iş, portentous. The deep movement which has been excited will take, as we trust, a higher course, and lead an awakened Church to recognize and embrace the real substance of vital religion. The modern Babel will then rush to its fall; and with it the New-Testament Babylon itself will sink, as we hope, to rise no more, and the glory of the latter day come in." We leave these passages to our readers for a month's meditation, deferring our notices of the other publications in our hands to another Number. If they wish for a fuller account of Panzani's mission, referred to by the Bishop of Calcutta, they will find it in Mr. Goode's volume, No. 3 on our list. Whether Popish emissaries are now at work in disguise among us, assuming the garb of subtle Tractarians, or of pretended Protestant Dissenters, trying to overturn the Church of England in order to erect Popery on its ruins, can only be matter of conjecture. That there may be conspirators of both these classes, unknown to Tractarians and Dissenters as well as to genuine Anglican churchmen, is not impossible; nor, looking to the past conduct of Rome, and its flagitious doctrine of ends sanctifying means, is it incredible; but without proof persons have no warrant to assert it, as some have done in print, apart from corroboration. But this we may assert, that there are writers in some Tractarian and some Protestant Dissenting publications, who, whether they mean it or not, are aiding Popery in its struggle with the Church of England. The Dissenters think that the subversion of the English national church would be a deadly blow both to Popery and Tractarianism; but Papists and Tractarians, who must best know their own policy, hold a different opinion. The opinions of Romanists on this subject are notorious; and though Tractarians express themselves more warily, they point us to the same issue. They are at present obliged, they say, to "work in chains,' and they pant to become unfettered "Catholics;" lording it with spiritual tyranny over men's consciences; to so vulgar a concern and-if we may descend their purses also; and, by means of spiritual domination, trampling upon dear to them as men and citizens their civil liberties, and all that is as well as Christians. The people brook this; but then what will be of England assuredly will not the consequence? If a large number of zealots attempt to force such will be overpowered, as they were a system upon the nation, they in the days of Charles the First; moderate men-the sound Anglibut then, as in those days also, cans-may perhaps be crushed with them; and the nation be again relegated to the fierceness Independentism; till the fearful and extravagancies of democratical evils of such a state of things sober all good men, and generate a wish for a return of peace and order. Such are the usual cycles of public events; but, alas! what mischiefs and miseries they produce in their recurrence! We hope better things; and espeChurch of England has of late cially for this reason, that the years been so signally blessed from number of pious, faithful, and zeaon high, and includes so large a lous adherents, that we do not believe that the machinations of avowed enemies will be permitted false friends be allowed to change to prevail against her; or those of her aspect so as to expose her to this doom. THE ESTATICA OF YOUGHAL. J ca The Estatica of Youghal, compared with the Wonders of the Tyrol: in a Letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury. By the Rev. J. ALDWORTH, Rector of Youghal, Ireland. THE fanaticism and folly of Lord Shrewsbury, in vouching for the miraculous phænomena of the "Estatica" and "Addolorata" of the Tyrol, were unworthy of notice, except as they proved how nuns could juggle, priests cheat, and Romanist devotees be deceived; and as a warning against the importation of similar fraud and superstition into England. But the craft of exstaticism is too lucrative not to generate impostors if it can meet with dupes without fear of detection and punishment. Should any person think that the love of "filthy lucre" is too base a motive to assign for such impostures, let him, if he pleases, dignify them with the ambition and competition of rival orders and houses for both classes of motives may very well go together; the whole system of relics, juggles, and false miracles, having the two-fold virtue of gratifying pride and accumulating pence. The priests at a privileged station, or holy well, in Ireland, neglect neither. Their pride must dilate at the spectacle of their crouching and venerating "subjects," as they call their flocks; while their purses also swell with aggregated offerings. We should leave unnoticed the juggles at Youghal, as we did those of the Tyrol, which Lord Shrewsbury vouched for, were it not that the circumstances of Ireland at the present moment invest such facts with adventitious importance. We are told much of the moral majesty of Romanism; and of the sentiments of devotion, religious awe, and implicit faith which it inspires. Our "British Critics," and other self-styled Catholics," are as much shocked as the veriest Papist at the " lumnies" of Protestants, who talk, in the style of our Homilies, of Romanist cajolery, fraud (misnamed pious), lying legends, spurious relics, and collusive miracles. Juggling priests are holy men; hysterical nuns are sainted women; and their tales are to be credited with unwavering faith. We are to believe, for example, all that Basil, Bishop of Seleuca wrote of St. Thecla (if the legend be his); as that when they cast her into the fire she placed her body in the form of a cross; whereupon the flames reverently assuming the same shape, canopied her over, and hid her, as in a resplendent vault, from the gaze of the people; and that lions couched to her, and one lioness fought for her and rescued her from other wild beasts; with five hundred stories as wonderful collected in the "Lives of the Saints," and handed down by veracious tradition, for the unquestioning edification, not the scrutiny, of admiring posterity. In heretical England, these things are to be revived for the restoration of the faith; in Ireland, which possesses it, the national union with Great Britain is to be repealed, and the Protestant Establishment abolished, for the moral, religious, and political regeneration of that beautiful but not very pacific island. Let us then see, by the example before us at Youghal, how the vaunted system works. Let us ascertain, by a recent practical example, whether Popery in Ireland is always as pure, simple-hearted, truthful, aye and enlightened, as is alleged. Lord Shrewsbury authenticates the miracles wrought upon Maria Morl, Domenica Lazzari, Domenica Bar - bagli, and forty or fifty other saints to whom have been vouchsafed the sacred stigmata. Will he, after the Rector of Youghal's exposition, authenticate the kindred wonders pretended to have been wrought in that town upon certain hysterical devotees?