We congratulate those friends of the author who prevailed upon him to draw a portrait of the Prophet of Wittenberg from his own works. They may well feel proud of the suggestion, and of the manner in which it has been carried out. Every chapter of the twenty-four comprised in the volume, is written in a spirit of impartiality, and with a scrupulous regard to the dictates of justice, truth, and charity. What a contrast between the tone of what the author has to say, and the fierce and rabid utterances of the "Prophet" himself and many of his adherents!

In the opening chapter, Dr. Verres gives a sketch of the state of society, of literature, and of religion in Germany before Luther appeared on the scene, and refutes many false statements on these several heads. As he proceeds, he notes down the causes that prepared the way for the revolt of Luther, exhibits Luther's ignorance on the question of Indulgences, and shows that the true explanation of his fall is to be found in the pride and sensuality of the rebel. The Heresiarch's errors on Justification, Free Will, the Sacraments, Scriptural Interpretation, are set forth with clearness, and established by the irrefragable testimony of the "Reformer's" own statements. The intolerance and tyranny of the "Liberator" are graphically described. Nor has he declined the painful duty of exposing the credulity, the calumnies, the abusive language and ribald jokes of the "dear man of God."

The fruits of the Reformation, which was designed to "restore the Gospel," and remove from the world the depravity in which it was plunged by the old "apostate church," are briefly and forcibly depicted by reference to the forced admission of Luther and his disciples. And what a picture! Our readers must view it in the work we are noticing. Of the many evils resulting from Luther's "Evangelium," the most appalling is the wide-spread rationalism of the present day, and the infidelity to which rationalism leads. In Germany, legion is the name of Protestants who are absolute infidels, and discard all supernatural belief: hating the Catholic Church, and boasting of being "the legitimate children of the Reformation."

We should desire to call attention to the comparison between the introduction of Christianity and the spread of Lutheranism in the sixteenth chapter, and to Luther's character in twenty-third chapter, if our allotted space were not nearly filled. For the same reason, we cannot dwell on the freshness and vigour of the author's pen, on his rare power of arresting the attention of his readers, and making them feel the keenest interest in what he narrates.

And now a word as to the effect which this work may have upon the religious polemics of the day. Even as the votaries of Islam are blindly attached to the tenets of the false prophet, and remain deaf to the voice of the ministers of the Gospel, and as the worshippers of Idols remained wedded to their superstitions in the early ages of the Church, when the follies and excesses of

paganism were exposed and denounced by Christian apologists, so, we fear, certain fanatical followers of the false prophet of Wittenberg, will allow no ray of light to penetrate the dark cloud of illusion in which they are wrapped. The scoffing rationalist and hardened infidel will cast aside, with equal indifference, the charges proved against Luther and the vindication of the Catholic Church; but good men, earnest in the search of truth, will find, if they are still straying away from the one true fold, a guide and a help in the work before us. Catholics, too, will be at no loss to form a correct estimate of Luther and his work from the evidence supplied by the industry and ability of Dr. Verres. D. G.

The Truth about Ireland. By an English Liberal. London : KEGAN PAUL, TENCH & Co.

The spirit in which this remarkable brochure has been received by the Irish press makes it unnecessary for us to comment at length on its contents. In it the state of Ireland, her misgovernment, grievances, and aspirations are powerfully portrayed by an earnest well-wisher who has the manliness not to mince the truth in speaking to his fellow Liberals. For this he will receive the gratitude of Irishmen, who at the same time scorn his politicoreligious theories. His ill-considered attempt to show that Catholicism is a clog on Irish Nationality receives a crushing blow from the every-day facts of public life in Ireland as narrated by the Author himself. Virulence against the Catholic Church could nowhere be displayed in more unfitting connection. Yet on this score an "English Liberal," might do service as pamphleteer to a no-popery league. Whilst Irishmen stand up for their country and her rights unflinchingly, strangers who as yet have failed to make themselves felt in critical moments as her friends, might with advantage practise the modesty of not lecturing us on the so-called slavish restraints of our religion. The generosity of offering a choice between Romanism" and "Liberalism" is intensely humorous at this stage of history. If "A Liberal" devoted the same fair and praiseworthy attention to our religious principles that he has given to the political and social condition of Ireland, his notions of the former would be unstained by the silliness that now characterizes them, and mars the effect of some of his best pages.

P. O'D. Translated by MARIANNE CAROLINE and COVENTRY PATMORE. London: BURNS & OATES.

St. Bernard on the love of God.

This little volume contains the translation not only of St. Bernard's beautiful work on the love of God, but also of another fragment in which the holy Doctor was engaged at the time of his death. We have, in addition, meditations for three Rosaries; one in honour of our Lady as Co-redemptrix; another in honour of the Sacred Heart; and the third in imitation of our Lady.

THE IRISH

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

DECEMBER, 1884.

