January 3. St. Genevieve. St. Anterus, Pope. St. Gordius. St. Peter Balsam. St. Genevieve, Patroness of Paris. Alban Butler affirms that she was born in 422, at Nanterre, four miles from Paris, near the present Calvary there, and that she died a virgin on this day in 512, and was buried in 545, near the steps of the high altar in a magnificent church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, began by Clovis, where he also was interred. Her relics were afterwards taken up and put into a costly shrine about 630. Of course they worked miracles. Her shrine of gold and silver, covered with precious stones, the presents of kings and queens, and with a cluster of diamonds on the top, presented by the intriguing Mary de Medicis, is, on calamitous occasions, carried about Paris in procession, accompanied by shrines equally miraculous, and by the canons of St. Genevieve walking bare-foot. The miracles of St. Genevieve, as reiated in the Golden Legend, were equally numerous and equally credible. It relates that when she was a child, St. Germaine said to her mother, "Know ye for certain that on the day of Genevieve's nativity the angels sung with joy and gladness," and looking on the ground he saw a penny signed with the cross, which came there by the will of God; he took it up, and gave it to Genevieve, requiring her to bear in mind that she was the spouse of Christ. She promised him accordingly, and often went to the minster, that she might be worthy of her espousals. "Then," says the Legend, "the mother was angry, and smote her on the cheek-God avenged the child, so that the mother became blind," and so remained for one and twenty months, when Genevieve fetched her some holy water, signed her with the sign of the cross, washed her eyes, and she recovered her sight. It further relates, that by the Holy Ghost she showed many people their secret thoughts, and that from fifteen years to fifty she fasted every day except Sunday and Thursday, when she ate beans, and barley-bread of three weeks old. Desiring to build a church, and dedicate it to St. Denis and other martyrs, she required materials of the priests for that purpose. "Dame," answered the priests, we would; but we can get no chalk nor lime." She desired them to go to the bridge of Paris and bring what they found there. They did so till two swineherds came by, one of whom said to the other, "I went yesterday after one of my sows and found a bed of lime;" the other replied that he had also found one under the root of a tree that the wind had blown down. St. Genevieve's priests of course inquired where these discoveries were made, and bearing the tidings to Genevieve the church of St. Denis was began. During its progress the workmen wanted drink, whereupon Genevieve called for a vessel, prayed over it, signed it with the cross, and the vessel was immediately filled; "so," says the Legend, "the workmen drank their belly full," and the vessel continued to be supplied in the same way with "drink” for the workmen till the church was finished. At another time a woman stole St. Genevieve's shoes, but as soon as she got home lost her sight for the theft, and remained blind, till, having restored the shoes, St. Genevieve restored the woman's sight. Desiring the liberation of certain prisoners condemned to death at Paris, she went thither and found the city gates were shut against her, but they opened without any other key than her own presence. She prayed over twelve men in that city possessed with devils, till the men were suspended in the air, and the devils were expelled. A child of four years old fell in a pit and was killed St. Genevieve only covered her with her mantle and prayed over her, and the child came to life and was baptized at Easter. On a voyage to Spain she arrived at a port "where, as of custom, ships were wont to perish." Her own vessel was likely to strike on a tree in the water, which seems to have caused the wrecks; she commanded the tree to be cut down, and began to pray; when lo, just as the tree began to fall, "two wild heads, grey and horrible, issued thereout, which stank so sore, that the people that were there were envenomed by the space of two hours, and never after perished ship there; thanks be to God and this holy saint." At Meaux, a master not forgiving his servant his faults though St. Genevieve prayed him, she prayed against him. He was immediately seized with a hot ague; "on the morrow he came to the holy virgin, running with open mouth like a German bear, his tongue hanging out like a boar, and requiring pardon." She then blessed him, the fever left him, and the servant was pardoned. A girl going by with a bottle, St. Genevieve called to her, and asked what she carried, she answered oil, which she had