of Dionysius the Areopagite (and it it, in confirmation of a fact, the Remarks on Ecclesiastical History. Mr. URBAN, seems to me that a closer exami Now, with every deference to your Correspondent, to whom I am obliged for the value of his information, and the politeness of his address, I cannot but consider, that much of that feeling of concern, and expres sion of regret, to which he has al-Tos into the facts connected luded, might, in this instance, have been spared. For what, I beg him to recollect, is the manner in which I have introduced the name of Dionysius? Speaking of the darkness with which the land of Judæa was overspread, I observed, "that it may be mentioned," do not let it escape you, good Mr. Euonymus! "rather as a matter of curiosity, than as a SUBJECT OF IMPORTANCE, that Judæa does not appear to have been the only country to which it was confined; but that other places felt the influence of the supernatural darkness of three hours." I then advert to the authority of that great Lexicographer Suidas; and from him mention, that Dionysius,-[my Dionysius, if Euonymus pleases! though I have no particular veneration for him, even though he should have belonged, to any learned body, and might have been a shining ornament of the Areopagus!] "Dionysius, when he was at Heliopolis in Egypt, noticed the wonderful phænomenon, and at the time exclaimed, Either God himself is now suffering, or sympathising with him that does suffer!" with the History of the Christian Religion, particularly in the earlier and middle ages, would amply repay whatever pains it might cost, by the great benefit that would accrue from it to succeeding generations, to the extension of our knowledge, and the im provement of our conduct. Having, therefore, thrown loosely together the results of some reflections on that subject, I crave permission to occupy a few columns of your valuable Magazine as a proper channel for conveying them to the perusal of Readers more particularly conversant about such matters. Now, does Euonymus really think that the above was " an attempt to support the sacred cause of Revealed Religion; or that one, the major and more valuable part of whose life has been spent in explaining the doctrines, and in enforcing the duties of Revelation, should have had recourse to 6 Ecclesiastical History has, indeed, already been compiled, and treated with considerable industry by several of the learned, and by some not without a practical view. Neither has there been any deficiency in point of erudition, accuracy of relation, chronology, and the like, in some of the larger publications in that interesting department of Literature. With all this, however, as far as relates to Church History in general, it may still be affirmed, that it might rather be called a chronicle of greater or smaller disturbances and divisions, a detailed narrative of the daring outrages or secret frauds and machinations of particular persons and their partizans, a catalogue of ecclesiastical statutes and regulations or canons, a relation of extraordinary occur rences rences under the appellation of miracles, stories or legends of martyrs and saints; in short, a series of revolutions, chiefly regarding those who were denominated Clerici: than a profitable and subsequently useful history, acquainting us with the Christian Society, informing us how it actually distinguished itself as to principles and effects from other religions, so that even at present we might derive from it as much benefit as judicious readers obtain from other histories in general, respecting their conduct in life. History should not only narrate and amuse, but instruct. Some of the early compilers tolerably well succeeded in attaining the ends and uses they had calculated upon during more than one of the succeeding centuries. And in a great part of the Romish Church, Ecclesiastical History still affords much the same utility which it formerly procured to the contemporaries of the authors of such historical productions. Protestants in general, how ever, have been too easily satisfied with the position, otherwise just in itself, that the early and middle history of the Church is, for the most part, made up of fables and fictions. And, to say the truth, it requires no very great effort or sagacity to enable us heartily to contemn, for instance, the numerous miracles in the Annals of Baronius; which he generally accompanies with his common-place exhortations, designed to recommend a return to the obedience of the holy old church. It is an advantage which we possess above numbers of the Romish literati, independently, as it were, on any exertions of our own, it being the indefeasible Protestant birthright, and a consequence of the inestimable liberty which we certainly have, and certainly may use, under a Protestant Government, and for which we are not a little indebted to the honest and liberal among the learned, that Church History no longer perpetuates with us, as formerly, two Monarchies in one and the same society. great and important as this privilege is, it is not by far productive of all that utility which would be derived from the history of the Church in former ages, even for the more accurate knowledge and practice of the divine and immortal religion of Christ, But, if we availed ourselves of it with greater industry, and in more enlightened views. The cultivation, the advancement and increase of Christian virtues and excellencies, and a sound judgment and conduct towards others, would then much more easily and extensively ensue than at present, owing to the common custom of representing Ecclesiastical History in its antiquated garb and figure, and in language no longer suited to the apprehensions of mankind; in consequence whereof we really see not what would prove so highly useful to us, if it were in a manner undressed, stripped of its oldfashioned guise and tinsel trappings, and the real facts fairly exposed