St. Catherine of Siena was equally at fault in her predictions of a vast crusade of the whole of Europe and of a thorough reformation of the Church. On the other hand, St. Bridget, who spoke of the approaching ruin of the Church and the rents in its walls, had her words verified in the Reformation. Indeed two conflicting streams of prophecy, one of the downfall, the other of the cleansing and restoration of the Church, arising from a common sense of the urgent need of reform, permeate the literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Both feelings find expression in the burning words of Savonarola. On all sides the conviction prevailed that a free Ecumenical Council, superior to the Popes, was the only available machinery for effecting the necessary reforms. Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa predicted that the Church would sink still deeper, till it seemed to be lost, but would again emerge triumphant. One of the earliest of these stern censors of hierarchical and Papal corruptions was St. Hildegard of Bingen on the Rhine, whose prophecies were examined and solemnly approved at a large Council assembled under Eugenius III. She was consulted by three Popes, two Emperors, and innumerable bishops and abbots. Yet she predicted in the true spirit of Teutonic indignation against prelatical greed and ambition, that princes and peoples would strip the Papacy of its power because of its faithlessness to its trust, that some countries would reject it altogether, and that the Popes would have only Rome and its environs left under their rule. Passing over several kindred predictions, and only pausing to note that in Roger Bacon we have the first hint of the Papa Angelicus, destined to reform all abuses, so often promised since, but so long in appearing, we come to the striking series of "Joachimite " prophecies, so called from the Abbot Joachim, who founded a monastic congregation in Calabria in the twelfth century. He, like St. Hildegard, was much honoured in his lifetime. Three Popes exhorted him not to keep back what God had revealed to him; Richard I. of England, and many French and English prelates sought his advice; and after his death Honorius III. affirmed his orthodoxy, and he was worshipped as a saint in Calabria, and numberless miracles ascribed to him. He told the English King and bishops that Antichrist was already born, and would hereafter sit on the Papal throne; and, indeed, the profound corruption of the Church through the poisonous influence of the Roman Curia was the keynote of his predictions. These were multiplied after his death by the publication of spurious works in his name, issuing from the "Spirituals," as they were called, in the Franciscan Order, and thus a Joachimist school came to be formed. Its characteristic principle was the distinction of history into three periods, that of the Father, before Christianity, the Petrine period; that of the Son, up to A.D. 1250, the Pauline period; and that of the Holy Ghost, after 1250, the Johannean period. The Church, through the evil rule of the Popes, had been made into a brothel and a den of thieves, the people were deceived and corrupted by their pastors, and Rome was the very centre and focus of all impurity and corruption in Christendom, and was to be overthrown by the Saracens and the German Empire. Then would come the conversion of the heathen and the Jews, and the restoration of the Church by means of a new Order of Eremites. This teaching was maintained for a long time in the Franciscan Order, and many hundreds of the Spirituals suffered death or imprisonment under John XXII. in consequence of it. The commentary on Jeremiah, attributed to Joachim, had foretold long before that "the Curia should itself be murdered as it had murdered others"; and as Boniface VIII., the author of the Unam Sanctam, had been openly denounced as "a new Lucifer," for his tyranny and unchastity, the fate of the uncompromising prophets excites less wonder than regret. The tribune Rienzi, and his Laureate, Petrarca, combined with their political aspirations an ardent faith in the Joachimist's predictions of the Joachimist's prediction of the Papa Angelicus and the coming age of the Holy Ghost. The tone of prophecy from the fourteenth century to the Reformation is not very different from that of the Abbot Joachim. St. Bridget and St. Catherine of Siena, already referred to, are the great visionaries of the period; their denunciations are not less sharp than his, and yet, like him, they were honoured by theologians, cardinals, and Popes. St. Bridget prophesied that the sovereignty of the Pope should be confined to the Leonine city — a prediction which Italians of the present day have naturally not forgotten. The nearer we approach the outbreak of the Reformation, the more threatening becomes the language of these predictions. Yet Bishop Grostête had declared on his deathbed, in 1253, that by only fire and sword could the maladies of the Church -- be healed, and Machiavelli did but repeat | closer study of historians. What has been the same sentiment in other words when said of a nation's ballads is perhaps even he said that either ruin or bitter chastise- more true of its prophecies. If men's ment must overtake the Roman Church. characters may be judged from