bought; but St. Genevieve seeing the devil sitting on the bottle, blew upon it, and the bottle broke, but the saint blessed the oil, and caused her to bear it home safely notwithstanding. The Golden Legend says, that the people who saw this, marvelled that the saint could see the devil, and were greatly edified. It was to be expected that a saint or such miraculous powers in her lifetime should possess them after her death, and accordingly the reputation of her relics is very high. Several stories of St. Genevieve's miraculous faculties, represent them as very convenient in vexatious cases of ordinary occurrence; one of these will serve as a specimen. On a dark wet night she was going to church with her maidens, with a candle borne before her, which the wind and rain put out; the saint merely called for the candle, and as soon as she took it in her hand it was lighted again, "without any fire of this world." Other stories of her lighting candles in this way, call to mind a candle, greatly venerated by E. Worsley in a "Discourse of Miracles wrought in the Roman Catholic Church, or, a full Refutation of Dr. Stillingfleet's unjust Exceptions against Miracles," octavo, 1676. At p. 64, he says, "that the miraculous wax candle, yet seen at Arras, the chief city of Artois, may give the reader entertainment, being most certain, and never doubted of by any. In 1105, that is, much above 569 years ago, (of so great antiquity the candle is,) a merciless plague reigned in Arras. The whole city, ever devout to the Mother of God, experienced her, in this their necessity, to be a true mother of mercy the manner was thus. The Virgin Mary appeared to two men, and enjoined them to tell the bishop of Arras, that on the next Saturday towards morning she would appear in the great church, and put into his hands a wax candle burning; from whence drops of wax should fall into a vessel of water prepared by the bishop. She said, moreover, that all the diseased that drank of this water, should forthwith be cured. This truly promised, truly happened. Our blessed Lady appeared all beautiful, having in her hands a wax candle burning, which diffused light over the whole church. this she presented to the bishop; he blessing it with the sign of the cross, se it in the urn of water; when drops c wax plentifully fell down into the vesse.. The diseased drank of it, all were cured, the contagion ceased, and the candle to this day preserved with great veneration, spends itself, yet loses nothing; and therefore remains still of the same length and greatness it did 500 years ago. A vast quantity of wax, made up of the many drops which fall into the water upon those festival days, when the candle burns, may be justly called a standing, indeficient miracle." This candle story, though gravely related by a catholic writer, as not doubted ot by any," and as therefore not to be doubted, miraculously failed in convincing the protestant Stillingfleet, that "miracles wrought in the Roman catholic church," ought to be believed. CHRONOLOGY. 1639. A manuscript entitled "Commentaries of the Civil Wars, from 1638 to 1648," written by Sir Henry Slingsby, bart. a royalist, intimates the struggle, then approaching, between Charles I. and the nation. He says, "The 3d of January, 1639, I went to Bramham-house, out of curiosity, to see the training of the light-horse, for which service I had sent two horses, by commandment of the lieutenant and sir Joseph Ashley, who is lately come down, with special commission from the king to train and exercise them. These are strange spectacles to this nation in this age, that has rived thus long peaceably, without noise of drum or of shot, and after we have stood neuter, and in peace, when all the world besides hath been in arms." The "training" was preparatory to the war with the Scots, the resistance of the commons in parliament, and its levies of troops to oppose the royal will. "The armourers With busy hammers closing rivets up, Gave dreadful note of preparation ;' the conflict ended in the death of Charles on the scaffold, the interregnum, the restoration, and the final expulsion of the Stuart race. St. Rumon. Alban Butler informs us, from William of Malmsbury, that he was a bishop, though of what nation or see is unknown, and that his name is in the English martyrology. Cressy says, that his body was buried at Tavistock, where, about 960, Ordgar, count of Devonshire, father to Elfrida, the second wife of king Edgar, built a monastery "very agreeable and pleasant, by reason of the great variety of woods, pastures, and rivers abounding with fish." St. Rumon consecrated the church. About thirty years afterwards, the monastery was destroyed and burnt by the Danes. It is memorable, that Edulf, a son of Ordgar, buried