to view; which even then would not be seen in their proper light, if arranged beneath general beads and chapters, under the feigned pretext of multiplying our information. We certainly conceive far better and worthier mat ters on reading the titles: Concerning the state and progress of the Christian Religion; Of its prosperous or adverse circumstances; of persecu tions; Of heresies; Of dogmas; and the like-than we find the sections so entitled to contain. Mosheim has made a beginning, by introducing a few significant allusions and hints, which serve to check the too rapid course of the history, and afford some opportunity to the reader for farther reflexions of his own. But, in fact, it is only a beginning; and he has scarcely had one imitator in research, though all theologians, in some way or other, very different it must be owned, are interested in Ecclesiasti cal History. I cannot here, in a periodical work, extend this remark so far as I fain would do; and shall therefore at present confine myself to one topic, viz. the miraculous agency, especially in cures and recoveries, so frequently recorded in the remoter periods of Ecclesiastical History. This one subject is, however, of great extent, and it will be necessary to premise a few particulars ere I venture upon some probably useful observations, It is not my intention to enter into the history of the Primitive Church; since even in the Scriptures of the New Testament we have several accounts of miraculous cures and healings performed by Christ or his dis ciples and apostles; of which facts, once at some collateral ends. Though generally the main object is, to excite in the mind of the reader an unbounded esteem and confidence towards the persons who had formerly so Copiously dispensed benefits of such prodigious magnitude as those which they relate; and who consequently might, perhaps, even now continue to perform similar cures. In process of time it was almost unavoidable that there should have been a vast number of such persons, who were commonly reported to be safe practitioners, even after their death; and such a quantity of recipes, that it must have been extremely difficult to determine which to have recourse to. Although the Protestants at once adopted a quite different theory, and thereby undoubtedly gained the great advantage of no longer being under the necessity of providing silver hands and feet, golden eyes and ears, as grateful testimonics of the reality of such cures; a practice which, by the way, had previously been observed by the Heathens; yet in the Romish Church there is still no scarcity of the very same miraculous cures as those of old, because the antient faith is unalterably retained and embraced, without examining into the circumstances of the times. No longer ago than the year 1748, in November, a person mortally sick, who was ac tually (perhaps luckily) given over by the physicians, was happily cured by the application of some linen of the deceased (even though not yet canonized) consort of the Pretender, to the breast and the wrists of the patient. The miraculous cures which yet almost daily here or there occur among the Roman Catholicks, because they form a characteristic of the Church, are no longer noticed in our newspapers; but we should not conclude from this silence that they have ceased, and that those of that communion were now content with physical remedies, and the ordinary methods of God's providence; neither should we have just grounds for in ferring, that witchcraft and necromancy have lost all credit, and with it their existence also, among the Roman Catholic Christians; because since the Christian discourse of the Jesuit Gaar, delivered by him in 1749, at the ceremony of burning the subprioress, Maria Renata, before the town town of Wurtzburg, no authentic report in puncto maleficiorum et magia has been laid before the publick. Nor has the Eastern Church been deficient in miracles, particularly likewise in extraordinary cures; but the labours of her Ecclesiastical Historians are not so generally known and conspicuous as in the Latin or Western Church. Though the original commencement of such miracles and cures is so far attributable to the East, that the hermits, stylites, and monks, together with the bishops, who had formerly been monks, migrated principally from Egypt into other countries, and were even surpassed by their disciples and successors, both in the magnitude and multiplicity of such miraculous cures; yet it is an ascertained fact, that the lila patrum in Egypt and Syria contain by far not so many nor such surprising occurrences as the Acta SS. ordinis Benedictinorum alone. Notwithstanding we are repeatedly told by Mabillon that the insignificant, trifling, (silly, foolish) miracles are all omitted; which omission, however, the authors of such relations could not have approved. Had those times been prolonged till now, many of them would again appear, and punish the ingratitude of the present monks. To say nothing of whole collections that might be brought in as auxiliaries from other quarters. and address, that so many miracles and legendary adventures at once appear together in the Francisci Conformitates; since they had all been often before confirmed by such numerous reports and experiences. This book, therefore, was absolutely ne cessary for more convenient use, as a summary recapitulation of the former religious history, since executions and inquisitions against some instances of disbelief were then of almost daily occurrence; which, indeed, must have contributed more to the confirmation of the once settled and immutable truth, than the examples of infidels and apostates could pervert from it; that is to say, of the heretics, who would not bow submissively their private judgment to the everlasting yoke of the Church. It was, however, the excessive number of these miraculous cures, together with some other propitious incidents, that