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tian prince in the world, and in compliment to the nation which he governed, the kings of France, his suc cessors, have ever since been styled by the holy see the eldest sons of the church. Many other instances might be adduced in confirmation of this truth.

cred writer is speaking, in this pas- | At that period he was the only Chris. sage, of the dangers which arise from too much connexion with the other sex. "From a female," he observes in the preceding verse, 66 comes the wickedness of a man, for the iniquity of a man is better than a woman doing good and bringing shame and disgrace," (v. 13, 14.) that is, the persecutions, the malice, the ill-treatment, (gia) which one man receives from another, are less dangerous to the soul (and therefore better) than the kindness and caresses of a female, (aya denies) whose kind treatment brings along with it confusion and disgrace. Malevolent men may trouble and persecute; they may enkindle the passions of anger, or hatred, or revenge; but these are not so pernicious as are the soft passions which are often introduced into the heart, through the agency of female kindness. The ill-treatment of men is always a means of acquiring patience and merit; but female caresses are sometimes dangerous; and cousequently the author of Ecclesiasticus prefers the former to the latter. (Vid. Estium in diff. loc. s. scrip. 476. Cor. a Lap. 872. Em. Sa. &c. &c.) The sentiment contained in the text is not confined to the sacred writings. Socrates confessed that he would rather receive the stripes of his Xantippe than the caresses of another female; and when Pythagoras was asked why he permitted his daughter to be kind to his enemy, answered, because I can do him no greater injury.

Every connexion, however, with females, observes Jansenius, does not fall under the censure of Ecclesiasti cus; that familiarity alone is blameable, which tends to infer confusion and disgrace. The kindness of St. Cicily to St. Valerian was the occasional cause of his conversion to Christianity, and afterwards of his sanctification. Clotildis, the pious consort of the warlike Clovis, by her affectionate meekness and caresses induced her husband to abjure Paganism and embrace the Christian faith.

It will not be improper, however, before I conclude this letter, to bring to the recollection of your readers a story of a contrary character, which will serve to confirm the text which I have just been commenting. After the whole world had been covered for se veral centuries with the darkness of popish ignorance and popish supersti tion, the beneficent genius of Refor mation was commanded to hover over the deep night, and enable deluded mortals to regain the path of salvation, from which they had been deviating. A light immediately rose upon those that sat in darkness. Dr. T. Cran mer was predestined by a special pro vidence to convey this light into Bri tain. This "object of divine predi lection" was employed by our eighth Henry, in the court of Rome, to so licit his divorce with the princess of Arragon. He was possessed of many acquirements, but he found it impos sible to induce the successor of St. Peter to loosen what God had bound. He returned home through Germany, where he happened to fall into the company of Osiander. This reformer treated the British theologian with harshness and contempt, which in duced him to entertain more hostile notions than he had hitherto conceived of the German reform. But the fair neice of Osiander made some atone ment for the rudeness of her uncle, by her superior kindness and affectionate caresses. By degrees Cranmer's theo logical heart became enamoured of her charms, and at length he found it im possible to exist, unless his existence were united with the enjoyment of her whom he adored. But Cranmer was a Catholic priest; he had vowed eter nal celibacy. These considerations,

however, he soon overcame; he em- | braced the Lutheran creed, and led his beloved to the altar of Hymen. Improbe amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!

The difficulties which he had to encounter in concealing his spouse during his journey into England, and afterwards in eluding the vigilance of Henry, are well known to your numerous readers. During the whole of Henry's reign, he carefully avoided giving umbrage to his majesty by avowing his marriage; but when young

Edward mounted the throne his fears
fled; he modelled a religion, in which
clerical celibacy was not in requisi-
tion, and this is the present established
church of the British empire. This
short account of the hero of Protest-
antism (so Hume styles him) verifies
the assertion of Ecclesiasticus.-As
long as Cranmer met with contempt
and affront from Osiander, he could
not help detesting the principles of the
German reformers; he felt a stronger
attachment to the old creed in propor-
tion as he saw its professers the ob-
jects of persecution: but when the
caresses of the fair insinuated milder
thoughts, his heart failed, he bid adieu
to the tenets of the old church, and
rushed into her arms. Such was the
Luther of England's reformation! If
Protestants would take a retrospect
view of their own base origin, they
would be forced to blush and say -
"BETTER WAS THE INIQUITY OF THE
MAN, THAN THE GOOD WORKS OF THE
WOMAN."I remain, &c. M. B.
Nov. 9, 1815,

A Description of a Mitre and Cro-
sier, part of the ancient Pontifica-
lia of the See of Limerick. By
the Right Rev. John Milner, D. D.
F.A.S. in a Letter to Nicholas Car-
lisle, Esq. Secretary.

