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that they might receive prayers as members of that order. Indeed, so late as the fifteenth century, many were buried for the same reason in the Dominican or Franciscan garb, and caused a clause to that effect to be included in their wills. The endowments of the monasteries were oftentimes equal, and even superior to the churches; for the monks, taking advantage of the ignorance of the secular clergy, monopolized all the places of trust and power, and found it easy to divert to their own use much of the wealth which was poured into the lap of the Church. It is not to be supposed, however, that the clergy submitted to all this without a struggle: but as the Popes alone had jurisdiction in the matter, and usually chose their advisers from the ranks of the monks, on account of their superior intelligence, the clergy were obliged to submit. Until the time of the first Henry of England all the archbishops of Canterbury had been monks: but the English bishops took an open stand against them in this reign, and refused to submit to the primacy of any of this order. This opposition to monkish rule was not confined to England, but in the fourteenth century was general throughout the north of Europe among the bishops and inferior clergy and in the universities.

To remedy the abuses of which the clergy complained, Pope Innocent III., in the thirteenth century, instituted the order of the Mendicants, who were forbidden to hold property. This was the origin of the Franciscans, who with the Dominicans, a branch of the same order, soon undermined the influence of the other orders, by their superior morality, and for three centuries, may be said to have governed Europe, both in Church and State. So great was their influence with the common people, that to them was entrusted the whole care of confessions and absolution. In addition to the great influence which the austerity of their lives produced, they pretended to have familiar intercourse with the Virgin Mary and other sanctified spirits, and even with the Deity. St. Francis even inflicted five wounds upon himself, which he declared CHRIST, appearing to him in a lonely place, had given him, that he might resemble him in the wounds received upon the cross. The truth of this his followers every where asserted; and the belief in it was enjoined by Papal Bulls, in which St. Francis was hinted to be on a level with our REDEEMER. A like imposition was practised, at a later day, by the Carmelites, who declared that the Holy Virgin, in a vision, promised the head of their order that whoever had on their cloak when dying would be safe from eternal perdition; and this too was confirmed by the Papal See.

To the Dominicans was committed the entire direction of the Inquisition; the most terrific and formidable engine of power which the world ever saw. The regulation of indulgences fell into the hands of the Franciscans, and thus the mendicants, from being a poor and unambitious order, became as powerful and corrupt as the other orders which they had supplanted. Becoming jealous of each other, they commenced a quarrel, which germinated the Lutheran and English Reformations. The Fraticelli, a branch of the Franciscans, opened the way still farther by their rebellion to Papal authority. This order, countenanced and supported by Lewis of Bavaria, even went so far as

to preach openly against the corruptions of the Church and declare the ruling Pope deposed, and excommunicated; setting up another in his place. To this order the celebrated Huss belonged, who, on the suppression of his brotherhood, was burned in the thirteenth century.

Immediately after the Reformation a new order was established, all the members of which, it is said, took an oath to obey implicitly every command of the Pope. This was the Order of JESUS,' founded by Ignatius Loyala, who appears to have been a sagacious and discerning man. Not only was this order sworn to comply with every wish of the pontiffs, but its members were bound by an oath of secrecy to induce which, more fully, there were different grades among the members, and the more important business was only known and confided to the older and well-tried. This fraternity became so formidable to the European governments that they were banished from most states and finally suppressed entirely by a papal edict.

The Jesuits were far the most intelligent men of their time, and were so remarkable for learning and sagacity that their advice and assistance were demanded in all the courts of Europe. Not being so completely at the beck of the Popes, Protestant States became fearful of their power. But it does not appear that they were really so unprincipled as we often hear them represented. They were always the most indefatigable and self-denying missionaries; and from what we can learn with certainty from those whose testimony is conclusive, the natives of those countries which they visited, we must infer that, as a body, they were kind-hearted, self-sacrificing Christians; and while we reprehend their error in binding themselves to the will of any temporal power, we can at the same time render them admiration for their virtues.

'The Brethren and Clerks of Common Life' was the name of an order that flourished in the fifteenth century; noted for the excellent schools which were established under its auspices. The celebrated Erasmus was a student of one of these schools, and was a member of the order. During the Crusades there sprang up the orders of the Military Monks, who differed from the other orders who existed in settled societies only in being conformed to military discipline. In the rapid marches of the Christian armies through the warm countries of the East, many of the wounded and sick were of necessity left behind, in the care of the monks, who attended these expeditions in great numbers. To ensure the safety of the disabled, who otherwise would have been exposed to the attacks and cruelty of the exasperated Mussulman, large and strong fortresses were erected, which bore the name of hospitals; and as few soldiers could be spared to guard them, the monks were compelled to act not only as physicians and religious advisers, which was their legitimate profession, but as soldiers also, in case of an attack. In process of time these armed monks took the name of 'Knights Hospitallers,' and became afterward famous for their warlike achievements as defenders not only of the Holy Land, but of all Christian powers against the Mahommedans. Princes who died in the Crusades often made them their heirs; and in this way they became the possessors of immense estates and treasures in the European countries. The Troubadours

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found in their romantic lives an exhaustless theme for poetry, and sang their deeds in all the courts of Christendom.

