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remarkable document which throws some light on this matter. It is a letter dated 2nd of January, 1570, and addressed by Knox to Cecil, warning that astute politician to ensure the death of Queen Mary: "if ye strike not at the root," he says, "the branches that appear to be broken will bud again, and that more quickly than men can believe, with greater force than we could wish." (Ibid, page 500.)

When Mary was forced to seek an asylum with her bitterest enemy, in England, and the Earl of Moray assumed the regency, halcyon days seemed to dawn upon Knox and his associates. The scene, however, soon changed. Moray was struck dead by an injured citizen in the streets of Linlithgow, and the loud wail of sorrow with which Knox and the kirk accompanied him to his grave clearly proved how closely united were their interests with his. Troubled times now awaited the Father of Presbyterianism. Knox had become as hateful in the eyes of the populace of Edinburgh as at one time he had been their idol. More than once he was assailed in the streets; he asked to have a body-guard assigned to him for his safety, but the prayer was contemptuously refused. Finding himself no longer safe in the capital he set out for St. Andrew's. Here, however, fresh humiliations and dangers awaited him. The mob, which he had so often flattered in his harrangues, was now the tool of the Hamiltons, and hooted him wherever he appeared. Thus the Scottish Reformer, worn out with wine and gluttony, as Laing assures us, passed the last few months of his life in bitterness, and a prey to grief and remorse, closed his wicked career in the month of November, 1571.

The immediate results of the Presbyterian movement, in which John Knox had taken so leading a part, may be easily told. Scotland, which in Catholic times could boast of a Wallace and a Bruce, and whose patriotism and love of country had been proverbial, was now become a synonym for baseness and treason. A few years before, it defied the power of England, and its alliance was courted by the greatest states of Europe; now its leaders were the tools of English intrigue, whilst its constant tumults and civil wars merited for it the pity, or the contempt of all Christendom. Morality had now become a senseless name, and recklessness and crime were the only paths to emolument and honour. The noble monuments of ancient piety had been changed to crumbling ruins, and, as if in type of the unhappy change that had fallen on the church's destinies, sadness, like a mourning pall, seemed to overspread the land :

VOL. V.

39

"Gone were the merry times of old—
The masque, and mirth, and glee,
And wearier was the palace then,
Than prison needs to be.
Forbidden were the vesper bells,-
They broke the Sabbath calm!
Hush'd were the notes of minstrelsy-
They chimed not with the psalm :
'Twas sin to smile, 'twas sin to laugh,
'Twas sin to sport or play,.

And heavier than a hermit's fast
Was each dull holiday.

Was but the sound of laughter heard,
Or tinkling of a lute,

Or worse than all, in royal hall,
The tread of dancing foot—
Then to a drove of gaping clowns
Would Knox with unction tell
The vengeance that in days of old,
Had fallen on Jezebel."

RESOLUTIONS OF THE BISHOPS OF
IRELAND.

We are happy to present to our readers the following important Resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the Bishops at their late Meeting in Maynooth:

"The Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, assembled at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, on Wednesday, the 18th of August, 1869, His Eminence Cardinal Cullen presiding, deem it their duty to place on record, at this important crisis, the following resolutions respecting the Education and Land questions:

I. They reiterate their condemnation of the mixed system of Education, whether Primary, Intermediate, or University, as grievously and intrinsically dangerous to the faith and morals of Catholic youth; and they declare that to Catholics only, and under the supreme control of the Church in all things appertaining to faith and morals, can the teaching of Catholics be safely entrusted. Fully relying on the love which the Catholics of Ireland have ever cherished for their ancient faith, and on the filial obedience they have uniformly

manifested towards their pastors, the bishops call upon the clergy and the laity of their respective flocks to oppose by every constitutional means the extension or perpetuation of the mixed system, whether by the creation of new institutions, by the maintenance of old ones, or by changing Trinity College, Dublin, into a mixed college.

II. At the same time they recognise the right, as well as the duty, of Catholic parents to procure as far as possible for their children the advantages of a good secular education. Justice demands that Catholic youth should enjoy endowments and all other privileges on terms of perfect equality with the youth of other persuasions, without which equality in the matter of education, religious equality cannot be said to have any real existence.

III. The bishops, without any wish to interfere with the rights of persons of a different denomination, demand for Catholics Catholic education, which alone is consonant to their religious principles.

IV. The assembled Prelates, learning with pleasure that it is the intention of Her Majesty's present advisers to legislate for Ireland in accordance with the wishes of its people-and of this they have given good earnest-trust that the distinguished statesman now at the head of the Government will, with the aid of his able colleagues, give to Irish Catholics a complete system of secular education based upon religion; for it alone can be in keeping with the feelings and requirements of the vast majority of the nation.

V. As regards higher education, since the Protestants of this country have had a Protestant University for three hundred years, and have it still, the Catholic people of Ireland clearly have a right to a Catholic University.