Taken from Vol. XVII. of Archaeologia.
Wolverhampton, March 23, 1809.
SIR, In a tour, which I made last
autumn through part of the west of

Ireland, I met with certain articles of antiquity, in the possession of a friend of mine at Limerick, which, I am of opinion, the Society will think curious. I shall therefore proceed here to give an account of them. They consist of the most important part of the ancient Pontificalia of the See of Limerick; namely, of the best or precious* Mitre, and of what, no doubt, was the best crosier belonging to it; being each of them exquisitely rich and beautiful; as likewise, of the Episcopal Register, from the middle of the twelfth, down to the middle of the fifteenth, century. All these articles are in high preservation.

The body of the mitre, both before and behind, consists of thin silver la❤ minæ gilt, and adorned with flowers, composed of an infinite number of small pearls. The borders, and oruamental pannel or style down the middle, on both sides, is of the same substance, but thicker, being worked into mouldings, vine leaves, &c. and enriched with enchased crystals, pearls, garnets, emeralds, amethysts, and other precious stones, several of which are of a very large size. Near the Apex, or point of the Mitre, in front, is the following inscription, disposed in the form of a cross, and covered with a crystal of the same shape: "Hoc signum crucis erat in cœlo." In a corresponding situation, on the other side of the mitre, is the continuation of the inscription, under a similar crystal: "Cum Dominus ad judicandum venerit." An authentic record concerning the date, and the original proprietor of this curious piece of anti

The Cæremoniale Episcoporum directs that every Bishop shall have three mitres ; of which;" Una pretiosa dicitur, quia gemmis et lapidibus pretiosis, vel laminis aureis vel argenteis contexta esse solet; altera auriphrygiata, sine gemmis, et sine laminis aureis vel argenteis; sed vel aliquibus parvis margaritis composita, vel ex serico albo intermixto, vel ex telâ aureâ simplici, sine la, minis vel margaritis; tertia quæ simplex vo

catur, sine auro ex simplici serico Damasceno, vel alio, aut etiam linea, ex telà albâ confecta, rubeis laciniis, seu frangiis et vittis pendentibus." Ceremon. Lib. I. c. 17.

corbels, or trusses, in appropriate niches, adorned with spire work in the richest and most elegant style of pointed architecture. Under the boss is a wreath of enamelling, containing the name, title, &c. of the aforesaid Cornelius O'Deagh. The upper part of the shaft is studded with precious stones, and enamelling, containing the monogram of JESUS, IHS, in the characters of the age. The several joints are ornamented with crowns, as the intervening spaces are with engraved flourishing. The whole terminates, at the bottom, in a sharp iron ferula, agreeably to one of the intended uses of the crosier, as explained by an an cient poet :*

quity, is beautifully enamelled round
the bottom part of it, of which the
following is a copy: "Cornelius O
Deagh, Epus Limericensis Anno Do-
mini Mille'. CCCCXVIII me fieri fe-
cit." The Redimicula, or pendant
ornaments, to hang down the back of
the Bishop, being altogether twenty-
one inches long, have, by some acci-
dent, been detached from the mitre.
These likewise consist, in general, of
silver plate, gilt, and ornamented with
innumerable small pearls, disposed in
the form of leaves, and flowers. On
the lower part of them are embossed
elegant niches, or tabernacles, con-
taining figures. One of these repre-
sents the angel Gabriel, with the usual
label; the other, the Blessed Virgin."
They terminate in a rich gold fringe.