The Knights of St. John, who settled at last at Malta in the Mediterranean, after they were driven from Palestine, were founded about the year A. D. 1090. The Templars, who took their title from their first Hospital, which stood near the temple in Jerusalem, were established during the latter crusade, about the year A. D. 1120. This order became so rich and powerful that it was at last abolished by a Papal edict in 1312, and its estates, on the pretext of irreligion and licentiousness, confiscated to the Church. These two orders were the most famous; although there were many others of less note. The title of Commanders was given to those monks who took the charge of the estates of the Knight's Hospitallers in the European States. These were permitted to marry, as they only performed the secular duties incumbent on their office.

As the principles of Christianity have gradually become more generally and better understood, the spirit of monastic seclusion has died away, in a great measure, although it is not yet entirely extinguished. The majority of Christendom now regard works of active benevolence as more worthy of admiration than rigid self-mortifying austerity; and forgives, perhaps too readily, departures from the way of severe and uncompromising morality, if the general tenor of a man's life shows a tendency to right. Reforms however, are continually being projected: gratifying alike to the Christian and the merely speculative philosopher. In concluding this hasty and imperfect sketch of the monastic life, let us remark, that although monastic institutions have done much mischief, yet on the whole, there can be no reasonable doubt that they have subserved so greatly the interests of literature, science and religion, as to be regarded by an impartial mind as one of the greatest blessings of the world. The monk of Europe should be viewed as a man exposed to the temptations which so frequently overcome men in other stations; and while we regret his frailties, let us not, by a culpable omission, neglect to honor his manifold and counterbalancing virtues. Amid the ignorance of his age, learned; in its immorality, virtuous; among those who bowed in submission to power, fearless and independent; the monk of Europe stands out superior to his times.

R. H. B.

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Thy bannered legions trod

Where the dark Alps their fearful shadows cast:
Where'er they swept they left a blood-stained sod;
The waving pine trees echoed as they passed,
Thy trumpet's stirring blast;

And startled man could no more check thy race
Than stay the comet's way through yonder realms of space.

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A PASSAGE

FROM A LEGEND O F THE

SUBJUGATION OF SPAIN.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THS SKETCH-BOOK.

WHILE the events narrated in the last number were passing in Cordova, Taric el Tuerto, having subdued the city and vega of Granada, and the Mountains of the Sun and Air, directed his march into the in terior of the kingdom to attack the ancient city of Toledo, the capital of the Gothic kings. So great was the terror caused by the rapid conquests of the invaders, that, at the very rumor of their approach, many of the inhabitants, though thus in the very citadel of the kingdom, abandoned it and fled to the mountains with their families. Enough remained, however, to have made a formidable defence; and, as the city was seated on a lofty rock, surrounded by massive walls and towers, and almost girdled by the Tagus, it threatened a long resistance. The Arab warriors pitched their tents in the vega, on the borders of the river, and prepared for a tedious siege.

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One evening, as Taric was seated in his tent meditating on the mode in which he should assail this rock-built city, certain of the patroles of the camp brought a stranger before him. 'As we were going our rounds,' said they, we beheld this man lowered down with cords from a tower, and he delivered himself into our hands, praying to be conducted to thy presence, that he might reveal to thee certain things important for thee to know.'

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Taric fixed his eyes upon the stranger: he was a Jewish rabbi, with a long beard which spread upon his gabardine, and descended even to his girdle. What hast thou to reveal?' said he to the Israelite. 'What I have to reveal,' replied the other, 'is for thee alone to hear: command then, I entreat thee, that these men withdraw.' When they were alone he addressed Taric in Arabic: Know, O leader of the host of Islam,' said he, that I am sent to thee on the part of the children of Israel resident in Toledo. We have been oppressed and insulted by the Christians in the time of their prosperity, and now that they are threatened with siege, they have taken from us all our provisions and our money; they have compelled us to work like slaves, repairing their walls; and they oblige us to bear arms and guard a part of the towers. We abhor their yoke, and are ready, if thou wilt receive us as subjects, and permit us the free enjoyment of our religion and our property, to deliver the towers we guard into thy hands, and to give thee safe entrance into the city.'

The Arab chief was overjoyed at this proposition, and he rendered much honor to the rabbi, and gave orders to clothe him in a costly robe, and to perfume his beard with essences of a pleasant odour, so that he was the most sweet smelling of his tribe; and he said, 'Make thy words

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