his sufferings, remained also steadfast in humility, in this return of prosperity, when he was threatened by refined (and so much the more dangerous) temptations to pride. The reverence which was paid him only made him feel more deeply his own unworthiness, his internal sinfulness, which the Christian still suffers in the life of grace here below. He did not desire to work miracles; for the performance of wonderful things, he said, does not give righteousness, but only fame among men. But he who is famed among men, unless he is also a righteous man, will not escape eternal punishment. But he who by God's mercy is justified, and lives as a righteous inan in God's sight, however little he may be known to men, will have a part in the salvation of the saints." When he was required to pray for the sick or for any one in affliction, he prayed with this addition, Lord, thou knowest what is serviceable for the welfare of our souls. If, therefore, we ask thee for what the present necessity admonishes us to ask of thee, may thy mercy grant what will not hinder our spiritual advantage. May our humble prayer therefore be so heard by thee, that before all things thy will may be done." be done." When those persons who had asked him for his intercession, returned him thanks for its being heard, he answered: "It happened not on account of my merit, but of your faith. The Lord has granted it not to me, but to you." His biographer and pupil says of him, in his own spirit: "This admirable man would not have the reputation of a worker of miracles, although he performed daily great wonders, since by his holy exhortations he led many unbelievers to the faith, many teachers of error to a knowledge of the truth; many who had led abandoned lives were brought under the laws of temperance; drunkards learned sobriety, and adulterers chastity; the grasping and covetous imparted

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APPEARANCE OF SEVERINUS IN GERMANY.

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their all to the poor; humility became pleasant to the proud, peace to the quarrelsome, obedience to the disobedient. Such were the wonders that Fulgentius strove always to perform."

CHAPTER II.

SEVERINUS IN GERMANY.

As the Lord sends his angels where their help is most needed, so amidst the ravages and desolation which followed that immigration of the nations by which the Roman empire was shattered in pieces, he sent assistance, after the death of the world-waster Attila, in the person of a distinguished man inflamed with holy love to the various tribes in the vicinity of the Danube. He was exactly the man they required. His name was Severinus. His whole appearance had something mysterious. As he was not accustomed to speak of himself, nothing determinate is known respecting his native country. Though many persons of all classes, who had gathered round him from the vicinity or a distance, wished to know his country, yet they did not venture to ask him; till at last a priest who had fled to him from Italy, summoned up courage to put the question to him. Severinus at first replied in his peculiar manner with good-natured playfulness: "What! do you take me for some runaway slave? then provide a ransom, which you can pay for me if I am inquired for." Then he added in a serious tone: "What pleasure can it be to a servant of God to specify his home or his descent, since by silence he can so much better avoid all boasting. I would that the left hand knew nothing of the good work which Christ grants the right hand to accomplish, in order that I may be a citizen of the heavenly country. Why need you know my earthly country, if you know that I am truly longing after the heavenly one? But know this, that the God who has granted you to be a priest, has commissioned me to live among this heavily-oppressed people." After that, no one ventured to propose such a question to him. But probably he was a native of the West, and had withdrawn into one of the deserts

of the East in order to devote himself to a quiet life of holy contemplation. Here he received the divine call to sacrifice his rest for the benefit of the suffering people in the West, as at a later period when he would gladly have retired again into solitude, a divine voice often admonished him not to deprive the oppressed people of his presence.

The regions in which he placed himself, known at this day as Austria and Bavaria, were just then the scene of the greatest desolation and confusion. No place was secure; one savage tribe followed another; all social order was broken up. The country was laid waste; the natives were carried away as captives. Universal destitution and famine followed the incessant wars. As Severinus had lived long among these people, and laboured much among them, his fame was widely spread, and the episcopal dignity was offered him; but he rejected it, declaring "that it was enough for him to be deprived of his beloved solitude, and to be brought by the divine providence into these parts where he was obliged to live among men who gave him no rest."