-but we recal the expression, for the young women who have figured in this matter are convicted impostors, not deluded but trying to delude. And yet, such is the jugglery of practical Popery, that, as in the well-known case of the Port-Royal pretended miracles, fanaticism and credulity often destroy the moral perceptions; so that it is difficult to ascertain what is folly and what is conscious wickedness. We cannot, however, give the young ladies at Youghal credit for believing their own wonders; and as little do we venture to hope that those who pulled the wires, and made them their puppets, were deceived. But that the artful priests of Rome know well how to mould susceptible females to their purpose, in order to obtain influence over the multitude, is a fact abundantly authenticated; and when we used the word "hysterical," we had in our recollection a passage of Richard Baxter's, in his " Key for Catholics," which we will transcribe : "Another of their deceits is by pretended miracles. If they do but hear of a female who has hysterical passions in any violent degree, they presently go to cast the devil out of her; that so they may make deluded people think they have wrought a miracle. And usually the country people, and perhaps the diseased woman herself, may be so much unacquainted with the disease, as verily to believe the Papists, that they have a devil indeed; and so turn Papists when the cure is wrought, as thinking it was done by the finger of God. The nature of this disease is to cause such strange symptoms, that most ignorant people who see them, think the persons are either bewitched, or have a devil. At this very time while I am writing this, I am about to dissuade a man from accusing one of his neighbours of witchcraft, because his daughter has this disease, and cries out of her. And some of them will continue a year or two, or seven in this case, daily failing into such fits as one would think should destroy or weaken them presently; and yet after the fits, are almost as well as ever, and their strength does not much decay. "If they hear any mention of a witch, they will likely take a conceit that they are bewitched; and then, in their fits, they will cry out upon the witch, and if they get but a conceit that they are posthey see her they will fall into a fit. If sessed with a devil, (by hearing the mention of others who were possessed) they will, by the power of corrupted fancy, play the parts of the possessed, and rage, and roa roar, and swear, and speak as in the person of the devil, and take on them to prophesy, or tell secrets. All this I have known, and I have eased some of them by medicine in a few moments, and cured them (at that time) in a few days; so that I could easily have made the common people believe that I had cast out a devil, if I had but had the design and conscience of a Papist. A while ago a neighbouring minister told me of a neighwhat disease it was, and advised him to persuade her to call in a judicious physician. But the next I heard of her was, that neglecting the physician, she was cured by some Popish Priest, and thereupon was turned Papist and no doubt but among themselves it is reported for a miracle. The same course they take also in some_distractions, and other diseases. And sometimes persons are bour who was treated thus. I told him : trained up by them to dissemble and counterfeit a lunatic or possessed state." We shall not attempt to ascertain how much is trick and how much delusion in these matters; and who in every instance are the deceived, and who the deceivers. In the case, for instance, of the numerous persons who have been declared to have received "the sacred stigmata," some have wounded themselves from fanaticism, others in delirium, and others to attract admiration or to extort money; some have been wounded by others, by stratagem or knowingly; for, when once some superstitious devotee, or conscious deluder, had perverted the words of St. Paul, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus," to mean that either that Apostle, or any other saint, was marked with wounds in his hands and feet and side, resembling those of-the crucified Saviour-and that angels inflicted such marks as a token of Divine favour-a wide door was open to credulity and imposture. As for the founder of the Franciscans, whose case is the most memorable, we believe that he was frenzied, and really did wound himself; for we are unwilling to think that he was an impostor; though it is remarkable that the alleged wounds, which used to bleed so copiously in his lifetime, left no trace after his death. This his followers impute to a miracle; but it seems rather to imply a trick, if it be not itself a lying legend. It is afflicting to write of such matters; for what Christian can think without shame and sorrow of the awful scene of Calvary being made a stage for juggling tricks; and though we do not confound phrenzied persons with conscious impostors, both have been the instruments of much mischief to the Christian faith. We will now extract sufficient from Mr. Aldworth's little book, to enable our readers to judge whether we have written too strongly. His historical facts apply by anticipation to the Youghal case: "The appearances are as nearly as possible similar in the Youghal miracles and in those adduced and vouched for by your Lordship in the Tyrol. The ecstacies the marks-the attitudes--the pretended unconsciousness to surrounding objects-the consciousness of the voice of the church-the abstinence-the periods of the manifestations-the regard to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass-the clique of priests, monks, or friars surrounding the unhappy subjects-the caution observed as to admission-the evident attempts at effect in the exhibition, varying in success according to the frame and character of the visitants-the number of the subjects-and the similarity of phases in the appearances as distinguishing them one from the other the report of rhapsody, of being caught up into the air, but witnessed by no one here except Father Foley, are sufficient points of resemblance to connect these "But your Lordship has specified other besides living instances of Raptures, Estatics, and Stigmata; and has referred, among several, to St. Francis of Assisium, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Philip Neri, St. Dominick of benevolent and merciful memory, and St. Veronica Giuliani. Of miraculous passages in the