St. Leger

“ Leger looked at the radiant face, the enchanting smile of his handsome friend, so bright, so changeful, so fitted to win the admiration of women, and cursed himself as a dark, severe, repelling man, whom the fickle sex could find nothing in to really love. ”

“ Each bay of the triforium is divided, as usual, into three round-headed arches—of which two are blind and the centre one pierced—with fluted, or zig-zagged pilasters between them. In the chapel of St. Léger are two quite interesting fifteenth century frescoes of the raising of Lazarus, and the stoning of Stephen—both, probably, by a painter of the Flemish school. The former picture, though mutilated and faded, is still quite realistic; too much so, in a sense; for the bystanders are so interested in the miracle that they have elbowed the Christ quite to one side of the picture. ”

“ Copies of the new liturgy were sent over, and St Leger had the communion service translated into Latin, for the use of The Reformation. priests and others who could read, but not in English. The popular feeling was strong against innovation, as Edward Staples, bishop of Meath, found to his cost. The opinions of Staples, like those of Cranmer, advanced gradually until at last he went to Dublin and preached boldly against the mass. He saw men shrink from him on all sides. ”

“ The arguments of the men he was sent to convert staggered Varaile. He fled to Geneva, and in the city of the Reformers he was taught more fully the “way of life.” Ordained as a pastor, he returned to the Valleys, where “like another Paul,” says Leger, “he preached the faith he once destroyed.” After a ministry of some months, he set out to pay a visit of a few days to his native town of Busco. He was apprehended by the monks who were lying in wait for him. He was condemned to death by the Inquisition of Turin. His execution took place in the castle-piazza of the same city, March 29th, 1558. ”

“ This church was formerly part of an abbey founded in 1152 in memory of Saint-Léger, Bishop of Autun, assassinated in 678 by the Mayor of the Palace, Ebroïn.
The nave and west front were rebuilt in the 17th century, after the sack of the monastery by the Huguenots in 1567. It is now secularized.
The nave, separated from the rest of the building by a wall, was used before the war as a hall for public meetings, while a geological museum was to have been installed in the transept and choir.
The façade is 17th century. ”

“ SAINT LEGER or Salinger, William (1600–1665) , Irish jesuit, was born in the county of Kilkenny in 1600, entered the Society of Jesus at Tournai in 1621, studied afterwards in Sicily, and was professed of the four vows in 1635. After his return to Ireland he became superior of his brethren in that country during the time of the rebellion, which began in 1641. He was rector of the college of Kilkenny in 1650, and, when the former city was taken by Cromwell's army, he removed to Galway. ”

“ The count then crossed the park and entered the court-yard of the chateau through the iron gates. However worn-out a man may be by the wear and tear of public life, by his own emotions, by his own mistakes and disappointments, the soul of any man able to love deeply at the count's age is still young and sensitive to treachery. Monsieur de Serizy had felt such pain at the thought that Moreau had deceived him, that even after hearing the conversation at Saint-Brice he thought him less an accomplice of Leger and the notary than their tool. ”

“ Be that as it may, Sir Peter Legh determined upon entering the Church, and took orders, thenceforward describing himself as "knight and priest," and about the same time he set about the foundation of a chantry chapel upon his estate at Lyme—the present church at Disley. The time was one of much religious energy and life, notwithstanding that the faith might be in a dim lantern and obscured by not a few superstitions and scandals, but it must not be assumed that the only object of Sir Peter Legh's foundation was that prayers might be offered for the dead by the officiating priest. ”

“ The vicar who was chosen ‘archbishop’ performed the service on the eve and day of the Circumcision in pontificalibus, gave the Benediction to the people, and went in procession through the town. Finally, on Sunday, January 3, the clergy of all three churches joined in another jeu de personnages, in which, under the names of Hypocrisie, Faintise and Faux-semblant, the bishop and two canons who had been most active in opposing the feast, were held up to ridicule. Jean Leguisé was not a man to be defied with impunity. ”

