has attended service in this church must have wondered at the innumerable passages, gates, and doors, which afford an outlet to the Vredenburg on the one side, and to the Marie-plaatz on the other. I have been informed that the last surviving Klopje died at Utrecht in the summer of 1853. The name of Klopjes, though other derivations have been proposed for it, is undoubtedly taken from the Dutch verb Klopjen, to Knock, because it was thus that they gave warning in case of sudden danger. Each Sister had her own peculiar article of church furniture, -chalice, corporal, paten, cruet, or whatever else it might be,-which it was her duty to remove, should the magistrates obtain information of the meeting; and thus, in an incredibly short time, all traces of service were taken away, and the officers of justice found nothing but bare walls and empty galleries."-Pp. 144-146.

We have mentioned one question much agitated by Roman writers respecting the Church of Holland; there is another point of almost equal importance which has reference to the validity of the Vicariate erected by Rovenius in the place of the original Chapter of Utrecht. The proceeding was perhaps somewhat irregular, but the circumstances under which it originated called imperatively for some relaxation of the strict rules of discipline, and were a sufficient excuse for such relaxation. When the States had resolved that none but Protestants should for the future be presented to vacant Canonries, what course was open to the Archbishop if he wished to preserve the integrity of the Chapter? He could not contend with the Government, and make fresh appointments in opposition to the nominees of the ruling power. He therefore adopted the only resource which remained. He chose seven of the existing canons, adding to their number four other priests of his diocese, and then with the consent of the whole body, formed these eleven ecclesiastics into a Vicariate, which was identical with the old Chapter, and was acknowledged as such by the Court of Rome. The number was subsequently reduced to eight, but its validity has never been successfully impugned.1 It was a providential thing that the Chapter of Utrecht was in this danger of extinction rather in the time of Rovenius than during the episcopate of his once coadjutor and successor, James de la Torre. Of gentle and pleasing manners, and possessed of no moderate share of learning, De la Torre was so lamentably deficient in firmness and in the art of governing men, that he would have seen the Chapter ruined, perhaps irretrievably, without an effort for its preservation. Not that he was not sincerely desirous of securing the welfare of his province by every means in his power, but from weakness of character he allowed himself to be made the tool of men more astute and persevering than himself, and thus with the best motives helped the Jesuits to increase the number of their stations, and to add to their staff of missionaries, at the same time

1 The matter is treated at large by Mr. Neale in Appendix III.

undermining his own authority and introducing discord and confusion among his people. And he did more than this. From complaisance to the civil power, which was offended by the assumption of territorial designations, he dropped the title of Archbishop of Utrecht, and contented himself with appearing to be what he was not, a mere Vicar-Apostolic, the nominee of the Court of Rome. It was well for the Church when, after intriguing for the Bishopric of Ypres and obtaining the appointment, too late however to enjoy it, he departed this life Sept. 16, 1661. During the time of the next Archbishop, John Van Neercassel, the much harassed Church of Holland enjoyed comparative peace and prosperity. The Protestants ceased to persecute; the stringent enactments against Catholics were not enforced; and while concord and unanimity prevailed among the clergy, the number of converts increased continually. Meantime in other quarters a furious controversy was raging. It was just at this period that the Five Propositions were formally pronounced to be found in Jansenius’ works, and were condemned accordingly. Rovenius had some years previously, in conjunction with the most learned of his clergy, expressed his approbation of the famous Augustinus, and now in the hour of their trial Van Neercassel followed in his steps and supported with his sympathy and counsel the remonstrant prelates who were involved in the condemnation of Jansenius. Quesnel and Arnauld were on terms of intimate friendship with him, and the Jansenist party generally looked to Utrecht as an asylum in the event of their own country refusing any longer to sanction their presence. It is commonly said that papal infallibility does not extend to questions of fact, and that in such matters the Pope is as liable to error as other men. But the Formulary decided that certain propositions were to be found in Jansenius' works, many of which that author would have himself repudiated, and which his friends were well assured had no place in any of his writings. They said, as did Van Santen in his conference with the Nuncio, Capaccini, "We know the Augustinus thoroughly, and we are certain that the five Propositions condemned are not contained in that book. How then can we, as honest men, and as Christians, assert that they are found in that work? How can we subscribe a declaration as true which denies a simple fact? If the Pope and the whole Church are misinformed, they cannot alter the fact, nor rightly require us to declare a thing to be the case when we know it is not so." It was in vain that the Papal advocate craftily replied that as the Holy Father assured them of the truth of the Formulary, their scruples were absurd, all responsibility was removed from their shoulders: they ought not to set up their private opinion against the authority of the Church. In vain they asserted that the remonstrants had no business to know what was in the

1 Pp. 360, 399.

Augustinus; they had studied it in contravention of the Papal interdict, and therefore had no right to use the knowledge which they had gained by disobedience. "Show us the five points in Jansenius," said the Hollanders, "and prove that they are stated in the sense in which they are condemned, and that, as thus stated, they are contrary to the doctrine of S. Augustine; and we will subscribe the Formulary. But till you do this, we shall hold to our opinion, and consider we are not they who disturb the peace of the Church, but those who demand from us subscription to what we are entirely persuaded is contrary to fact." "I cannot conceal my indignation," said Van Santen to Capaccini, "at your endeavours to make me declare, in the presence of Almighty GoD, that I Do believe a point that I Do Nor believe: my conscience is subject unto Him, and, by His aid, I will act in His fear. I must continue to refuse to put my name to a Formulary which I reject; my hand must not contradict my heart."