lives of some of these, I happen to possess notices; to which I beg to direct attention, as EXHIBITING THE CHARACTER OF ROMISH ACCREDITED MIRACLES. St. Veronica, being I believe the latest instance of the Canonization of a subject of the Stigmata, demands notice. Her life together with that of four other Saints, is published by Dolman, London, 1839, Canonized Trinity Sunday, 1839. This work is attributed to Dr. Wiseman, and not without reason, if circumstantial evidence is to have its weight. After narrating the imprinting of the Stigmata, her biographer goes on to say, (page 262), "The Tribunal of the Holy Office at Rome, having received information thereof, ordered the Bishop of the City to make an enquiry into the truth of the report. He repaired to the grate of the Convent, with several other Ecclesiastics, who severally saw the wounds which her blessed Spouse had made. Those in the hands and feet, as Florida Ceoli, and other sisters attest, were on the upper side round, and about the size of a farthing, but less on the under side, deep and red when open, and covered with a thin cicatrix or crust when closed,' &c. &c. "This inspection at the grate of the Convent, and testimony of Florida Ceoli and other sisters, is a specimen of the searching investigation to which Romish miracles are subjected. It is true she reported to her Confessor that her beloved Saviour, contrary to her request, caused those wounds to remain open for three years: but during that period, all the additional evidence we possess is, that it was "Proved to many that they were indeed the work of Divine Love." Her Confessor afterwards, it is asserted, saw them open before his feet and a new Confessor, appointed specially by the Bishop to test her case, put her to rather a singular trial. He formed five Commands entirely in his own mind, which being purely mental, could not be discovered by the devil, but only to Almighty God.' These Commands he desired her to repeat to him-and after prayer without success, at length she did it. : These commands regarded the renewal of her wounds, and the wounds were renewed; and truly to those who disbelieve in the possibility of collusion between a Confessor and a Candidate Saint, the transaction is sufficiently marvellous: but once admitting the possibility of a pious fraud,' all conclusive evidence of the truth of the miracle vanishes at once." After narrating some other equally melancholy transactions, Mr. Aldworth adds: "Enough, and more than enough, of Romish accredited miracles and Canonized Saints. Detected impostures next demand a passing notice. "Jetzer, the lay-brother, in the Convent of the Dominicans in Bern, shall furnish an appropriate instance. The narrative I extract from Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, Vol. II. p. 5. : "The stratagem in question was the consequence of a rivalship between the Franciscans and the Dominicans, and more especially of their controversy concerning the Virgin Mary. The former maintained, that she was born without the blemish of original sin and the latter asserted the contrary. The doctrine of the Franciscans, in an age of darkness and superstition, could not but be popular; and hence the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To support the credit of their order, they resolved, at a Chapter held at Vimpsen, in the year 1504, to have recourse to fictitious visions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith: and they determined to make Berne the scene of their operations. A person named Jetzer, who was extremely simple, and much inclined to austerities, and who had taken their habit, as a laybrother, was chosen as the instrument of the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who had undertaken the management of this plot, conveyed himself secretly into Jetzer's cell, and about midnight appeared to him in a horrid figure, surrounded with howling dogs, and seemed to blow fire from his nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which he held near his mouth. In this frightful form he approached Jetzer's bed, told him that he was the ghost of a Dominican, who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment of heaven for laying aside his monastie habit; that he was condemned to Purgatory for this crime: adding, at the same time, that, by his means, he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond expression. This story, accompanied by horrible cries and howlings, frighted poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all that was in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifications, such as the discipline of the whip, performed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer's lying prostrate in the form of one crucified in the chapel during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the Blessed Virgin; and concluded by saying, that he would appear to him again, accompanied by two other spirits. Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined him; and every one consented to bear his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitudes that crowded about the convent, while the four friars that managed the imposture, magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this apparition, in their sermons and in their discourse. The night after, the apparition was renewed with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils, and Jetzer's faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confessor. În this, and some subsequent scenes, (the detail of whose enormities, for the sake of brevity, we shall here omit) the impostor talked much to Jetzer of the Dominican order, which he said was peculiarly dear to the Blessed Virgin; he added, that the Virgin knew herself to be conceived in Original Sin; that the doctors who taught the contrary were in Purgatory; that the Blessed Virgin abhorred the Franciscans for making her equal with her Son; and that the town of Berne would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within her walls. In one of these apparitions, Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre resembled that of the prior of the convent, and he was not mistaken: but, not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at others in that of St. Bernard; at length he assumed that of the Virgin Mary, and, for that purpose, clothed himself in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the Virgin in the great festivals; the little images, that on these days are set on the altars, were made use of for angels, which being tied to a cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer's head, rose up and down, and danced about the pretended virgin to increase the delusion. The virgin thus |