rows of his heart, over the wrongs inflicted on their holy religion by heretics who corrupt the faith, and draw others aside from the right way. In all his pious affliction, brother Guy and brother Regnier sympathize, declaring with what eagerness they have obeyed his mandate, leaving the cloistered solitudes of Citeaux, and all the peaceful privileges of monkish life, to do his bidding as good soldiers of the cross, in the unsettled province of Narbonne.

Then follow their instructions; and marvellous it is, how soon the tones of pious lamentation strengthen and deepen into those of most energetic command. The pontiff shows himself intimately acquainted with the nature and the seat of the malady, and most unflinchingly decided as to the mode of cure. They are to traverse the infected districts, and by every means that power, craft, wealth, and skill can supply, to discover the holders of heretical doctrines. They are to establish tribunals, the most irresponsibly despotic that can be devised, before which the accused must be arraigned; and to carry out to the full whatever sentence is considered advisable, they are invested with the plenitude of authority enjoyed by the holy see an authority that vaunts to enclose within its grasp not only earth, but heaven and hell. No appeal is left: from their decisions appeal is not permitted; and on their part no appeal is required. Confiscation, imprisonment, torture, exile, and the stake, are in their hands, to wield against men's bodies; and at the voice of their excommunicating curse, the pit of perdition is to unfold its jaws, and swallow up the condemned soul. They are, moreover, to preach vehemently, stirring up the rage of all true Christians against their neighbours, and publicly to entangle in the subtleties of logical disputation such as

may venture to avow their opinions. They are to convict them, if possible, of direct opposition to the mind and will of the Church; and to seize the moment of such public exposure to exasperate against them the more consistent upholders of that dreaded authority. Many admonitions and suggestions, full of the wisdom that cometh not from above, but which in its earthly, sensual, devilish subtlety frequently overreaches and confounds the children of light, does the pontifical instructor bestow on his eager listeners; who, with years and experience much beyond his own, and with a full measure of learning and talent, are far behind him in intellectual power, and still further in that unshrinking spirit of fearless determination that will openly and unwaveringly pursue its one defined object, though the thrones of monarchs, and the bodies and souls too of their countless subjects, must be crushed under his advancing tread. A noble model for two aspiring monks to study a bright example of the faith which he is inciting them to maintain, and to establish by espionage and dissimulation; by lying sophistry and suborned evidence; by the fetter, the dungeon, the rack, and the flame.

Nothing is left unsaid, to prepare them for this work; they are encouraged to propose questions, in matters of imaginary difficulty possible to occur, that he may solve them; and to exhibit in their most formidable aspect all supposable obstacles, that he may instruct them, not only how to conquer, but how to turn them all to advantage. Never was counsel more eagerly taken against the poor scattered flock of the Lord's pasture, than while those three men arranged the cautious opening of a campaign, that was to issue in exterminating warfare; and they leave at length that august presence, so

replete with thoughts, and schemes, and auguries of triumph, that while they slowly retrace, side by side, the stately approaches to the scene of audience, scarcely are they tempted to cast a wandering glance on the marvels that surround them; their cowled brows being bent still lower to smother the whispered tones that mutually recount the heads of their instructions, or prophecy of the probable events of that long vista of dominion which the natural turn of man's life opens to the vigorous mind and robust constitution of Lotharius de Signi. Perchance each secretly carves out for himself a sway, if less extensive, equally despotic, over the provinces to which they are now to repair; and, perchance, it is suggested to their ambitious minds that one of them may yet live to snatch the powerful keys that hands not less nervous than those recently uplifted to bless them, have oft let fall under the operation of some deadly draught. For, what other guerdon has the apostate Church to offer to her unscrupulous officials, than the attainment of honours, and wealth, and lordly sway, among the kingdoms of this world?

Arriving at the outer portal of the Vatican, we can but look back upon its walls, and say, that, upon earth, Satan never prevailed to frame so mighty a laboratory of sin. The perfection of its machinery is wonderful, even under the presiding influence of spirits far inferior to that of Innocent III. In the stupendous forgery there perpetually carried on, every line and character of God's truth is parodied with wonderful skill, that, the original destroyed, men may receive the base fabrication, and believe, not to the saving, but to the destruction of their souls. Its devices are best seen in their public developement and narrative, not declamation, must show them forth but of the pontiff in his closet,

and of those monks now winding their course through the streets of the great city, and of the multitudes for whose slaughtering career they go to prepare the way, we can say, “These shalt make war upon the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is the King of kings, and Lord of Lords: and they that are with Him"-even the poor harmless helpless ones whom these go forth to destroy-" are called, and chosen, and faithful."

Gladly we turn from the pomp and pride of the splendid city, on whose tall towers and columns of ancient fame, and gigantic ruins of an empire less mighty than that which, under a far different character, yet almost identically the same in principle and in practice, has succeeded it, to explore again the scene of future persecution, still wrapped in the repose of presumed independence aud short-lived peace. The banners that float on the battlements of that princely abode are fanned by the Pyrennean breezes; and the hands that planted them there are. nerved to defend them, as the ensigns of a freedom, the value of which is deeply felt, even when its full extent is not rightly understood they are guarded by those who have learned to think for themselves; and who, for the bare assumption of such unauthorized privilege, are already, though secretly, condemned as unpardonable rebels against the supremacy of Rome.

C. E.

LIFE IN CHRIST.

COLOSSIANS III. 3.

THE rush and roar of trouble's sea,
Shall not disturb his calm repose,
Whom everlasting arms enclose
In deep security.

For David's harp shall utter forth
Rich notes that pass the ken of earth,

If on the sky-ward tower he stand ;

Etherial music thence shall roll

And vent the SELAH of his soul,

While all beneath is heard the tumult of the land.

66

And thus, believers, ye are dead:

Ye love not sense, ye serve not time;
Ye cannot breathe in such a clime

Where sins their plague-storms shed.

The eye is fixed, and dim, and cold
To all that present charms unfold,

The pulse responds not to the glow

Of day-lived suns; the ear is deaf
To shallow schemes that merge in grief-
For

ye are dead-oh! dead-to all that reigns below.