in that monastery, was a man of gigantic stature, and of such wonderful strength, that going to Exeter, and finding the gates shut and barred, he broke the outer iron bars with his hands, burst open the gates with his foot, tore the ocks and bolts asunder, and broke down part of the wall. CHRONOLOGY. pressed Ascham with its importance, that he says, he "thought to prepare some little treatise for a new-year's gift that Christmas," but it grew beneath his hands and became his "Scholemaster, showing a plain and perfect way of teaching the learned languages." The best edition of this work, which Ascham did not live to publish, is that edited by the Rev. James Upton, 1743, octavo. The book was first printed by Ascham's widow, whom with her children he left in distress. It was eminently serviceable to the advancement of teachers and pupils, at a period when it was the fashion to flog. Its most remarkable feature is the frowning down of this brutal practice, which, to the disgrace of our own times, is still heard of in certain seminaries, both public and private. The good old man says, "Beat a child if he dance not well, and cherish him though he learn not well, ye shall have him unwilling to go to dance, and glad to go to his book: knock him always wher. he draweth his shaft ill, and favour him again though he fault at his book, ye 1568. On the 4th of January Roger shall have him very loth to be in the Ascham died, and was buried at St. field, and very willing to go to school." Sepulchre's church, London. He was He observes," If ever the nature of man born in Yorkshire about 1515, and is be given at any time, more than another, celebrated for his learning, for having to receive goodness, it is in innocency of been tutor and Latin secretary to queen young years before that experience of Elizabeth, and for having written" the evil have taken root in him. For the Scholemaster." This work originated pure, clean wit of a sweet young babe, from mention having been made at din- is like the newest wax, most able to rener that some Eton scholars "had run ceive the best and fairest printing; and away from school for fear of beating." like a new bright silver dish never occuAscham expressed his opinion that pied, to receive and keep clean any good "young children were sooner allured by thing that is put into it. Therefore, to love, than driven by beating, to attain love or to hate, to like or contemn, to good learning." He then retired up ply this way or that way, to good or to stairs "to read with the queen's majesty': bad, ye shall have as ye use a child in we read then together that noble oration his youth." He exemplifies this by a of Demosthenes against Æschines, for his delightful anecdote of the young, beautifalse dealing in his embassy to king ful, and accomplished lady Jane Grey, Philip of Macedon; sir Richard Sack- who shortly afterwards perished by the ville came up soon after." Sackville axe of the executioner. Ascham, before took Ascham aside, " A fond (silly) school- he went into Germany, visited Broadmaster," said sir Richard, "before I was gate in Leicestershire, to take leave of fully fourteen years old, drove me so, her. "Her parents, the duke and with fear of beating, from all love of duchess, with all the household, gentlelearning, as now, when I know what dif- men and gentlewomen, were hunting in ference it is to have learning, and to have the park. I found her," says Ascham, little, or none at all, I feel it my greatest" in her chamber, reading Phædo Platonis grief, and find it my greatest hurt, that ever came to me, that it was so my ill chance, to light upon so lewd (ignorant) a schoolmaster. The whole conversation was very interesting and so im in Greek, and that with as much delight, as some gentlemen would read a merry tale in Boccace. After salutation, and duty done, with some other talk, I asked her, why she would lose such pastime in the park? Smiling, she answered me : "I wist, all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure that I find in Plato. Alas! good-folk, they never felt what true pleasure meant.' "And how came you, madam,' quoth I, 'to this deep knowledge of pleasure? And what did chiefly allure you unto it, seeing not many women, but very few men, have attained thereunto?' "I will tell you,' quoth she,' and tell you a truth, which perchance you will marvel at. One of the greatest benefits that ever God gave me, is, that he sent me so sharp and severe parents, and so gentle a schoolmaster. For when I am in presence either of father or mother, whether I speak, keep silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink, be merry, or sad, be sewing, playing, dancing, or doing any thing else, i must do it, as it were, in such weight, measure, and number, even