VI. But should Her Majesty's Government be unwilling to increase the number of Universities in this country, the bishops declare that religious equality cannot be realized, unless the degrees, endowments, and other privileges enjoyed by their fellow-subjects of a different religion, be placed within the reach of Catholics in the fullest sense of equality. The injustice of denying to them a participation in those advantages, except at the cost of principle and conscience, is aggravated by the consideration, that whilst they contribute their share to the public funds for the support of Educational Institutions, from which conscience warns them away, they have moreover to tax themselves for the education of their children in their own colleges and university.

VII. Should it please Her Majesty's Government, therefore, to remove the many grievances to which Catholics are

subjected by existing University arrangements, and to establish one National University in this kingdom for examining candidates and conferring degrees, the Catholic people of Ireland are entitled in justice to demand that in such a University, or annexed to it :

(a) They shall have a distinct College, conducted upon purely Catholic principles, and at the same time fully participating in the privileges enjoyed by other Colleges of whatsoever denomination or character.

(b) That the University honours and emoluments be accessible to Catholics equally with their Protestant fellow-subjects. (c) That the Examinations and all other details of University arrangement be free from every influence hostile to the religious sentiments of Catholics, and that with this view the Catholic element be adequately represented upon the Senate, or other supreme University body, by persons enjoying the confidence of the Catholic bishops, priests, and people of Ireland. VIII. The bishops also declare, that the Catholics of Ireland are justly entitled to their due proportion of the public funds hitherto set apart for education in the Royal and other Endowed Schools.

IX. The bishops furthermore declare, that a settlement of the University question, to be complete and, at the same time, in accordance with the wishes of the Catholic people of Ireland, must include the re-arrangement of the Queen's Colleges on the Denominational principle.

X. Finally, the bishops of Ireland, deeply sympathising with the sufferings of their faithful flocks, believe that the settlement of the land question is essential to the peace and welfare of the United Kingdom. They recognise the rights and the duties of landlords. They claim, in the same spirit, the rights as they recognise the duties of tenants. They believe that the comparative destitution, the chronic discontent, and the depressing discouragement of the people of Ireland, are, at this period of her history, to be attributed more to the want of a settlement of this question on fair and equitable principles than to any other cause. Therefore, in the interest of all classes, they earnestly hope that the responsible advisers of the Crown will take this most important subject into immediate consideration, and propose to Parliament such measures as may restore confidence, stimulate industry, increase national wealth, and lead to general union, contentment, and happiness.

The above Resolutions were unanimously adopted at a Meeting of all the Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, held at Maynooth on the 18th of August of the present year, 1869. PAUL CARDINAL CULLEN, CHAIRMAN.

LITURGICAL DECREES.

DE JEJUNIO PRAESCRIPTO AD LUCRANDAM JUBILAEI INDULGENTIAM.

"Editis Litteris Apostolicis in forma Brevis die 11 Aprilis 1869, quibus SSmus D. N. Pius PP. IX omnibus Christifidelibus Indulgentiam Plenariam in forma Jubilaei occasione Oecumenici Concilii concessit, huic S. Congregationi Indulgentiarum et SS. Reliquiarum infrascripta proposita sunt dubia praesertim circa jejunia, quae Christifideles servare debent, ut Indulgentiam huius Jubilaei lucrari valeant. Quibus sedulo perpensis S. Congregatio, benigne annuente Sanctissimo Domino, respondendum censuit prout respondet.

DUBIA ET RESPONSA.

I. Inconcussi juris est, operibus alias praeceptis satisfieri non posse obligationi de operibus injunctis ad acquirendas indulgentias, nisi aliud constet expresse de mente Concedentis; nihilominus pro hoc jubilaeo oritur dubium, quia in Litteris Apostolicis legitur: "praeter consueta quatuor anni tempora, tribus diebus etiam non continuis, nempe quarta et sexta feria, et sabbato jejunaverint." Quaeritur, an standum sit regulae generali, ita ut ad effectum lucrandi Indulgentiam omnes dies jejunii ad quod quisque tenetur, vel dies jejunii quatuor anni temporum dumtaxat excludantur?

R. Affirmative ad primam partem: negative ad secundam. II. An jejunia quatuor anni temporum, attenta voce illa "praeter," ultra tria jejunia pro Jubilaeo expresse praescripta, habenda sint uti opus injunctum ad Indulgentiam acquirendam ?

R. Negative.

III. An iis qui aut voto, aut praecepto, uti sunt Franciscales, aut quocumque alio titulo tenentur toto anni tempore jejunare aliquo die ex diebus praescriptis pro Jubilaeo, suffragetur tale jejunum ad lucrandam Indulgentiam.

R. Affirmative.

IV. Cum Religiosi S. Francisci teneantur jejunare a secunda die Novembris usque ad Nativitatem Domini, quaeritur, utrum, hoc decurrente tempore, ipsi possint unico jejunio tribus praescriptis diebus facto, satisfacere duplici obligation tum praecepti, tum Jubilaei?

R. Permittitur ex speciali Sanctitatis Suae indulto, dummodo esurialibus tantum cibis pro dictis tribus Jubilaei jejuniis utantur, quamvis fortasse ab usu ciborum esurialium dispensationem pro dicta Quadragesima obtinuerint.

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