proved the proximate cause of the memorable final reco very of our reason. After the human intellect, while the Christian body was in perfect health, or at least indulging the hopes of recovering from incidental bodily ailments, had so long lain mortally sick, it is entirely owing to the wise superintending grace of God over the race of man, that the sound doctrine of the true Saviour and Divine Physician of the Soul, which, amid the daily triumphs of these holy empirics, and the nu merous dogmas of the Church, for extending the Christian faith, lay inert, or was even rejected as heretical, could be at length again exa mined and applied to the inward reli gion and recovery of the truly for lorn understanding. BLOOMSRURIENSIS. (To be continued). The famous Gregory, bishop of Rome, for distinction sake surnamed the Great, has actually stated the precise tone and articulation wherein the miracles of the friars particularly excel, in those celebrated Dialogues, where he has so ably and highly trumpeted the exploits, surprising indeed, achieved by St. Benedict; that it was thenceforth very easy for the other monks to adopt the twang, and preserve the harmony. Mr. URBAN, April 9. The fourth book of these Dialogi hasouth, D. M.Y. observes, that Np. 253 of your Magazine for especially provided psychology, as it is commonly admitted in the Latin faith, with tolerably comprehensible principles. Petrus Damiani had now an easier task of it; the coarsest part was done to his hands. There is really no disease, no casualty, affliction, or malady, to be imagined, that had not already been repeatedly cured and removed, as related from time to time in that Church History. And it certainly implies no peculiar skill and in Snelling's View of the Silver Coin and Coinage of England," it is stated, that the money coined by Henry IV. before his 13th year, those of Henry VI. after his 49th year, are, by the balance, placed to the right owners. D. M. Y. then observes, that Henry VI. reigned 38 years, six months, and four days, and was only in his 40th year when his successor, Edward IV. assumed the the crown: he then requests some friend will state what the author in- Henry VI. commenced his reign on the decease of his father, August 31, 1422; Edward IV. assumed the title and office of King after the battle of St. Alban, 1461; Henry VI. remained a prisoner in the Tower of London till the latter part of the year 1470, when he was released by the return of the Earl of Warwick (who had declared in his favour), and the flight of Edward IV. to Holland. Henry VI. was then declared King by the Parlia ment, and Edward an Usurper, and the statutes of the latter repealed. This resumption of the regal power continued to April 1471, when, by the defeat of the army of Henry VI. at Barnet, Edward IV. re-ascended the throne: the captivity, and soon after the decease, of Henry VI. left him (Edward IV.) in complete possession. Henry VI. having thus resumed the royal power for about six months, every act of his after such resumption, dates the year of his reign in continuation during the time the throne was occupied by Edward IV.; Consequently public instruments and acts during this short interval of resumption, are stated as acts of his 49th year. This is not peculiar to that period; all acts of Charles II. after his Restoration take the date of the year of his reign from 1648, the year of the murder of Charles I. That Henry VI. coined money dur ing his resumption appears by the existence of an indenture with Richard Tunstable, Principal Master and Worker of Money in the Tower of London. By this indenture 112 groats and a half were coined out of a pound of silver (a pound of the Tower, which was equal to 5400 Troy grains); and is dated 7th of March, the 49th year from the inchoation of the reign of our Lord the King, and the first year of his redemption. This Coinage was from the 24th day of October then last past. See Folkes, edition 1763, p. 14, and note on plate IV. p. 21. The Groats of Henry IV. before his 13th year, weigh 72 grains; between that and the 38th Henry VI. aud during the three first years of Edward IV. the Groat weighs 60 grains, and those of 49 Henry VI. weigh 48 grains; which latter is the weight of those of ruins of a dissolved Monastery; and the King, in his Charter of Foundation, assigns his motives for this new Establishment in a strain of much apparent zeal for the promotion of piety, the reformation of morals, and the encouragement of Literature. "We from our heart affecting nothing more, than that the true Religion may be wholly restored and reformed to the primitive rule of its own genuine purity, have endeavoured, so far as human infirmity can provide, that instructions out of the Holy Oracles may be purely administered, the discipline of good manners be sincerely kept, youth liberally instructed in learning," &c. All his Charters of Foundation are to the same effect; he invariably provides for the liberal instruction of youth. In all the Cathedrals which he either founded or new-modelled, he established a Free Grammar School, and committed the patronage and superintendance to the Dean and Chap ter. The original School-house connected with Bristol Cathedral is an an cient, small, and incommodious building; but has been improved by the addition of a large and airy school-room. This Foundation has not hitherto attained much celebrity, or produced Scholars of distinguished eminence. It was for a time so greatly neglected by the Masters, that the Chapter, some years since, conceived themselves justified in doing away the Royal Grammar School, and substituting one of more general utility for the inferior classes of society. By the judicious arrangements of the present Dean, and with a due regard to the Founder's design, a course of greater liberality has been adopted, and the School has resumed a more respectable character. The Choristers receive daily lessons |