so perfectly, as God made the world; or else I am so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened, yea presently sometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs, and other ways (which I will not name for the honour I bear them) so without measure misordered, that I think myself in hell, till time come that I must go to Mr. Elmer; who teachet me so gently, so pleasantly, with such fair allurements to learning, that I think all the time nothing, while I am with him : and when I am called from him, I fall on weeping, because whatsoever I do else, but learning, is full of grief, trouble, fear. and whole misliking unto me: and thus my book hath been so much my pleasure, and bringeth daily to me more pleasure and more, that in respect of it, all other pleasures in very deed, be but trifles and troubles unto me." Surely this innocent creature's confession, that she was won to the love of learning and her teacher by his gentleness, and the disclosure of her affliction under the severe discipline of her parents, are positive testimony to the fact, that our children are to be governed and taught by the law of kindness: nor let it detract from the force of the remark, that in connection with her artless feelings and blameless deportment, if her hard fate call forth a versified effusion. INSCRIBED BENEATH A PORTRAIT OF LADY JANE GREY. Originai. Young, beautiful, and learned Jane, intent On knowledge, found it peace; her vast acquirement Of goodness was her fall; she was content With dulcet pleasures, such as calm retirement Yields to the wise alone ;-her only vice Was virtue: in obedience to her sire To their ambition: her own mild desire Was rather to be happy than be great; For though at their request she claimed the crown, 1815. On the 4th of January, died Alexander Macdonald, Esq., who is no other way remarkable, than for a chivalrous devotion to the family of Stuart. He raised a monument in the vale of Glenfinnyn, at the head of Lochshiel, in the county of Inverness, with a Latin, Gaelic, and English inscription, to commemorate the last open efforts of that family, for the recovery of a crown they had forfeited by innumerable breaches of the laws, and whose aggressions on life and property being suffered, till "Non-resistance could no further go," they were excluded from the throne of the people, by the aristocracy and commonalty of England in parliament assembled. As evidence of the spirit that dictated such a memorial, and of the proper feeling which permits that spirit to be expressed, in spite of its hostility to the principles that deposited and continued the diadem of the commonwealth in the custody of the house of Hanover, the in scription on the monument is placed in the next column. It stands in English in these words: Glenaladale, To commemorate the generous zeal, After the expulsion of pope Pius VI. from "the chair of St. Peter," by the French, he fled from his splendid residences at Rome and Frascati to Venice, infirm in health, distressed in circumstances, and at the age of seventyfive. He subsisted for awhile on the The undaunted bravery, and the inviolable fidelity, produce of some silver plate, which he Of his forefathers, and the rest of those Who fought and bled in that Alas! Also become the Monument Before it was finished, The "right line" of the Stuart race terminated in the late cardinal York. He was the second son of "the Pretender," and was born at Rome on the 26th of March 1725; where he was baptized by the name of Henry Benedict Maria Clemens : he died there in 1807, in the 83d year of his age. In 1745 he went to France to head an army of fifteen thousand men, assembled at Dunkirk for the invasion of England. The battle of Culloden settled "the arduous and unfortunate enterprise," which the "amiable and accomplished founder" of the monument commemorates, and not a single transport left Dunkirk roads. As soon as Henry Benedict heard of the affair at Culloden, he returned to Rome, entered into priest's orders, and in 1747 was made a cardinal by pope Benedict XIV. It was taunted by a former pope upon James II. that he "lost his kingdom for a mass ;" and it is certain that Henry Benedict was better qualified to take a red-hat and pull on and off red stockings, than to attempt the conquest of a free protestant nation. had saved from the ruin of his property. of 4000l. would be at his service, so long ledged by the cardinal in terms of grati- he devoted himself to ecclesiastical func. worldly views, till his father's death in JUNTATE HOMINUM' if we are not misinformed, our sovereign has one of these medals." From one in the possession of the compiler of this work, he is enabled to present an engraving of it to his readers. HENRY IX. KING OF ENGLAND. |