JSI O 
fame good motives they often inferted in the hair-fhirts 
which they wore next to their fleffi. We fee in the hif- 
tory of their lives, that they vied with each other in dif- 
covering daily new arts of torture, and in exhibiting fuel! 
outrageous efforts of intemperate zeal as can fcarcely be 
credited. Thus Macarius of Alexandria went in difguife 
to Tabenna, where he praffifed fuch extraordiiiary au- 
flerities, that the children of Pacomius grew jealous of 
their unknown gueft, and obliged their father to difmifs 
him from their community. Whoever petitioned to be 
admitted a fellow-lufferer with thefe mifguided enthuli- 
afts, was previoufly obliged to give the molt fignal proofs 
that he had abfolutely vanquifhed all the feelings of hu¬ 
manity; and they imagined that they did an honour to 
the Deity, by disfiguring the inoft excellent piece of his 
workman fhip. 
Notwithftanding this, if we may believe St. Jerom, 
Bafil, Athanafius, and other panegyrifts, who have cele¬ 
brated the virtues of thefe folitaries, all nature was fub- 
jeft to their power: and upon the moft trivial occafifons, 
frequently without even the lead: pretence of utility, its 
moll invariable laws were l'ufpended or broken through 
as thefe holy men thought proper to direft. Their mi¬ 
racles were greater far than thofe afcribed by the evan- 
gelifts to the firft planters of the Chriftian faith, or even 
to Chrift himfelf. So Macarius reftored fight to a little 
blind hyena, whofe dam, on the following day, grateful 
for the benefit received, prefented the faint with the fkin 
of a fheep wdiich the had devoured, to make him a com¬ 
fortable garment. This he for fome time refufed to ac¬ 
cept of, becaufe, as he argued wfith the beaft, it mull: have 
been procured by Health, as fhe polfeffed no flocks of her 
own ; nor would he after all receive her offering till (lie 
had folemnly engaged never more to Heal from a poor 
man. Theodoret relates, that St. James of Nifibis, pair¬ 
ing by a fountain where fome young women were waffling 
their linen ; becaufe their heads were uncovered, and 
their clothes tucked up, curfed both the fountain and the 
imprudent maids : in confequence of which the fountain 
vanifhed, and the jetty locks of the young damfels in-- 
ftantly became white as fnow. Rufinus tells us, that 
when Paul the Simple once found a difficulty in expelling 
a devil from a paflefled perfon, he threatened that, if he 
did not immediately depart, he would never eat again : 
upon which, fays he, as if God was unwilling to difpleafe 
a perfon fo dear to him, the devil was forced inftantly to 
abandon his hold. St. Abraham was once infulted by the 
devil, who to diftrefs him endeavoured, while he was at 
dinner, to overturn the pitcher that contained his drink : 
but the faint, more adroit than Satan, fupported it in 
fuch a manner with his hand till he had finifhed his meal, 
that the adverfary’s contrivances proved all abortive. 
As for the monkey-tricks which the devils played with 
Pacomius and others to excite their laughter, or the 
ridiculous figures they affumed, and which we read fo 
much of in the hiftories of thefe ages, they are really en¬ 
tertaining, as well as the temptations and battles of St. 
Anthony ; and, as Gibbon fomewhere obferves, thefe 
relations want nothing but truth and common fenfe. 
