Indeed he repeatedly lays down the same golden rule of faith: thus, elsewhere in the same treatise he writes: "We confess that God has granted to His Church an unerring teaching, on which the faithful may rest as on a solid foundation. And hence it is that Catholic faith holds as firm truth all that has been defined or may hereafter be defined by the Holy Roman Church; and in like manner whatever that Church commands us to reject must be rejected; for the Roman See has been constituted the rule of our salvation and the first and solid foundation of faith" (ib., cap. x.). In a sermon on the Sunday within the octave of the Ascension he again says: "The Sanctuary of the Tabernacle is the Church of God: make sure to be within that tabernacle: be ever submissive to the correction of Rome, that thus you may not be led away into heresy: for it is the decree of God that no heresy shall creep into the Church of Rome".

As regards the sacraments, Savonarola lays down in the most explicit manner the teaching of the Catholic Church; he dwells on the necessity of confession, on the treasure the Church enjoys in the holy Eucharist, on devotion to the holy Mother of God, in a word, on all those sacred truths which were so soon to be impugned by the profane lips of Luther and his followers. In all his writings, as well as in his sermons, St. Thomas was his text and guide; yet surely no friend of the Protestant Reformation would adopt as his own the teaching of this great doctor of holy Church.

But the history of the last moments of Savonarola should of itself alone suffice to refute the charge of heresy which is made against him. The day before his execution, he asked that his confessor might be brought to him, and fervently approached the sacrament of penance. The next morning he assisted at Mass in the prison chapel, and the privilege was allowed him of receiving the holy communion from his own hands. When his scapular was removed he exclaimed: "O holy habit! how rdent was my desire to possess thee! through the mercy of God thou wert granted to me, and I have ever preserved thee immaculate to this hour, and now it is not through any will of mine that I am deprived of thee". As he mounted the scaffold the papal commissary approached, announcing to him that the Holy Father granted to him and his companions a plenary indulgence for the moment of death, and asking, "Do you accept it?" all three replied "Yes", and humbly bowed to receive it. What

a contrast with the closing scene of Luther's life is here presented to us!

It is true that Savonarola did not show that due submissiveness to authority which we should expect in a religious who had laboured so much in the service of religion. Butthis is quite a

different thing from heresy; into such a fault the best of men may be betrayed, but, as his contemporaries declared, he, like St. Cyprian, expiated all his faults by his repentance and his martyrdom.

He was, indeed, a Reformer in the true sense of the word, and not in the profane and irreligious sense with which heretics have ever sought to mask the venom of their teaching and the corruption of their hearts. He was a Reformer, as Saint Gregory the Seventh and Innocent the Third were Reformers; he sought to reform the morals and maxims of his contemporaries, as St. Bernard and St. Peter Damian sought to correct the abuses of their own times. The Church of Christ is indeed the work of God and not of man; it is quickened by a divine life, and, despite the persecutions of the world and the corruption of our own sinful nature, shall last till the end of time; and whosoever by the name of Reformation would deny the ever-abiding presence of God in holy Church, or imply that its divine life had ceased and that the gates of hell had prevailed against it, he is, indeed, a heretic and becomes excluded from the inheritance of Christ. But individual men are sinful, and whole cities and nations may relapse into error, or may at least become neglectful and tepid in the service of God. Hence the need of reformation in individuals and in states; that true reformation which was inaugurated by the Divine Redeemer in Jerusalem, and which He commissioned His holy Church to perpetuate till time shall This was the reformation which the saints of God ever loved to preach, which St. Antoninus, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Charles Borromeo, so earnestly urged upon the pastors of the Church, and which the great Council of Trent so effica ciously realized soon after the time of which we speak. It is in this sense that Savonarola may justly be styled a Reformer, but as such he was the precursor, not of Luther and his wicked associates, but of St. Charles Borromeo, St. Philip Neri, and the other many true reformers who adorned our holy Church in the sixteenth century.

be no more.

THE ABBEY OF ROSS-ERRILY.'

The ruins of the Franciscan convent at Ross, near Headford, in the county Galway, are popularly styled the Abbey of Ross. In the early records this convent receives the name Ross-Errily or Ross-Traily, which is a corruption of the Irish name Rossne-threallagh. It was delightfully situated on the south bank of the Black river, in the parish of Kilursa; and its ruins still attest its former magnificence. The Four Masters and Luke Wadding register its foundation in the year 1351; and the latter adds that it was a most retired and lonely spot, surrounded on all sides with water, and approachable only by a narrow path which was formed of large blocks of stone.

Before the close of the fifteenth century it attained special eminence among the many Franciscan institutions of the kingdom; and its property comprised the townlands of Ross, Cordara, and Ross-duff, amounting to about thirteen hundred statute acres. It was from the hallowed precincts of this monastery that a colony went forth to found the convent of Donegal, so famous in our annals. A provincial chapter of the Franciscan order had assembled in Ross-Errily to deliberate on matters of private interest, when Nuala O'Connor, daughter of O'Connor Faily, and wife of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, hereditary chieftain of Tirconnell, came, accompanied by a goodly array of gallowglasses, to present an humble memorial. This petition of the Lady Nuala set forth the anxious desire of the faithful of Tirconnell to have amongst them some religious of the order of St. Francis to be their guides in their heavenward journey by precept and example. The favour was soon granted, and before the close of 1474 the foundations were laid of the farfamed monastery whose ruins are still met with at the head of the lovely bay of Donegal.

In 1538 the convent of Ross-Errily shared in the storm of persecution with which the reckless monarch Henry the Eighth assailed the church of our fathers. Indeed the Franciscans were in a special manner exposed to the rage of the English monarch. They had energetically opposed his wished-for divorce, and now they should pay the penalty of their zeal. Two hundred Franciscans were thrown into prison; thirty-two

The Abbey of Ross: its History and Details. By Oliver J. Burke, A.B. Dublin, 1868.

