wafer placed upon his tongue by the priest, the former devoutly kneeling.

ARTICLE XIX.

I do firmly believe that there is a purgatory, and that the souls kept prisoners there do receive help by the suffrage of the faithful.

To this Bellarmine and the Rhenish Annotations have addedThat the souls of the Patriarchs and holy men, who departed this life before the crucifixion of Christ, were kept as in a prison, in a department of hell without pain-That Christ did really go into local hell, and deliver the captive souls out of this confinement. The fathers assert, that our Saviour descended into hell; went thither specially, and delivered the souls of the fathers out of their mansions.

Exposition. Bellarmine says there is a purgatory after this life, where the souls of those that are not purged, nor have satisfied for their sins here, are to be purged, and give satisfaction, unless their time be shortened by the prayers, alms, and masses of the living. This is also asserted by the Council of Trent.

That same Council decreed, that souls who die in a state of grace, but are not sufficiently purged from their sins, go first into purgatory, a place of torment, bordering near upon hell, from which their deliverance may be expedited by the suffrages, that is, prayers, alms, and masses, said and done by the faithful.

It is also decreed, that souls are detained in purgatory till they have made full satisfaction for their sins, and are thoroughly purged from them; and that whoever says that there is no debt of temporal punishment to be paid, either in this world or in purgatory, before they can be received into heaven, is accursed.

ARTICLE XX.

I do believe, that the saints reigning together with Christ are to be worshipped and prayed unto; and that they do offer prayers unto God for us; and that their relics are to be had in veneration.

Exposition.-It must not hence be inferred, that the Roman Catholics worship the saints departed, or their relics, as their saviours or redeemers; but simply as inferior mediators, being near the throne of God, and having constant access to His divine presence. They believe that the prayers of these saints are always acceptable to Almighty God and that as they are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation on earth, they consequently know what is taking place in the church, and are specially mindful of the wants and desires of their suffering brethren below. So the faithful here think they may and ought to supplicate the good offices of the glorified saints before the footstool of the Omnipotent. The worship which is paid to

these saints is far from supreme; it is merely the bowing with reverence, and the supplications of less favoured beings.

Relics of saints, &c. are held in veneration; but are not worshipped in anywise; but only as we hold in veneration the pictures or the goods of our dearest friends.

It would be amusing here to give a full account of the sacred relics which are deposited in the churches of the stations at Rome, exhibited during Lent, and upon other solemn occasions, to the veneration of the faithful; but the limits to which this work is confined forbid it.

There are fifty-four stations held in Rome, the ceremonies of which commence upon the first day of Lent, and end on the Sunday Dominica in Albis or Low Sunday.

St. Isidor, who wrote about the twelfth century, does not allow any other signification to the word station than an offering made on a fixed and appointed day; and in support of that opinion cites the practice of Elkanah in the first book of Samuel, chap. i." And the man went up yearly out of his city to worship, and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh :" and in the following chapter, when Hannah brought to Samuel "a little coat from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly statutis diebus) sacrifice." From which it appears, Isidor considered the term station to be derived from the verb statuere, to which opinion Polidore Virgil seems to incline, when treating of this matter in his eighth book. But many object to this explanation, prefering the verb stare as more designative of the ceremony; quoting in support of their argument numerous authorities, some of very remote antiquity, to prove that the word station is not intended to signify any determinate place nor any particular ceremony, performed on some certain day; but from the act of the people standing on such occasions, which custom upon these solemn days is invariably observed. In allusion also to the words of the gospel, "where two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst of them," and also after the resurrection, in a congregation of the disciples of Jesus, where it is written "stetit Jesus in medio eorum," the Sovreign Pontiff, in quality of his title as Christ's vicar, by this act reminds the people of the promise.

Others pretend that it merely denotes the church, where the Pope stands (or some one in his place) and preaches to the people, in imitation of Jesus, in the sixth chapter of St. John, and in other places, where it is said he stood and preached to the multitude; and which example was followed by Peter, as in the second chapter of Acts, and from him handed down to the present time. The practice of preaching to the people standing continued, and is still observed on the days of holding the stations, in the time of Lent daily, as particularly noted in the homilies of St. Gregory when speaking of the custom; from which it is manifest, that it is not the church where the ceremony is observed, but the act, from which the word station is

derived. Some have ventured to attribute the origin of the custom to Pope Simplicius, from his directing the priests to attend at the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul; and of St. Lawrence, on the octaves of their festivals, to administer the sacraments of baptism and penance; but this is clearly erroneous, as the practice can be proved to be much more ancient than the time of Simplicius. Finally, therefore, the word station is evidently derived from the act of standing, and not from the words of Christ, nor from the pontiff, nor from the priests appointed by Simplicius, but from the people solemnly assembling and conforming to a more ancient practice.

It was anciently the custom to go in procession to the church of the station; but the people at present go at such times of the day as suit their particular convenience; where, devoutly praying for a certain time, they return to their ordinary occupations. Pope Boniface VIII. granted an indulgence of one year and forty days to all those who, with true contrition, having confest, kept the stations regularly from the commencement on Ash Wednesday to the feast of Easter; besides all other indulgences granted by his predecessors, to each church, in particufar, a remission of 100 days of penance to all such as were, under the same regulations, found attending the apostolic benedic

tions.

Lent originally began on the 6th Sunday before Easter. St. Gregory added the four days preceding, making thereby the 40 fasting days, in commemoration of the fast in the desert; the first and last Sundays not being days of penance. By way of specimen of an account of these several churches, of the stations, and of the saints to which they are respectively dedicated, take the following, which is the first in the list :-The Church of Saint Sabina in Mount Aventine.

