children as a good moder ought to sample this dayei the offyce of the masse. (Circudederut me.) The sykenes of deth hath beclypped me, thus saythe he techyng every good childe to have in mynde howe harde he is bestade with deth on every syde. In soo moche that he may not scape no waye but ever dethe sueth hym with a bowe drawen and an arowe euer therin redy to shote at hym he wote neuer what time.... ...... That other salue is to labour besely.. ..The fende desireth noo more whan he wolde tempte a man but for to fynde him ydle. And therefore knowe ye well that it is a riche salue agaynst syne for to laboure besely-The thirde is to chastyse the body discretely. Unde Paulus Castigo corpus meum &c. I shall chastyse my body & dresse it in service of my soule......Thus dyde Adam & Eue in ensample that all other that shal come after them sholde do the same......... Thus ye maye se well that Adam & Eue were But nowe the more harme is, for full holy or they dyed and thought that hyghe and solempne feest is on deth full Inwardly & laboured torned into foule fylthe synne & grete full besely & chastysed theye fleshe sykenes to the soule, as in pryde by full resonably & so must we do that dyvers wyse in clothynge, and income of them that wyle come to the many dyuerse wyse usynge into grete covetyse. In slouth i goddes seruyce, as Japes and uanyte syngynge ry baudrye spekynge.......Wherefore oure moder holy Chirche seynge her chyldrene in suche dyspayre, as a moder full of compassion, sory in her herse for theym. This day lyeth downe alleluya & other songes of myrthe & melodye & taketh tractus. That ben songes of mornynge... Joye of Paradyse, in tokenyuge therof this Sondaye is called the sondaye in septuagesime a nombre of lxx. Thg whiche nombre begyn neth this daye & endeth Eester euen, soo holy chirche is mornynge from this daye tyll Eester euen, than she taketh comforte agayne in partye of one alleluya with a traete. For it is not yet in full myghte tyll saterday in Eester weke, the whiche is called (Dominica in albis) than she layeth downe the tracte & grayell & syngeth double Alleluya tochynge all cristen people to laboure & do penaunce truly tyll the saterdaye, that is to a mañes lyues ende that is tyll the soule goo to rest, yet is not the soule in full rest tyll the The fyrste is to thynke on deth saterdaye (in albis) that is tyll the Inwardly, holy chirche gyneth en-day of dome, when the bodye & the Thus holy Chirche haunge grete compassyon of her childrene ordeyneth thre manere of salues to helpe & to hele her childrene that ben to thynke on deth Inwardely, to laboure besely & to chastyse the body resonably. soule shall come togyder & be clothed | to saye lorde make us saue in euer(in albis) that is in whyte vatymes lastynge blysse. whyter tha the soñe, & than they shall synge double alleluya, that is To the whiche brynge us he EPITOME OF INTELLIGENCE. THE following articles relative to actions at Rome, are copied from the French papers : Hanover, Dec. 22. The departure of the legation for Rome, in order to regulate the future ecclesiastical relations of the catholic churches of this kingdom, is delayed. This delay is attributed to a declaration of the holy father, viz. That he is not disposed to treat with the different states of Germany separately, and he begs them to regulate it so that the ecclesiastical subjects be regulated between him and the German diet at Frankfort. Rome, Dec. 14. Mr. Taylor, the English charge d'affaires, has, within these few days, presentedto the pope the lords Jersey, Cowper, Denbigh, and King, peers of England; Messrs. Brougham, Vernon, and Trefusis, members of the house of commons; several professors of the university of Oxford; Colonel Beckford, &c. Rome, Jan. 5.-Foreigners of rank, particularly English, arrive here every day; lords Gower and Compton, Messrs. Russell, Raymond, Jotley, and Seymour, have been presented to the pope. Feudality is crumbling to pieces in every part of Italy. Following the example of his holiness, the princes are hastening to place their subjects in a state of liberty, conformable to the dignity of the human species. In Tuscany servitude has completely disappeared; in the two Sicilies, the king has decreed the abolition of feudality, and given, in his AMEN. own domains, the example of the exesessors of fiefs also in the islands of Sardinia, have, of themselves, abandoned their rights. THE LONDON MISSION FUND.Among the various catholic charitable institutions now existing in the metropolis, that of the London Mission Fund deserves peculiar notice, and possesses strong claims for support from the catholic public. This fund was established on the 13th of November, 1815, by the chaplains of Virginia-street chapel, in consequence of its having been made known by the venerable and pious vicar apostolic of the district, "that his means of providing priests for the different congregations had been so much diminished by the French revolution, that the rising generation was in danger of being left without pastors." To prevent, as far as their scanty means would admit, threatened calamity of a famine in the land,' not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of God," " to secure the preaching of the truths of salvation, the participation of the sacraments, and the celebration of the divine mysteries amongst them; in short, to secure both to the present and the rising generation all the invaluable blessings of religion in life, and the comforts of being attended at the hour of death by a minister of Christ," the catholics belonging to the poor district of Virginia-street generously stood forward to aid their bishop in so good a cause. ➡ 66 the mence the education of three ecclesiastical students, (one of them a native of Ireland,) who promise by the blessing of Providence to become useful labourers in the vine "The smallest mite will be received;-one penny per week constitutes a member, and poor must he be who cannot give