2 Killursa, formerly called Kill-Fursa, was dedicated to St. Fursey, an Irish saint of the seventh century, whose feast is kept on the 16th of January. The ruins of St. Fursey's church still exist, and, not far distant, there is a cromleach, popularly called Leabha-Diarmid agus Graunye, which is said to be the resting place of Dermod and Grace during their flight from Tara.

of them were bound with chains, and exposed to every insult; others were banished, and some, too, were put to death.

New trials awaited the convent of Ross-Errily in the reign of Elizabeth. In an inquiry which was made in the commencement of her reign, it was found that "the site of the monastery of Ross-Errilly or Ross-Railly was one acre of land; that it contained a church, a cloister, a hall, dormitories, chambers, and cellars; a cemetery, three small gardens, and a mill, which for want of water, could work only in winter". By royal patent the tithes attached to the church were granted to the portreve and burgesses of Athenry; whilst the monastery, with its property, was allotted to Richard Burgh, Earl of Clanrickarde. This nobleman, however, whose family had long been the patrons of the Franciscan convent, privately restored it to its owners. The crown, finding the friars in 1584 again in possession of the monastery, made a grant of it to an English courtier, who plundered it of its library, monuments, and books, and expelled the religious. He was soon, however, anxious to part with his illacquired property, and two years later we find it once more purchased by Clanrickarde and restored to the children of St. Francis. The close of the century saw Ross-Errily transformed into an English garrison which was destined to curb the Western chieftains, and prevent them from joining the ranks of O'Neill and O'Donnell in the north.

When the ravages of war had ceased, we again meet with the religious of Ross-Errily busily engaged in restoring their monastery to its former magnificence. It was at this time visited by Father Mooney, provincial of the order, who thus speaks of it in his MS. history of the Franciscan convents in Ireland:—

"Another house where I spent some days during my visit to Connaught, pleased me much. I now speak of the beautiful and spacious church and monastery of Ross-Errilly, or as it is called by the Irish, Ross Trial, which is situated in the diocese of Tuam, and within eight or nine miles of that ancient city. Never was

there a more solitary spot chosen for a religious community, than that on which Ross Errilly stands, for it is surrounded by marches and bogs, and the stillness that reigns there is seldom broken save by the tolling of the church bell, or the whirr of the countless flocks of plover and other wild birds that abound in that desolate region. Another remarkable feature of the locality is that the monastery can only be approached by a causeway, paved with large stones, and terminating at the enclosure which was built in 1572 by Father Ferrall Mac Egan, a native of Connaught, and then Provincial of the Irish Franciscans. He was in sooth a distinguished man in his day, far famed for eloquence and learning, and singularly fond of Ross-Errilly, which he used to compare to the Thebaid, whither the early Christians fled for prayer and contemplation.

"As for the church of Ross-Errilly, it is indeed a beautiful edifice, and the same may be said of the monastery, which, although often garrisoned by English troops during the late war, is still in perfect preservation. Cloister, refectory, dormitory, chapter-house, library, and lofty bell-tower have all survived the disasters of that calamitous period; but in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Elizabeth, A.D. 1584, the friars were forcibly expelled from their beloved retreat, and monastery and church were by a royal ordinance granted to an Englishman, who laid sacrilegious hands on our vestments, altar plate, books, and muniments, leaving us nothing but bare walls and the rifled tombs of our benefactors.

"It was not long, however, till the friars returned to RossErrilly; and thenceforth the community of Ross-Errilly consisted of six priests and two lay brothers, who laboured indefatigably for the repairs of the sacred edifice. In 1604, the munificence of Richard, fourth Earl of Clanricarde, enabled the community to repair the monastery and church, which had been considerably dilapidated during the late war, and in that same year was buried within its precincts one of the noblest and bravest of heroes of whom his country could boast, namely Bryan Oge O'Rourke, son of Bryan-na-Murtha.

***

"When some ships of the ill-fated Armada went to pieces on the coast of Sligo, Bryan-na-Murtha O'Rourke, pitying the Spaniards who appealed to him for protection, not only sent them immediate aid, but invited them and their chief officer, Antonio de Leva, to his castle of Dromahair, where they were entertained with unbounded hospitality. O'Rourke's conduct, however, provoked the vengeance of the Queen, who ordered her Deputy Fitz William and Sir Richard Bingham to waste with fire and sword the principality of Breffny. As for the chieftain himself, he was obliged, after some ineffectual resistance, to fly into Scotland, where he was arrested by order of James VI., now King of England, who perfidiously sent him in chains to London. Arraigned on a charge of high treason, the noble-minded chieftain refused to bend his knee before the insignia of royalty. Sentence of death being recorded, he was soon after led to the place of execution, and died a true son of Holy Church. When the news of his father's death reached Ireland, Bryan Oge O'Rourke was duly inaugurated in his stead. This worthy son of a martyred sire distinguished himself in many a glorious action during the Elizabethan wars, and particularly in the far-famed fight near Boyle, where he and O'Donel routed the English under Clifford in 1599 on the memorable feast of the Assumption. His last wish was that his remains should repose in the cloister of Ross-Errilly, and our friars took care to see that wish was fulfilled; for in the month of January, when the snow lay thick on the roads, the funeral cortege, accompanied by a few faithful friends, entered the enclosure of the monas tery, and as soon as the requiem mass had been sung, our brotherhood hollowed out a grave in the cloister, and there interred all that remained of one of the bravest and best of those Irishmen whose names deserve to be canonized in the pages of history".