We cannot obierve, without a mixture of furprife and 
indignation, that in this enlightened age, many legends 
equally abfurd are Hill retained in the Breviaries or Com¬ 
mon Prayer Books actually uled by the clergy in Roman- 
catholic countries. That we may not be acculed of ad¬ 
vancing this without fufficient warrant, we fhall feledf a 
few examples, from many others equally exceptionable 
and romantic.—When the difciples of St. Felix Valefius 
upon a certain occafion overflept themfelves, and did not 
rile to matins at midnight on the vigil of the nativity of 
the Virgin Mary ; Felix, upon his going into the choir, 
found the Virgin Mother accompanied with other faints 
from Heaven, all drefl’ed in the habit peculiar to his order, 
fitting in the flails ready to ling the office : upon which 
he devoutly joined them ; and, the Virgin fupplying the 
place of prcecentor, they performed together the whole 
N K. . 671 
night-fervice in due form and ceremony.—The love which 
St. Philip Neri bore to Almighty God was fo exceffive, 
that there was not place fufficient in his body for his heart 
to aft in : hence it was obliged to force up and break two 
of his ribs, in order to expand his breaft.—St. Odo, for¬ 
getting once to eat up the crumbs of bread which he left 
at dinner, took them in his cowl-fleeve, and went to his 
abbot to beg pardon for this omiffion. When he un¬ 
folded his lleeve, behold, they were all found changed 
into pearls, which the fuperior immediately ordered to 
be fewed on the facred veftment.—St. Lawrence, arcli- 
bifliop of Canterbury, being about to leave the kingdom, 
ordered a bed to be prepared for him in the church ; but 
St. Peter came in the night-time, and whipped him very 
feverely.—Jefus Chrift once declared, that he could not 
any where be found on earth more readily than in the 
blefled facrament of the altar, and, next to that, in the 
heart of his beloved St. Gertrude. This faint died ra¬ 
ther of love than any difeafe ; and Chrift, appearing to 
her himfelf, together with his holy mother, St. John, and 
a company of virgins, took up her loul to Heaven : but 
firft, by a wonderful unfolding or expanfion of his breaft, 
he carefully inclofed it in his facred heart.—Sc. Bonaveu- 
ture relates, that a crucified ferapbim, faftened to a crofs 
in the fame manner as our blefled Saviour was, appeared 
upon a certain occafion to St. Francis, and difcourfed 
fome time with him in a familiar manner. When the’ 
angel vanifhed out of fight, the faint found himfelf 
marked with an impreffion of our Saviour’s wounds in 
his hands and feet, the heads of the nails appearing on 
one fide, and the points on the other. In his breaft he 
had a red fear or wound, which often pouring forth his 
facred blood covered his drawers and tunic with ftains. 
He calls this rem admirabilem, “ an extraordinary wonder,” 
et tantopere tejiatum, “ yet fully attefted.” A feaft infti- 
tuted in remembrance of this miracle is held forth urbi ei 
orbi, that is, ordered to be kept in the divine office over 
the whole Catholic church.—St. Catharine of Sienna and 
St. Catharine de Ricciis are both laid to have been fa¬ 
voured with an impreffion of the feme facred ftigmates ; 
although with refpeff to the former this is denied by the 
Francifans, who reject the preteniions of the Dominicans, 
and aflert that this privilege was never granted to any’ 
but to their holy patriarch. This difpute was carried on 
with great warmth; and pope Sixtus IV. who had been a 
cordelier before his promotion, at length forbade the 
miraculous ftigmates to be reprefented in any pictures 
of St. Catharine which might be drawn in after-ages. 
Thefe two faints are likewile remarkable for having re¬ 
ceived from Chrift an impreffion of a wedding-ring, in 
token of their efpoulals to him. Of the latter it is ob- 
ferved in the Roman Breviary, that Jhpernorum charif- 
matum copia fingularis in ea enituit, annulo defponfittiouis, 
JacriJqueJtigmatibus, qua non jemel j'pedtanda Ji exkibuenmt, 
acceptis. —The face of St. Rofa of Lima, when the was an 
infant, was once changed, in a moft wonderful manner, 
into the fhape and figure of a rofe : and at five years of 
age, file made a vow of perpetual virginity.—Other fimi- 
larfiflions, which may by many be efteemed to border on 
blafphemy, are related-in the offices of Sts. Columban, 
Barbara, Andrew, Avelinus, John a Cruce, Bridget, 
Simon Stock, Cuthbert, Alexius, Peter of Alcantara, 
Edmund, Therefa, Benedift, &c. And it muff be remem¬ 
bered, that thefe pious ftories are not collected from 
antiquated legends written in an age of ignorance and 
fuperftition, but from the otfice-bnohs now in vfe, which 
the fecular or regular clergy abroad are daily obliged to 
recite. 
To return.—Another kind of apparition with which 
the poor monks were often frightened, we can eafily 
believe gave them really fome dilturbance, Thefe were 
the fpeftres which haunted them under the figures of 
beautiful damfels. Without fuppofmg any intervention 
of the devil, it may eafily be credited that luch-like phan¬ 
toms did indeed frequently harafs them. As they were 
ever 
