discussion of this, we repeat, is not easily made conclusive. It is an impression we derive from Dr. Ward's writings as a whole, that, in practice, he somewhat overlooks this point. If that be so, and if others have the same impression, it is easy to account for the existence of a certain amount of repulsion to his doctrinal writings. And what we say in regard to the subject matter of the Church's magisterium may also be said of the "dicta" in a Papal instruction, that there is often considerable practical difficulty in knowing whether such "dicta" are "obiter dicta" only, or formal pronouncements; or, indeed, in recognizing what pronouncements are ex Cathedra and what

are not.

Whilst admitting that the discussion of some of the matters which Dr. Ward has so ably treated has caused, in some cases, irritation and opposition, we are confident that the complete ventilation of such a burning subject as Papal infallibility has done a great deal of good. Dr. Ward is so well prepared at all points, that it is very rare to find him wrong in what he positively puts forth, or in a citation which he makes. All that people can do, is to complain of "his tone," and the "unmannerly strength" of his language. There are, scattered through this volume before us, various minor retractations, and one or two apologies which we have not taken the trouble to collect. The prevailing spirit of this book is to find out "what saith the Church;" and it is a monument of learning, of zeal, and of true Catholic devotedness.

It should be added that, besides a translation of his Latin pamphlet, "On the Extent of Definitional Infallibility," the learned author has added other new matter in the shape of, first, an Inquiry into the "Doctrinal Authority of the Syllabus," and secondly, an answer to the question, "Are Infallible Definitions rare ?"

ART VI. ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.

The History of St. Catherine of Siena, and her Companions. By AUGUSTA THEDOSIA DRANE, Author of "Christian Schools and Scholars." London: Burns and Oates. 1880.

IN

N the publication of a life of the Virgin of Siena, Catherine, the Spouse of Christ, there seems to be at the present time a threefold fitness. The reason most apparent is, that the year 1880 has seen the celebration of her fifth centenary, the close of five hundred years since she went forth to meet the Bridegroom after a life that might be called at once secret in her circle of disciples, and publicly laborious even in the political world, a lifelong martyrdom, and an all but incessant ecstasy. As a second reason, it is fitting that this marvellous history should be made known in order to spread the enthusiasm of the saint for the cause of "the Christ on earth," and for the City of Rome, and to revive devotion to her, whom Pius IX. of holy and glorious memory, proclaimed the secondary patroness of the Eternal City. In her days the desolating schism of the fourteenth century, seen in the clear vision of her perfection of faith, appeared in itself so hideous a sight, and so fraught with disaster to souls, that she offered her whole being as a holocaust for the unity of the Holy See, and death consummated the sacrifice of a body and soul worn out with suffering. In our days, the schism of the anti-Popes is buried under the dust of centuries; and the jealousies of nations, and the changes of the political world, appear as transitory as shifting shadows in comparison with the one world-amazing reality, the greatest power on earth-the strong unity of the Church under one immortal and unquestioned headship. But though we witness the spiritual triumph of that See of Peter, for which Catherine of Siena gave her life, who amongst us needs to be reminded that in our day also, though in a far different and less deplorable manner, there exists a central evil crying for redress: that, so long as it lasts, the very name of Rome is a sound of sorrow ? What the Saint of Siena saw, we also see-a thorn-crowned Vicar of Christ ;* and it is our dishonour if we forget that

Pius IX. passed on to his successor, not only the tiara, but the still more royal crown. The life of the Church is no longer free in its heart centre; a secular power, itself only the pioneer of fresh revolution, has fettered the hands of him whom our saint solemnly reverenced as "the dispenser of the Blood." We cannot measure the wrongs summed up in the name of the Christian capital, whose very dust there was a Pontiff found to bestow as a relic; we have no statistics to reckon the invisible; no means of knowing how far the huge wrong is influencing for the worse the world's under-currents that shape events. We can only count the lapse of time by the increase of our ardour for the perfect freedom, temporal as well as spiritual, of the Holy See; while yearly when the Church echoes the lamentations of the prophet over the Mistress of the Nations left desolate with none to comfort her, the first outburst of unreproving grief brings to our mind, not so much the image of Jerusalem, as the memory of the city that ten years ago was Rome.

The second special fitness of studying anew in these times St. Catherine's life, lies then in the fact that no one can become familiar with it without feeling the fascination, not only of her unspeakably privileged soul, but of its warmth of sympathy; and no one can be truly devoted to her, without being also devoted to Rome. Her enthusiasm in effecting the return of Gregory XI. from Avignon to war-wrecked Italy, was not national but Catholic; and like all enthusiasm born of faith it did not stop with the first victory. There was no rest for her generous devotion till, when Rome had once more received the Pontiff, her final holocaust was offered for the peace of the Church. But there is more here for us than the influence of her royal-hearted ardour. Beyond the accepted sacrifice, the records of history give a consoling glimpse of deep mysteries by showing how long the schism still lasted, and then how utterly it disappeared. There is every reason to believe that the voluntary suffering and heroic death of that saint of predilection, was efficacious in ending the Great Schism; yet it was not until thirty-four years after her death that the schism was healed at the Council of Constance, by the resignation of the lawful Pope, Gregory XII., the deposition of the two pretenders, John XXII. and Benedict VIII., and the election of one universally acknowledged Pontiff, Martin V. The lapse of thirty-four years, and then the complete answer of the saint's prayer, ought to be a lesson to those who are too ready to be deluded by the doctrine of " faits accomplis."