what they We cannot dwell here on Savonarola, love to remember, they are at least as whose political foresight was seldom at clearly exhibited in their hopes and fears. fault, while his religious predictions still And prediction, putting aside supernatural remain unfulfilled. With the Reformation claims, which we are not here concerned Dr. Döllinger closes his narrative of Chris- with, is the record of the highest aspiratian prophecies, of which we have only tions or the darkest anxieties of a nation been able to give a brief outline. The or a church at any particular stage of its subject is one which would well repay the existence. pointed regent, and the Emperor Louis Napoleon arrived at Genoa; on the 21st was raised a loan of 20,000,000fr.; on the 20th occurred the victory of the French and Sardinians at Montebello; and on the 30th and 31st at Palestro. On the 22nd of May, 1864, died the Duke of Malakoff; on the 3rd of May, 1865, the Emperor visited Algeria; on the 6th of May, 1866, at Auxerre, his Imperial Majesty expressed his detestation of the treaties of 1815; and we all know too well what has happened in May, 1871. Manchester Examiner. THE MONTH OF MAY IN FRENCH HISTORY.- 12th of May, 1859, France having declared war The month of May, if not the "merriest, mad-against Austria, the Empress Eugenie was apdest," month of all the year, has always been an eventful month in the annals of France. On the 30th of May, 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at Rouen; on the 14th of May, 1610, Henry IV. was murdered by Ravaillac; on the 23rd of May, 1706, the French were defeated at Ramillies; in May, 1756, began the Seven Years' War; on the 10th of May, 1774, died Louis XV.; the 5th of May, 1789, was the date of the opening of the States-General; on the 12th of May, 1794, Madame Elizabeth was executed; on the 12th of May, 1796, Baboeuf's conspiracy was suppressed, and in the same month in the following year Pichegru's conspiracy failed; on the 19th of May, 1802, the "Legion of Honour " was instituted; on the 22nd of May, 1803, war was declared against England; on the 26th of May, THE ORIGIN OF A PESTILENCE.-It need not 1805, Napoleon I. was crowned King of Italy; on interfere with our active sympathy and aid to the 5th of May, 1808, Charles IV. of Spain and the sufferers from the terrible epidemic at Buenos his son abdicated in favour of Napoleon; and on Ayres, if we take to heart, writes the British the 27th of the same month commenced the in- Medical Journal, the lesson which that episurrection in that country. In May, in the fol- demic teaches. The natural advantages of the lowing year, Napoleon entered Vienna; on the town, as to site and climate, are very great; but, 3rd of May, 1814, the Bourbon dynasty was re- by a reckless and obstinate disregard of the stored, and Louis XVIII. arrived in Paris; and commonest rules of hygiene, soil and water have on the 4th of that month, in the same year, Na- been so poisoned that it is doubtful whether poleon arrived at Elba. On the 5th of May, there is an effectual remedy less sweeping than 1821, Napolean died at St. Helena; on the 16th to remove the population altogether to another of May, 1830, the Chamber of Deputies was dis- site lower down the river. During threescore solved three months before the abdication of years a progressively increasing population has Charles X.; on the 20th of May, 1834, Lafay-done its work. There is.absolutely no drainage. ette died; on the 8th of May, 1837, Louis Phil-In the courtyard of every house a cesspool is lippe, being on the throne, an amnesty was dug; as this is filled, a trench is led off to a secgranted for political offences; and in the same ond at a lower level; presently another trench month Louis Napoleon published his Idees to a third; and so on. The soil is light and Napoleoniennes; on the 20th of May, also in sandy, and so readily allows percolation. Thus that year, Talleyrand died; on the 25th of May, have successive generations contrived to utterly 1846, Louis Napoleon escaped from Ham; on the poison the soil, water and air of their town. 7th of May, 1848, the Provisional Government Lately, the courtyard of the club-house was resigned to an Executive Commission elected by found to be so riddled with cess-pools - there the National Assembly of the French Republic; being more than thirty-that it was at last reon the 15th the people's attack on the Assembly solved to move the club. The same conditions was suppressed; and on the 26th the perpetual prevailed more or less over the whole city. Mr. banishment of Louis Philippe and his family Bateman, C.E., has been sent for, we believe, to was decreed; on the 15th of May, 1855, the In- give plans for drainage, and to see what can be dustrial Exhibition was opened at Paris; on the done. He will have no easy task. The publishers are in want of Nos. 1179 and 1180 (dated respectively Jan. 5th and Jan. 12th, 1867) of THE LIVING AGE. To subscribers, or others, who will do us the favor to send us either or both of those numbers, we will return an equivalent, either in our publications or in cash, until our wants are supplied. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually for. to pay commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. From the Transcript. SINGING IN THE RAIN. The day dawned barren and chilly, An east wind railed at the pane; Gray fog veiled the leafing chestnut, Where a robin sang in the rain: Sang in the rain his sweetest 66 Cheer-up, O cheer-up, cheer;" He might have sung to the angels, He looked as the blind may look; Cloud fingers had shut the book: Yet well had he learned the carol, And he sang it out of his heart; Nor once was it worth his asking When the veil would fall apart. ANACREONTIC. O if my love offended me I'd whip her with a feather! But should she clench her dimpled fists, Dark Blue. MORNING HYMN FOR WEDNESDAY. Light of Light, essential day, Chase the darkness from the mind, Bishop Mant. THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD. Hush, Magdalena! hush thy wailing! Here, Magdalena, smiles become thee, The threatening anguish is passed from thee! Join, Magdalena! join our choirs! Lift, Magdalena! lift thy face Live, Magdalena! life is well: Thy sun again mounts high in heaven; From Fraser's Magazine. THE TENURE OF LAND IN EUROPE. THE question of the Land is looming in the immediate future, and men are to-day gathering up from the various countries of Europe those materials from which may be obtained a more perfect grasp of the constituents to be considered. In its first view the problem appears complex to the extreme of complexity; for Common Law and Roman Law, Feudal Law and Ecclesiastical Law, are so interwoven that the highest legal intellects have expressed their sense of the enormous difficulties in which the matter is involved, and have from time to time indicated their desire to find a remedy. But far more important, because more profound, passionate, and growing, is that phase of the question which is discussed in all the great manufacturing centres of our country; and which does not enquire what are the legal technicalities or difficulties, but asks, whence came the original possession of the land, and what constitutes the right of holding? These questions are asked with a feverish intensity which has a significance more powerful than words. They are debated from one end of our land to the other, and they occasionally rise broadly upward in the face of great meetings; rousing to temporary madness the whole mass of the audience, and shutting out all else in the excitement of the one question of the Land. whilst in Russia the old form of communism re-appears, heralded in with shouts of jubilation, and credited with the power to revivify society. These forms of land occupancy exhibit the widest possible divergencies; for despite the apparent uniformity impressed upon them by the outside trappings of modern life, such as religion, war, or commerce, they yet in reality contain differences of condition that are separated by centuries of civilization. At the present time in Europe we have four influences in greater or lesser activity, The earliest, the widest spread, the most permanent, and, in one sense, the most important, is the old law of communism; for, when closely viewed and carefully traced through its various modifications, it will be found to underlie the entire structure of European land tenure. Arising out of it, extending over it, and having had in the past almost as wide a range of activity, is that of feudal law; its influence having ever been directed to the abrogation of common holdings and the building up of manorial rights. This power of feudalism grew but slowly, rising into full development at the time of our own Norman Conquest, and retaining, even to the present hour, some of its most marked privileges in their entirety. Against this law of feudal tenure- against the assumption of superior right— against the line of demarcation that separated class from classagainst the pretension of being above or below the salt the whole power of mod None recognize these truths more absolutely than those who know the under-ern thought and modern progress has current of life most thoroughly; and the struggled, and in that struggle has ever greater the certainty of these facts, the achieved its victory. It has been enabled, greater is the necessity that the problem step by step and little by little, to break should be reduced into its simpler ele- down the successive barriers; how this ments, so that all minds may grasp the has been achieved, by what efforts and difficulty with which we have to deal. It through what processes, is best told by is from this point of view that the present that series of enactments that appears in state of land tenure in Europe affords us a our statue books. But these three great great lesson and a great opportunity. On influences that of the law of common some parts of its surface may be seen the tenure, the law of feudal tenure, and the earlier forms of tenure re-awakening into law of modern thought are each modifull force and activity, whilst at other fied by another influence, the conditions of points there still remain the stagnating population as represented by the greater records of the past, slowly dying out. In or lesser density of life. So long as a popRome ecclesiastical law lately held its ulation is sparse, so long as large tracts of sway; in Prussia modified feudalism still country remain uncultivated, so long will insists upon the divine right of kings; the law of common holding and the law of |