This hill is one of the seven hills of Rome, having the Tiber on one side, and on the other the Palatine, and Monte Celio. Aventinus, king of Alba, being killed by lightning, was there buried, and thus left the name, Aventinus, to the hill which concealed his remains. This hill was anciently called Pomeria, or rather the surrounding district, and was inclosed with walls and united to the city under Claudius. Pliny, who wrote in the time of Vespasian, says, that Rome embraced seven hills, and that it contained fourteen districts, and Publius Victorius numbers the Aventine as the thirteenth. Since the building of the church of St. Sabina, and the popes having entire possession of the city of Rome, the divisions of the city have been altered, and this of Mount Aventine is now ranked as the first; this is noted by Anastasius in the life of Eugenius I. This district has been for many centuries the hereditary property of the illustrious family Savelli; the Popes Honorius III. and IV. were of this family, who are styled "Nobles of Mount Aventine." Mount Aventine was, in the early ages of the city, adorned with a number of temples, which, there is good reason to believe, on the introduction of Christianity, were converted to the pur

poses for which they are at present used, for, besides many other authorities, Arcadius and Honorius directed that the public edifices should not be destroyed. It is therefore, probable that this church of St. Sabina was the celebrated temple of Diana, or at least built on the site, with the ruins of the aforenamed temple; and this is strengthened further by the testimony of Appianus, in his account of the civil wars of Rome, book 1. that C. Gracchus, in his flight from the temple of Diana Aventine, passed the Tiber by the wooden bridge of Sublicias, which bridge was afterwards restored by Antoninus Pius, and being by him built of marble, obtained the name of Marmorea; and which place to this day, where the church of St. Sabina stands, is called Marmorata. If to these reasons is superadded, that the port Trigemena, through which the way led from the city to Mount Aventine, was at the foot of the hill through which Gracchus passed to cross the river, which was in existence some time back, and was the customary thorughfare to the church of Sabina, whose principal entrance faces the west, it is more evident it was formerly the temple of Diana, or at least the site of that temple. This church of St. Sabina was built in the year 425, in the time of Theodosius, and in the papacy of Celestine the first, by Peter of Savona, a cardinal priest of Rome. The church is very magnificent, having a portico supported by two beautiful columns of black marble, and another with columns at the side, the front ornamented with elaborate bas-reliefs; twenty-four columns of white marble divide the aisles from the nave, in which is a noble tribune also of marble; the sacred utensils are of a magnificence corresponding with the splendour of the church, amongst which is a ciborium of several pounds weight, together with another ciborium, chalice, paten, and corporal, all of silver, given as it is said, by Honorius III. in 1216. The station at St. Sabina, being the first day of Lent, the pope goes early in the morning, with the whole of his court, to the neighbouring church of St. Anastatia, on Mount Palatine, where he stands till the people are assembled; and it is called The Colletta. The pope then distributes the ashes to the cardinals and those assembled ; after which ceremony the litany is sung; and the whole of the clergy and the people go in procession to the church of St. Sabina, where mass is said, and a sermon from the gospel of the day; at the end of which the deacon announces the station for the following day at St. George. There are, besides the day of the station, other festivals at this church, on the 29th of August, to celebrate the birth or martyrdom of the saint; and on the 3d of May for other martyrs.

RELICS AT THE CHURCH OF ST. SABINA, EXHIBITED ON SOLEMN FESTIVALS.

Under the high altar, given by Sixtus V. are the bodies of the five following saints, which were found under the ancient al

tar of Pope Eugenius Il. in 1586, according to the inscription. of a leaden chest which incloses them :

The body of St. Sabina.

In the church also,

Seraphia.
Alexander, pope.

Eventius, priest to said pope.
Theodorius, a companion of Eventius.

An arm of St. Sabina.

Part of the cane with which Christ was beaten and derided.
A rib of one of the holy innocents.

Bones of the 40 martyrs.

Bones of the 11,000 Virgins.

Part of the tunic of St. Dominic.

A cross of Silver, in the middle of which is another cross containing various relics, viz.

A piece, of the true cross of our Saviour; on the right arm
of this cross are relics of St. Thomas, Apostle, and St.
Lawrence.

In the left arm, of St. Bartholomew and St. Mary Magdalen
In the top, of St. Peter and St. James, apostles.

In the bottom, of St. Alexander, pope, St. Sabina, St.Sera-
phia, St. Agnes, and St. Hypolitus, and his companions.
Part of the stone on which our Saviour slept.

Part of the Sepulchre of the blessed Virgin.

Some olives from Mount Olivet.

Some earth and stone from the holy sepulchre, besides other relics of St. Peter, Paul, Matthew, Stephen, Philip, James, Cosmas, Damanus, Apollinarius, Catharine. Cecilia, and many more.

In the middle of the pavement of the church is seen a black stone, of which it is said that St. Dominic one night praying at this spot, his enemy the devil burled a stone at him, which touched him slightly, but forced its way through the pavement on which he was kneeling and buried itself in the earth; upon moving the high altar to its present spot, this stone was found, and the miracle is celebrated in a legend inscribed thereon.

Of such materials are composed the various relics found in the other stations, at Rome, and in other parts of the Roman Catholic world. The account here inserted has been furnished by a Catholic gentleman who has resided at Rome, and observed whatever is curious or interesting in that venerable city.

We have the Council of Trent and the catechisms for authority in asserting that all good Roman Catholics are taught, that in honouring saints who sleep in the Lord-in invoking them-in reverencing their sacred relics and ashes, the glory of God is so far from being lessened that it is greatly increased; that they are to be worshipped, or invoked, because they constantly pray to God for the salvation of men.

In

The grounds of the Catholic doctrine" it is stated, in answer to the following question: "What is the Catholic doc