one penny per week to God and religion. Let no one think that his small subscription will be of little service; it is the union of many small streams in one channel that forms the majestic river, wafting on its wide waves gladness and fertility through the land." For this purpose was the London | into the hands of the bishop, and Mission Fund founded, and as he has been already enabled to com"C soon as the object of it became known, rich and poor vied with each other in evincing that the difficulties of the times had not extinguished their zeal for religion, and that the heavenly virtue of cha-yard of the Lord. rity still flourished uninjured among them The poor in hundreds came forward with their mite, so acceptable to heaven, and indeed offered their weekly contributions with a zeal which in many instances required to be restrained, lest it should injure themselves or their families; while those whose means were more ample, not only contributed from their purses with pious liberality, but many of them also promoted the success of the good work still more effectually by their unwearied exertions in the labour of collecting subscriptions. So strongly indeed was felt the necessity of not leaving the different flocks without pastors, to be scattered and destroyed by devouring wolves, that many catholics have shewn their pious concern for the prosperity of the London Mission Fund, by bringing to Virginia-street, from a considerable distance, their own and their friends' weekly or monthly contributions, and several inhabitants of the Borough, Lambeth, Somerstown, Hoxton, and other remote parts have thus assisted in swell ing the contributions to their pre Persons desirous of becoming subscribers may apply to No. 8, Drake-street, Red Lion-square, where their subscriptions will be thankfully received, and regularly transmitted to the truly apostolic chaplains aforesaid. State of Foreign Catholics. SUBSTANCE OF THE REPORT OF THE Ir appears that in the year 1812, Viscount Castlereagh, as minister for fo reign affairs, issued instructions to several of his majesty's ministers, accre→ dited to foreign courts, to obtain the requisite information on this subject. And upon the conclusion of the general peace, further instructions from the foreign office were forwarded to the said ministers; in consequence of which, a great mass of information has been dressed to Sir John Cox Hippisley, bart. obtained. Several of these were adchairman of the committee; but for so doing, it appears from the statement of Viscount Castlereagh, those ministers had an official sanction. The committee state, they have chiefly directed their attention to two objects. of the roman catholic clergy, and prinFirst, the appointment or election cipally those of the episcopal order. And, secondly, the restraints imposed on the intromission of papal rescripts, by submitting them to the inspection of the civil government previous to their publication; a right exercised in various countries under the name of the "REGIUM EXEQUATUR" the "PLACITUM REGIUM," or some similar appellation. With this they have joined the appellate jurisdiction," Recursus ad principem," exercised by the supreme secular magis. trate, in cases where the ecclesiastical judges have exceeded the proper limits of their authority. The jet or essential parts of the statements and inferences of the committee on these respective heads, as referrible to the practice in the different leading states of Europe, may very fairly and intelligibly be compressed into a few prominent points of selection, viz. In the empire of Austria, it appears, that the Austrian bishops are nominated or appointed by the emperor; the papal confirmation being afterwards obtained through the Austrian minister at Rome. As the king of Hungary, he has the sole right of appointing, not only the archbishops and bishops both of the latin and greek churches, but also titular bishops and prelates for those chapters and monasteries in the Turkish dominions, which once formed a part of that kingdom. In certain other parts of the Austrian dominions, some variations in point of practice, but not in important substance or effect, seems to obtain. It being positively enjoined by the Austrian law, that, at the cousecration of a bishop, the episcopal oath shall neither be given nor taken, any other than in the sense of a mere canonical obedience to the Pope. The bishops are bound to present their vicars general to the emperor for his approbation. And, Finally. In all elections and appointments of the ministers of religion, the right of the sovereign to exclude those" of whom it may justly be feared that they might abuse their power to the injury of the state, or at least defeat the expectation which the State is entitled to form of the ministers of the church, is most distinctly asserted; and this maxim pervades the whole Austrian code." With respect to their second general division, the committee state, that the Placitum Regium, or Exequatur is established in Austria as "the great barrier of the state against the encroach ORTHOD. JOUR. VOL. V. 7 ments of the papal see;" and, that as admitted in Austria, it is "the right of requiring that all ecclesiastical statutes and ordinances be submitted to the state before their publication, and of prohibiting their promulgations whenever they are found to relate to objects not essential to the legitimate ends of the church, or obnoxious to the interests of the state." In regard to the appellate jurisdiction, or the "Recursis ad principem," the committee find that the Austrian laws distinctly recognize the the principle, that "the right of the sovereign to prohibit the summoning of his subjects before any ecclesiastical court not within the limits of the country, is firmly grounded in the universal rights of the state." And it is equally clear, that by the Austrian laws, appeal may be made to the sovereign against any abuse of the ecclesiastical power." an In the