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The Crosier consists of massive sil- Upon the whole, Sir, I cannot ver, gilt, being seven feet long, and think that the crosier of Cornelius of the weight of about ten pounds. O'Deagh is inferior, either in taste The whole exterior part of the curve and elegance, or in richness, to the is surrounded with a wreath of vine celebrated one of his contemporary leaves, highly finished; and the flat prelate, William of Wykeham, which part of the curve, on each side, is or- is kept with so much care at New namented with large pearls elegantly College, Oxford.+ But what will ap set, to the number of twelve on a pear equally extraordinary with the side. Within the curve, in the open existence of such monuments of an part, are cast silver figures of the cient art. in Ireland, is the strong preBlessed Virgin seated, with the mys- sumption, which they afford from the tical dove, suspended by a wire, over name of the artist, that they were exher head, and of the angel Gabriel, ecuted in that island, at the beginning in a kneeling attitude. Between the of the fifteenth century; as the fol figures is seen the allegorical lily, lowing enamelled inscription is seen, growing out of a ewer. The curve in a small compartment, on the mitre: itself is supported by the emblematic" Thomas O'Carty, Artifex faciem, figure of a Pelican, with its wings ex- (faciebam)." panded, and feeding its young with its blood. At a suitable distance, below the curve, are six female figures, under canopies, in enamelled work. Amongst these I distinguished the attributes of St. Bridget of Kildare, St. Catharine, St. Barbara, and St. Margaret. Beneath these, and forming the boss of the crosier, are six elegant cast statues of silver, each of them being two inches and a half high, representing the B. Trinity, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Patrick, St. Munchin, who was the patron saint of Limerick, and the Blessed Virgin. They stand upon

the

N. B. The back of the mitre is exhibited to shew in what manner the Vittæ or infulæ, that is to say, pendent ornaments are annexed to it In other respects the back of the mitre is an exact counterpart of the front, except as to the enamelled inscription.

* Hugo de Sancto Victore, Scriptor 12' Sec. In Speculo Eccles.

+1 herewith present the Society with pencilled sketches of the mitre and crosier, drawn by my friend and fellow traveller, Thomas Weld, Esq. of Lulworth Castle, Dor and crosier the reader is referred to the Ar setshire. For a representation of the mitre chaeologia.

The word lost in the inscription must, | short remarks upon them, for ascer from the known date of O'Deagh's taining the personages represented, to Pontificate, have expressed either 400 gether with their rank, and the period or 410. The stones, which are all of their existence, may not be here precious stones, are drawn to the size, misplaced. shape, and colour of the originals. The unequal white substances represent incrustations of pearls. The infulæ, or pendent ornaments, are exhibited on the large sheet of the size of the original. They, like the mitre itself, consist of thin silver plate gilt, and ornamented with pearls, &c. except the fringe at the bottom, which is such delicate gold lacework as to have baffled the art of the draughtsman in his attempt to exhibit it.

The Register, in the possession of my friend, is entitled by Sir James Ware, the famous Irish Antiquary, who cites it in his Antiquities of Ireland,* # 66 Registrum Decani Limericensis." The testimony is copied in a manuscript note in the book itself. The register contains, amongst other things, a charter of Donald, King of Limerick, to Brictius, bishop of that see in 1194; likewise, a curious inquisition, concerning the lands and churches belonging to it, taken soon after the conquest of this part of Ireland by the English, on the oaths of three separate juries, one consisting of twelve Englishmen, another of twelve Irishmen, and the third of twelve Ostmen, or Danes. The last date in the register itself, being that of the indenture of a lease, made by the bishop, to Robert Fitz-Stephens, is of 1362; but there is, annexed to the register, the Taxa Ordinaria of the bishop of Limerick, certified to be in the hand writing of the above mentioned bishop, Cornelius O'Deagh, who, as is gathered from the date of his mitre, presided there in the year 1418. As the above-mentioned ornaments, I mean the mitre and crosier, are so often seen in the statues, basreliefs, pictures, and illuminations of former times, perhaps the following

* See Walter Harris's translation of Ware's Antiquities, in folio, p. 133.

Eusebius, the celebrated church historian, and friend of Constantine the Great, tells us, upon the authority of Polycrates, who lived near the time of the Apostles, that St. John the Evangelist wore a metal plate,† like that which the Jewish High Priest bore upon his forehead. The same is affirmed of St. James the Apostle, bishop of Jerusalem, by St. Epiphanius. The same Eusebius,§ as likewise St. Gregory Nazianzen, and the Pagan historian, Ammianus ¶ Marcellinus, describe the bishops of the fourth cen tury, as wearing a sort of crown. It appears from different authorities, that the bishops, of the Latin Church at least, wore some peculiar ornament upon their heads, in the succeeding ages; but there is reason to doubt whether this ornament bore any resemblance with the open double pointed mitre, before the ninth or the tenth century. This form, together with its appropriate ornaments, was probably first adopted, and appropriated to themselves, in one or other of those ages by the Roman Pontiffs; as in the eleventh century, we find more than one instance of the Pope's granting a special privilege to certain bishops to wear the Roman Mitre,** and as in the twelfth century, we read of Inno cent II. placing his own mitre on the head of St. Malachy, archbishop of Armagh, then upon a visit to Rome, by way of a special favour.++ Still even the mitres in question, at their

+ Пérzλov. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. L. V. c. 24. We learn from Origen, Hom. IX. in Exod. that this was the Greek name of the golden plate worn on the forehead by the Jewish High Priest.

