monastery at Jarrow, where he had passed his life, though his body was removed to Durham in the year 1370, and interred in the same coffin with the ashes of ST. CUTHBERT. BEDE is the FIRST ENGLISH AUTHOR who used the modern mode of date, "ANNO DOMINI ;" and he is alleged by CRESSY to have given name to the CHAPLETS for numbering prayers, which from him were called BEDES, now BEADS. CRESSY'S assertion is much controverted, though it is certain, that the Romanists make use of Beads in rehearsing their Pater-nosters, &c. and that the bead-makers are called by the French, Paternostriers. POLYDORE VERGIL, whose testimony is more to be relied upon than CRESSY's, makes PETER, the Hermit, the inventor of beads, "to be as guides to direct the offices of religion to a proper course: At first," he says, "they were made of wood, but afterwards sometimes of amber, coral, silver, and gold, and used by women as ornaments, or by hypocrites as instruments of feigned devotion." This great and good man was never canonized; but he obtained the title of " VENERABLE" by the voluntary homage of his contemporaries, and from the utility of his works; an attention much more honourable to his memory. The monks, however, not satisfied with such respectable cause for the appellation, have favoured us with two accounts of its origin: "When blind," say some of these authors," he preached to a heap of stones, thinking himself in a church, and the stones were so much affected by his eloquence and piety, that they answered, Amen, venerable BEDE, Amen." While others assert, that "his scholars being desirous of placing upon his tomb an Epitaph in rhyme, agreeably to the usage of the times, wrote "Hæc sunt in fossa, "Bedæ presbyteri ossa ;" which not meeting complete approbation, the much-vexed Poet determined to fast until he should succeed better: accordingly, he expunged the word Presbyteri, and in vain attempted to substitute one more sonorous and consistent with metre, until falling asleep, an ANGEL filled up the blank he had left, and rendered the couplet thus "Hæc sunt in fossa, "Bedæ venerabilis ossa!" BEDE's anniversary is kept on the 27th of May, because the 26th, on which he died, was appropriated to ST. AUSTIN; and as AUSTIN was a great promoter of monasteries, and BEDE wished their reduction, it was not probable that the former should be displaced to make room for one not so much the friend of MONKS; who, for that reason, except in the alleged cause of his title of Venerable, never vouchsafed to mark his memory by any of their miraculous narrations. Our good historian is frequently styled, as already mentioned, the ADMIRABLE BEDE, as well as the VENERABLE BEDE; and the chair in which he composed his Ecclesiastical History, is yet stated to be preserved at Jarrow. Some few years since, this chair was intrusted to the custody of a person who had been accustomed to nautical affairs, and who used, by a whimsical mistake, very excuseable in a sailor, to exhibit it as a curiosity, which formerly belonged to the great ADMIRAL BEDE, upon whose exploits he ventured several encomiums consistent with the naval character. Corpus Christi, (28TH MAY, 1812,) is a feast in the Romish Church, held on the Thursday in each year next following Trinity Sunday. It was instituted A. D. 1264, by Pope URBAN the Fourth, in honour of a miracle that was vouchsafed in his supremacy,—and which the inimitable pencil of RAPHAEL has made generally known,―of the consecrated wafer having dropt with blood, when one of his sceptic Priests had presumed to doubt the real presence in the Sacrament; though a different origin has been given to this festival by two authors of great celebrity in Popish rites, who assign its establishment solely to a DREAM of EVA, formerly a familiar of URBAN, but at the period of her important vision a recluse in the territory of Lieju; Pope HONORIUS the Third, it would, however, appear, had before entertained some ideas of such ordinance. The object of this festival, was to celebrate the inestimable blessings conferred upon mankind by the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, with all its mystic doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION; and hence the pageantry of the day far surpassed that of most others in shadowy observance. Since the Reformation, we have not any remains of the original ceremonies in this country, though formerly we could rival the most bigotted parts of the Continent in the absurdity and profligacy of its celebration, particularly at Coventry, where folly was suffered to take its full range. In Ireland, too, the solemn absurdities of the day were carried to an extraordinary height: In Dublin, the whole of the different Guilds or Fraternities had their respective characters allotted to them, when they attended in procession. The GLOVERS and BREECHES-MAKERS represented Adam and Eve, with an Angel bearing a fiery sword before them; The CURRIERS, Cain and Abel, with an altar and offering; The VINTNERS and MARINERS, Noah and his family in the ark; The WEAVERS, Abraham and Isaac, with their altar and offering; The SKINNERS, the Camel, with the Children of Israel; The SMITHS, Pharaoh and his Host; The GOLDSMITHS, the King of Cullen, (Calogn,) &c.; The HOOPERS, the Shepherds, with an Angel singing Gloria, Christ in his Passion, with the Angels; The TAYLORS, Pilate with his fellowship; The FISHERS, the Apostles; The MERCHANTS, the Prophets; and The BUTCHERS, the Tormentors! The sacrament was carried about attended by all the priests, monks, &c. with the insignia belonging to their several churches; and so highly important was this pageantry considered, that persons of all ranks regarded it as a religious duty to join in the procession. In the evening, the different companies, according to their abilities and inclinations, made theatrical representations of some parts of sacred history, for the amusement and edification of the multitude. By modern historians, we find this day still observed in several parts of the Continent with unabated frivolity; the figures of GIGANTIC MEN and LARGE SERPENTS are exhibited in token of the conquest of CHRIST over the powers |