THE SCHOOL OF BANGOR.-ST. COMGALL. T. COMGALL, who founded the great school of Bangor, and is not greatly celebrated for his own learning, was the founder of a school which of all others seems to have exercised the widest influence both at home and abroad by means of the great scholars which it produced. Bangor and Armagh were by excellence the great Northern schools, just as Clonard was the school of Meath, Glendaloch of Leinster, Lismore of Munster, and Clonmacnoise and Mayo of Connaught. For it must be borne in mind that Clonmacnoise was founded by St. Kieran from Roscommon, that he was the patron saint of Connaught,' and that until a comparatively recent period it formed a portion of the Western Ecclesiastical Province. The influence of the other schools however was mainly felt at home, or to some extent in England, Scotland, and Germany; but the influence of Bangor was felt in France, and Switzerland, and Italy, and not only in ancient times but down to the present day. There are great names amongst the Missionaries who have gone from other monastic schools in Ireland to preach the Gospel abroad, but if we except St. Columba who was trained at many schools in Ireland, there are no other names so celebrated as St. Columbanus the founder of Luxeil and Bobbio, and St. Gall who has given his name to an equally celebrated Monastery and Canton in Switzerland. It is, then, highly interesting and instructive to trace the origin and influence of this famous Irish school.

St. Comgall, the founder of Bangor, was a native of the territory anciently called Boirche or Mourne in the

1 See the Poem from the Saltair na Rann on the Patron Saints of Ireland, Cambr. Eversus, Vol. II., page 779. 3 к

VOL. V.

County Antrim, a district to the north of Belfast Lough opposite to the place where he afterwards founded his Monastery. There is some difference of opinion as to the exact date of his birth, and indeed as to the length of his life, although all admit that he died in the year 600 or 601. He seems to have been during his life from boyhood to old age a friend and companion of St. Columcille, and hence if we accept the length of his life given by the Bollandists' as eighty years we may fix his birth at about 520-which was also the date, or near it, of Columcille's birth. Comgallus the name by which he was baptized has been frequently explained to signify the lucky pledge-faustum pignus--because he was a child of benediction, the only son of his parents, and born too when they were advanced in years. As usual in the case of our Irish saints, several prodigies are said to have taken place both before and shortly after his birth. His father was Sedna a small chief of the district then known as Dalaradia or Dalaray, his mother was a devout matron called Briga, who is said to have been warned before his birth to retire from the world because her offspring was destined in future days to become a great saint of God. These pious parents took him to be baptized by a blind old priest called Fehlim, who knew however, by heart, the proper method of administering the Sacrament of Baptism. There being no water at hand a miraculous stream burst forth from the soil, and the old priest feeling the presence of the divine influence washed his face in the stream, and at once recovered his sight, after which he baptized the child and gave him the appropriate name of Comgall. This is only one of the numberless miracles recorded in the two lives of St. Comgall given by the Bollandists, but it will be unnecessary for our purpose to refer to them in detail.

The boy in his youth was sent to work in the fields and seems to have assisted his parents with great alacrity in all their domestic concerns. When he grew up a little more he was sent to learn the Psalms and other divine hymns from a teacher in the neighbourhood whose precepts were much better than his example. The young child of grace, however, was not led away from the path of virtue, on the contrary he seems in his own boyish way to have given gentle hints to his teacher that his life was not what it ought to be. On one occasion, for instance, Comgall

1 In the Second Life.

rolled his coat in the mud and coming before his master, the latter said to him, "Is it not a shame to soil your coat so ?" "Is it not a greater shame," replied Comgall, "for any one to soil his soul and body by sin?" The teacher took the hint and was silent; but the lesson was unheeded, and so the holy youth resolved to seek elsewhere a holier preceptor.

This was about the year 545. At that time a young and pre-eminently holy man named Fintan had established a monastery at a place called Cluain-edneach, now Clonenagh, quite near Mountrath in the Queen's County. The fame of this infant monastery had spread far and wide over the face of the land; for although in many places in those days of holiness there was strict rule, and poor fare, and rigid life, yet Fintan of Clonenagh seems to have been the strictest and poorest and most rigid of them all. He would not allow even a cow to be kept for the use of his monks-consequently they had no milk, no butter; neither had they eggs, nor cheese, nor fat, nor flesh of any kind. They had a little corn, and herbs, and plenty of water near at hand, for the bogs and marshes round their monastic cells were frequently flooded by the many tributaries of the infant Nore coming down from the slopes of the Slieve-bloom mountains. They had plenty of hard work too in the fields tilling the barren soil, and in the woods cutting down timber for the buildings of the monastery as well as for firewood, and then drawing it home in loads on their backs or dragging it after them over the uneven soil. The discipline of this monastery was so severe and the food of the monks so wretched that the neighbouring saints thought it prudent to come and beg the Abbot Fintan to relax a little of the extreme severity of his discipline, which was more than human nature could endure. The Abbot though unwilling to relax his own fearful austerities in the least, consented at the earnest prayer of St. Canice to modify the severity of his discipline to some extent for the others, and they were no doubt not unwilling to get the relaxation. It speaks well for the love of holy penance shown by these young Christians of Ireland that in spite of its severe discipline this monastery was crowded with holy inmates from all parts of the country, and amongst the rest came Comgall from his far-off Dalaradian home to become a disciple of this school of labour and penance.

He remained a considerable time under the guidance of