By his defence of the Jansenist prelates and the courageous assertion of his own rights against the Jesuits, Van Neercassel incurred the wrath of that body, and was by them accused of heresy at the Papal Court. But his personal appearance at Rome in 1670, soon set him right with the Propaganda, and he was entirely exonerated from all the charges which had been laid against him. One loves to read of such a Bishop as Van Neercassel. Energetic and enterprising, with him to see the utility of any course of action was the immediate prelude to undertaking it. Simple in an age of luxury, indefatigable in preaching, bold in the performance of the most dangerous duties, sturdily independent amid poverty and distress, whether in his own episcopal seat, or at Rome, or in exile, he was ever true to his profession, recalling to the mind of his friend Arnauld, "one of those ancient bishops, who only distinguished themselves by the zeal and charity with which they guided their flocks, and in whom nothing of the world was seen. If ever a short respite was afforded him from the cares of his diocese he employed it in writing books for the edification of the Church. One of the most famous of these was the Amor pænitens, composed during his temporary sojourn at Huissen, while the French occupied Utrecht. It was intended to correct the erroneous opinions concerning Absolution, to which the laxity of the Jesuits had given occasion. It seems that the priests of this body had been accustomed to absolve persons who offered themselves, without making any sufficient examination into the reality of their contrition or purpose of amendment, and neglecting to enforce the truth that without the love of GOD no sacrament can benefit the recipient. In reply to this Van Neercassel proves by Scripture, the Fathers, and the schoolmen, that in order to be justified a man must not simply fear hell and the consequence of sin, but must love God as the source of righteousness, as his Creator, Redeemer, Regenerator;

and that love may supply the absence of sacraments, but sacraments can never make up for the want of love. It was not to be expected that such a work, antagonistic as it was to the practical teaching of the Jesuits, would escape a strong and determined opposition. In fact the indignation with which these received it amounted almost to frenzy. But it was so sound in argument, so moderate and reasonable in tone, and so incontrovertible in theory, that its enemies never succeeded in obtaining its formal condemnation from Rome, and Innocent XI. affirmed that the book was a good one and its author a saint.

BISHOPS AND CURATES.

AMONG the questions which are seething in the cauldron of time, and will ere long appear on the surface, there is one which we consider of no small importance, and that is the question of the position held by, and the wrongs suffered by a body of men who do one half of the work which is being done from day to day by the ministry of the Church of England.

The Bishop of London is doing good service in several ways. Had he been a man of discretion as well as bitterness, a man of mental power, as well as a man of rooted prejudice, his Lordship might have done much harm to the Church; and on the principle of being thankful for small benefits, we rejoice that his Lordship's bitterness and prejudices are sufficiently isolated from the other qualities we have named to make them comparatively harmless. Indeed they are doing, as we have said, a good service, for they are showing us all how much mischief it lies in the power even of a weak anti-Church bishop to effect, and warning us by the extreme example obligingly offered to the world by his Lordship, that measures must be taken before long to counteract the evil.1

It has happened on several occasions within recent memory, that bishops have grievously burned their fingers by trying to put down High Church rectors or vicars,-priests possessed of " temporalities" which gave them the right of appeal from episcopal courts of justice (or injustice) to the civil tribunal. Only lately that questionable friend of low-churchmen, Lord Campbell, gave them such a rub in the Court of Queen's Bench, when Archdeacon Denison dragged them there, and the galled place made by the Chief Justice was so cruelly followed up by the dash of salt and vinegar applied by the Privy Council, that they felt it altogether imprudent to risk their cause any more for the present at least in the hands of temporal jus

1 We would suggest, in the first instance, a petition to Convocation.

tice. And until the bench of Judges can be tuned after the same fashion as the bench of Bishops, they have determined to try and make their breach in some quarter which may give them less trouble and pain. Now it so happens that curates not being 'seised or possessed' of an inch of temporalities in land, or an ounce in kind, or a sixpence in coin sterling, they have no locus standi whatever in respect of their office before any temporal judge. A curate is a thing nondescript in the inns of court, a being unknown to Common Pleas, Queen's Bench, or the High Court of Chancery: a myth of whom non-legal people recognize the existence, but of whom lawyers when they are in their gowns and their wigs are utterly ignorant. Some sharp professional of Evangelical principles (or practice') not long since revealed this fact to his episcopal patrons, and having shown them how much use might be made of the circumstance, prevailed on them-we would fain hope he had a great deal of trouble to get over their honourable scruples-to make curates their future victims instead of incumbents, on a principle well known to school-bullies, of always fighting little boys in preference to big ones if you have the choice.

This practice had been going on for some time as opportunity offered, when Mr. Poole's case came on the carpet. Mr. Poole is, or rather was for the last seven years past, curate of S. Barnabas, Pimlico, and by his quiet and inoffensive manner of carrying out very laborious and important duties, has always hitherto staved off from himself personally the attacks which have fallen upon that church and college collectively. Not long ago, however, some loose women with whom the Hon. and Rev. F. Baring had communication, informed that curious and unoccupied priest that Mr. Poole had been making attempts to convert them, and drill them into respectable Christians, and members of society; and further told him, in their own nasty language, that their well-intentioned benefactor had been asking them some questions relating to the commandments, and especially that one of which they had been such sad transgressors. Mr. Baring does not know much about Popery, but he thought that he had at last got hold of something uncommonly like it; so he posted off to the Bishop of London, and acquainted his Lordship with the terrible fact that a Curate of S. Barnabas was trying to convert loose women in a Popish manner, by bringing them to acknowledge that they were sinners against the seventh commandment.

Any one who does not know his Lordship might think he would have met the Honourable and Reverend accuser with the reply, "Well, Mr. Baring, this 'social evil' is such a fearful stain upon my diocese, and my attention has been lately so strongly called to its spread, that really I am rejoiced to hear my clergy are making such strenuous efforts to fight against it and overcome it. To be sure there are things at S. Barnabas' that I cannot approve of,