electoral archbishoprics of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, and the archbishopric of Saltzburg, it appears that the same principles, with respect to the supremacy of the emperor, have been acted upon; that those ecclesiastical sovereigns joined, in 1785, in re monstrating with the see of Rome, upon the subject of various abuses, but without effect; and that the emperor, on being appealed to, addressed a rescript to those great secular prelates, declaring" that in his character of chief of the empire, he was determined to acquit his duty by maintaining the authority of the bishops in their dioceses and to do all in his power to restore the ancient discipline of the church." It appears also, that in August, 1786, a congress was held at Embs, by all the ecclesiastical electors, at which twenty-three articles of regulation, recognizing the independence of the church of Germany, with reference to the usurpations of the church of Rome, were drawn up and ratified; and it was therein declared, that "no bulls, briefs, or ordinances of the pope shall be binding on the bishops, unless the latter signify their formal assent." The same spirit and principle of the Austrian law, with respect to ecclesias tical concerns, it appears was admitted and established in the Milanese and Austrian Lombardy. In the Venetian states, during the period of their independence, it appears F that the two patriarchs of Venice and Aquilea were chosen by the senate, and that the latter, whose jurisdiction extended all over the continental possessions of the republic, was compelled to choose a noble Venetian for his coad jutor. On a vacancy occurring in any episcopal see, the names of three ecclesiastics were transmitted by the senate to Rome, and the requisite bull of institution was sent by the Pope to the first on the list. of which are officially promised to be "communicated" the moment they shall assume a "definitive shape." With respect to Sicily, in which the papal authority is much more limited than in Naples, "the nomination to all bishoprics is exclusively in the crown." With respect to the Regium Exequatur, as exercised in Naples, it appears from Giannone, that "no bull, brief, rescript, or decree, or any other writ whatsoever, that comes from Rome, was exempted from it;" and in Sicily, the principle was acted on still more extensively. In the states of the king of Sardinia, Piedmont and Savoy, the rights of the sovereign with respect to ecclesiastical concerns are asserted, and acted upon, on the same principles, and nearly in a similar way, as stated in the preceding cases, as are also the principles of the Regium Exequatur and the Recursus ad principem. With respect to papal bulls and appeals to Rome, the severe struggles in which this republic so often engaged with the see of Rome, from its opposition to these and other claims, considered equally injurious to the state, are points of history generally well known; and that so long since as the year 1483, the council of ten ordered all bulls from Rome to be sent to the inquisitors of the state, "without the seals being broken." All subjects of Venice are, by express decree, prohibited having re- With respect to the kingdom of course to Rome for any sort of dispensa- France, and the liberties of the Gallican tion that can be obtained from the bi-church, the committee, from the various shops." 66 By the ecclesiastical regulations of Tuscany, it appears, that on a vacancy occurring in any bishop's see, the Tuscan government presents to the pope the names of four individuals, recommending, at the same time, by means of the minister at Rome, the one more particularly designated to fill the vacancy. There is no example in Tuscany of any appointment to bishoprics having taken place in favour of a person other than the one thus designated by the sovereign. On the Regium Exequatur, the official documents distinctly enforce its necessity, as the hinge on which have turned the sovereign rights; it has always been preserved with much jealousy, and observed in reference to acts derived from foreign powers, and more especially from the court of Rome. On this ground, whenever the bishops wanted to hold an ordination, they were required first to send in an account of all that were to be ordained, to obtain the royal exequator. In the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the contests so long maintained between the former courts and the see of Rome, on various points of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, appear to be again revived, and are now subjects of negociation between the respective governments, the results and extensive information before it on the particular subject, find, that the nomination of the king is " necessary to all vacant archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbeys, priories, and other elective and consistorial benefices, whether they have the privilege of election or otherwise." That the necessity of the Exequator, or Fareatis, in France, is proved by various decrees of the French parliaments, and by various royal edicts, which order, "that any bulls, letters, or writings, coming from Rome, are to be examined on the frontiers, to see whether they contain any thing against the rights of the kingdom, and the liberties of the Gallican church." And it appears, that general rescripts, relative either to articles of faith, or to ecclesiastical discipline, could be promulgated by the bishops only, under the express autho rity of the king. These principles, and the paramount rights of the state, were afterwards asserted and established by the authority of different forms of the revolutionary governments, as a decree of the national assembly, in June, 1791, in the concordat between pope Pius VII. and the chief consûl of France-by the "organic articles" established by the consulate; and, lastly, by an "imperial decree," issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, in Fe J |