It must indeed have made a great impression on persons rendered effeminate by luxury, as well as on the savage tribes, when they saw Severinus voluntarily renouncing all the conveniences of life, and contenting himself with the most meagre fare; and in the midst of winter, when the Danube was frozen so hard that waggons could pass over it, going about barefooted in the ice and snow. Effeminate men might learn from him what was so necessary, in their altered condition, to make themselves independent of outward things, to rise above present sufferings by living in the spirit, to mollify and sweeten want and destitution by spiritual joy. Men belonging to the barbarous tribes who saw before them only weaklings whom they had crushed by the superiority of physical force, and who knew no other superiority, must have been struck with wonder and awe when they witnessed with their own eyes, how such a man with a body reduced by abstinence could accomplish the greatest things, simply by a spiritual power, the power of a soul animated by faith and love. What a contrast between him and worldly-minded ecclesiastics! as one of them once said to him, "Contrive, thou holy man, to leave our city, that during thy absence we may have some rest from fasting and watching!" Glowing

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as his heart was with love, Severinus could not refrain from tears that a person belonging to so sacred a vocation could disgrace himself and his order by such a frivolous speech.

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He was very far from regarding the privations to which he submitted as peculiarly meritorious, or entitling him to be esteemed a saint. If any one commended him on this account, he said: Do not imagine that what you see is a merit on my part; it ought rather to serve you as a wholesome example. Let it humble human pride. We are chosen for this purpose that we may effect some good; as the apostle says, the Lord has chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.' Only pray for me, that the gifts of my Saviour may not issue in the increase of my condemnation, but in the advancement of my salvation."

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However strict and severe he was against himself, he was full of tender sympathy for the wants and sufferings of others. "He felt hunger," his pupils said of him, only when others suffered hunger; he felt cold, only when others were destitute of clothing.' He made use of everything in order to assist the necessitous in these parts. His prayers, his exhortations, the example of his self-sacrificing love, rendered possible what was apparently impossible in a desolated, impoverished country that was always liable to famine. From many places the tithes of the produce were sent to him, for collecting which he employed the resident clergy, besides clothing for the destitute. On one occasion, in the middle of winter, people came through the ice and snow over mountainous and pathless districts, laden with clothing, which the inhabitants of Noricum had sent to him for the poor. He gave readily to the poor more than was sufficient for their mere necessities. In consequence of his advice, many persons from the surrounding places and towns took refuge in the considerable town of Lauriacum (the modern Lorch), on the Danube, in order to find protection from the wandering hordes of the barbarians. It so happened that he had received, through the merchants, a quantity of olive oil, a commodity very scarce in these parts. He regarded it as a most agreeable opportunity for gratifying his beloved poor, of whom a great number were residing in that place of refuge. He assembled

them all in a church, and, to the great joy of the poor people, divided to each one a due proportion of the oil.

While he thus cared for the earthly wants of men, and divided earthly gifts among them, he never omitted to combine with all a blessing for their hearts, and to direct their attention to the source of all spiritual and temporal blessings. He opened the assembly with prayer, and before he proceeded to the distribution of the gifts, took care to conclude with the words, “Blessed be the name of the Lord!" He admonished the poor that they should receive these gifts as from the hands of the Lord, and offer praise to him. His love was wide and comprehensive, as is the nature of genuine Christian love, not narrowed by any partial considerations. In the barbarians, as well as in the Romans, in Arians not less than in the orthodox, he beheld brethren who required his aid. When he met with the princes or generals of the wild barbarians who were attached to the Arian doctrine, he did not begin with disputing on their favourite dogma-he did not repel them by pronouncing sentence of condemnation on the doctrine they professed; but attracted them first of all by the power of love, and then imparted to them such exhortations or instructions as were best adapted to the circumstances of each individual. The Arian chief of the Rugii, who dreaded the power of the Goths, asked advice of Severinus, whom he regarded as an oracle, respecting his affairs. Severinus answered: "If we were connected by a common faith with one another, you must have preferred questioning me respecting the concerns of eternal life. But since you only ask me respecting the well-being of that temporal life which we share in common, receive my advice. You need not fear the power of the Goths, if you do not slight the warnings of humility. Do not neglect seeking peace, even with the most insignificant, and never trust to your own strength. Cursed,' says Holy Writ, is the man who trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.' (Jer. xvii. 5.)"

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The power which Severinus exerted over the minds of these men is evident from many examples. The son of that chief of the Rugii who regarded Severinus as his most faithful and trusty counsellor, wished to take by surprise Lauriacum, in