To pass on from the devotional use of the life of Rome's secondary patroness, there is a third point of appropriateness VOL. XXXV.—NO. 1. [Third Series.]

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to the present time. The "popolana" of Siena, with her mystic and supernatural character, at first unconsciously and then openly becoming a power in the world, until she was the counsellor of Popes, the ambassador of Republics, the adviser of Kings-this "daughter of the people" is a fourteenthcentury type of a truth that still asserts itself in the nineteenth, the power acquired even in human affairs by simple faith. It is not too much to say that the one great need of our time is precisely the grand prerogative of St. Catherine, the perfection of faith, for therein seems to lie now more than ever the victory that overcomes the world. In this age with its marked taste for philosophical research and theological discussion, with its tendency on the one hand, away from the ephemeral sects and back to the Church, and on the other, away from all revealed religion, and down into hopeless dust-to-dust utilitarianism, or to a modern luxurious paganism, or to the halfway haze of theistic dreamy systems-it is the hour when wonders are worked by simple outspoken faith, making known the one single system that can boast both antiquity and consistency. If there is abundant proof of rank infidelity around us, there are also tokens everywhere of a thirst for the knowledge of the invisible. And if it was appropriate to the time that we should have seen a veritable Lumen in Coelo, in the direction of Catholic study afresh to the Angel of the Schools, it is also appropriate that there should be encouragement for all that tends towards a popular study of the highest types of the supernatural life, since such a study is at once in keeping with the new sympathies of, the age, and in direct contradiction of its opposite materialistic tendency. Therefore the mystic life of the virgin of Siena attracts us in these days with a more than ordinary fascination; for though it is true that the life of any saint is an exposition of the supernatural order, and a victory of faith, there are few such brilliant examples of faith and asceticism acquiring power for an individual, who by natural gifts alone could have effected nothing, and could not even have had any raison d'étre in the political world.

As to the manner in which the life of a saint is best written, there exists some difference of opinion. It is well known that most of the religious biographies, which are ranked among the classics of asceticism, are arranged with a view to spiritual teaching alone. Their main object is to describe the soul and interior life of the saint; and they classify virtues rather than events, so that beyond the principal outline there is but a slight thread of chronological sequence, and the attention is not distracted from the main purpose by any lengthy digression towards the material world, much less by any appeal to the

imagination to reconstruct its aspect at the time. Such lives form the treasures of hagiology. But a different method is often necessary when the career of the saint was public and eventful; and the modern spirit of research has given to our literature many noble works, which, without losing their spiritual influence, produce the effect, not so much of the revelation of a soul, as of the bodily resurrection of a saintly life and a bygone time. To this latter class belongs the History of St. Catherine, and there are few more perfect specimens of religious biography. The materials found for this life of five hundred years ago were unusually copious and detailed; the present volume is made more generally readable by containing much of the descriptive and discursive element, while it contains also as full an account of the saint's virtues and mystical teaching as could be desired by a seeker of pure and simple hagiology. The public character of her mission, her sorrow over the woes of the Church, the peculiar nature of her relationship with her "family" of disciples, could not have been adequately represented in a mere Life of St. Catherine. There was but one manner of faithfully depicting this marvellous figure in the medieval Church, and explaining her unique position; and that manner is here indicated by the title, telling, as it does, not of a saint's life detached from the world, but of the saint in her place in the world, left among her proper surroundings of time, place, and people. Such is the scope of the History of St. Catherine of Siena and her Companions.

Although the story of the Saint of Siena has been told in foreign tongues by more than sixty publications of her life, for English readers there existed hitherto only an imperfect American abridgment of the legend, and a translation of it made by Father John Fen in 1609, re-edited of late years, and now some time out of print. Beside these two brief and almost unattainable versions of the Legend of Raymund of Capua, there is one other in English-a recently published Protestant Life, as unsatisfactory as the view of a beautiful stained glass window seen only from outside, with reversed design and unlighted colours. The one standard English work on St. Catherine has at last been given to us, and how a wide subject is grasped and materials held in hand, intricacies unravelled and deep things charmingly simplified, is all said in saying that it comes from the author of "Christian Schools and Scholars." The groundwork has been the so-called legend written by the saint's confessor, Raymund of Capua, and her own letters and those of her disciples; but the extent to which all extant records that illustrate her life have been compared and ex