Hæres. 78.

§ Τόν ουράνιον της δόξης στέφανον. L. X. c. 4.

Hist. Ecc.

|| Orat. V. I Lib. 29. **Leo IX. granted it to Eberhard, Archbishop of Triers, and Greg. VII. to Anselm Bishop of Lucca, in this century.

++ S. Bernardus in Vita S. Malachiæ Archiep. cap. 16.

first invention, were very low, being not loftier than from three to six inches, and they continued comparatively low till about the end of the thirteenth century, as we may observe in the figure of St. Nicholas, on the Saxon Font in Winchester Cathedral,* in the sepulchral statues of the bishops of Old Sarum, since removed to Salisbury Cathedral; and in the statues, and other representations of prelates, in general, during the ages in question. During the fourteenth century, the mitres seem to have risen to about the height of a foot. That of William of Wykeham, upon his monument, which is said to have been executed in his lifetime, is ten inches high; the bishop of Limerick's, thirteen. It was not till about the sixteenth century, that this episcopal ornament attained to its present disproportionate height of a foot and a half.

in 1179, at the instance of Abbot Ro ger. By this time many other abbots had obtained this mark of dignity, and even regular conventual priors began to solicit it. The frequency of these grants becoming a subject of complaint to the bishops, Clement IV, in the year 1267, made a decree, still extant in the canon law, restraining mitred abbots, who were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, to the use of the fringed or second order of mitres on public occasions, and non-exempt abbots and priors to the simple or third order of that ornament.¶ I must observe, however, that it would not be safe to depend absolutely on this decree, regarding the quality of the mitre, in pronouncing upon the rank of any personage represented in one but the other rule, concerning the height of the mitre, may be considered as infallible, as to the period When the abbots, and other supe- in which such person lived. It must riors of certain grand religious com- also be remarked, that none of the munities, grew impatient of subjection Greek prelates, of whatever rank or to the jurisdiction of their ordinary country, except the patriarch of Alex bishops, they eagerly contended for andria,** ever adopted the Latin mithe ensigns of independent authority, tre. Accordingly they are usually re, namely, for the pontifical ornaments, presented bareheaded. This rule, which were the mitre, the ring, and however, does not extend to the Latin the sandals. One of the first, if not prelates of the Greek churches, after quite the first mitred abbot we read of, the first crusade, nor to the represen was Egelsinus, abbot of St. Augustations of Greek prelates, executed by tine's, at Canterbury. He being at Latin artists. Rome in the year 1063, obtained of Pope Alexander II. the privilege of wearing the pontifical mitre, ring, and sandals; which privilege is stated to have been granted in honour of the said St. Augustine, apostle of England. This abbot, however, being obliged soon after to leave his country and fly into Denmark, in order to avoid the indignation of the Norman conquerors, to whom he had, by some means, given particular offence, the privilege in question was suspended till it was renewed by Alexander III,

* See an Engraving of it in Vetusta Monum, and in The Hist. of Winchester, Vol. II.

+ Chronica W. Thorn ad An. 1059. Apud Twysden, p. 1785.. Ibid.

The Crosier, called by different ancient writers, Baculus Pastoralis, Ferula, Pedum. Cambuta, &c. is men tioned as an episcopal ornament in the sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, who flourished at the end of the sixth century, and by his contemporary St. Isidore of Seville ++ The use of it, however, is traced much higher, namely, to St. Remigius, who governed the See of Rheims at the end of the fifth cen tury, and who bequeathed by his will,

de Diceto ad An. 1179. Twysden, p. 602. Ymagines Historiarum. Aut. Radulfo || Annales. Winton. ad An. 1254. Angl. Sac. Vol. I.

7.

I Clem. IV. Sexti Decretal. Lib. V. Tit.

** Simeon Thessalon. apud Du Cange. ++ De Offic. Lib. II. c. 5.

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