“ Unless the Earl of Stowmaries chooses to abjure the faith of his fathers, and thereby cause his own eternal damnation, he cannot undo the knot which by the will of his parents—he being a minor at the time—tied him indissolubly to your daughter.' Thus spoke His Greatness, Monseigneur the Archbishop of Paris," concluded M. Legros, with becoming solemnity, "and in such [13] words will the message be conveyed to the man who by all laws human and divine is the husband of Rose Marie Dieudonnée Legros, our only and dearly loved child." ”

“ But Father Gerard refusing to go into their church, the officers were the more displeased, and sent twice or thrice commanding him to come in. But in the end, when they saw he would not, they were glad to come out to him, and examined him of many particulars, unto which he answered readily; yet they threatened to send him to the Commissioners of the shire. And when he expected no other but to have been [pg 282] sent first to them and then to prison, these officers said, “He looks like an honest man. Let him go; we will not trouble him.” ”

“ They knew that what the pastor read to them was the Word of God, and therefore they found it altogether beautiful. Only the schoolmaster and one or two of the more intelligent farmers occasionally said among themselves: "The parson seems to have only one sermon; he talks of nothing but God's wisdom and God's government. All that is well enough so long as the Dissenters keep away. But this stronghold is poorly defended and would fall at the first attack."
Lay preachers generally passed by this parish. "What's the good of going there?" they used to say. "Those people don't want to be awakened." ”

“ Oh! he can quote Scripture rarely. But I am not so simple a monk as you think, my lad," cried the good father with sudden defiance, addressing not Gerard but—Vacancy. "This one toy finished, vigils, fasts, and prayers for me; prayers standing, prayers lying on the chapel floor, and prayers in a right good tub of cold water." He nudged Gerard and winked his eye knowingly. "Nothing he hates and dreads like seeing us monks at our orisons up to our chins in cold water. ”

“ When the monk saw it he rejoiced, and [12] said to himself: “Praise be to God! As yet it is Christ who is worshipped on the Capitol.”
The monk saw the face of the image smile at him with mysterious, conscious power, and his spirit soared up into the holy realms of confidence. “What can overthrow you in your might?” he said. “What can overthrow you? To you the Eternal City bends its knees. You are Rome’s Holy Child. Yours is the crown which the people worship. You come in your might with help and strength and consolation. You alone shall be worshipped on the Capitol.” ”

“ Gerard, in common with many of the northern clergy, held this sentence to be flat heresy. He not only refused to utter it in his church, but warned his parishioners against using it in private; and he refused to celebrate the new feast the Pope invented at the same time, viz., “the feast of the miraculous conception of the Virgin.”
But this drew upon him the bitter enmity of the Franciscans, and they were strong enough to put him into more than one serious difficulty, and inflict many a little mortification on him. ”

“ At the time of our story Prior Roger ruled the brotherhood; a man of varied parts and stainless life. He was not without monastic society: fifteen miles east was the Cluniac priory of Lewes, fifteen miles west the Benedictine abbey of Battle, three miles south under the downs the “Alien” priory of Wilmington.
But wherever a monastery was built roads were made, marshes drained, and the whole country rose in civilisation, while for the learning of the nineteenth century to revile monastic lore is for the oak to revile the acorn from which it sprang. ”

“ Far in New England that mother had trained her only son with long unwearied love and patient prayers." Believe it not, Christian mother, North or South! Thou hast the promises of Scripture to the contrary. Rock thy babe upon thy bosom—sing to him sweet hymns—carry him to the baptismal font—be unwearied in love—patient in prayers; he will never be such a one. He may wander, but he will come back; do thy duty by him, and God will not forget his promises. "He is not man that he will lie; nor the son of man that he will repent."
Legree is a Northerner. ”

“ Built upon the north-east corner of the cloister the Bishop found a loggia—roofed, but with open sides, looking down on the white pueblo and the tawny rock, and over the wide plain below. There he decided he would spend the night. From this loggia he watched the sun go down; watched the desert become dark, the shadows creep upward. Abroad in the plain the scattered mesa tops, red with the afterglow, one by one lost their light, like candles going out. ”

“ He walked alone up to the priests in the sacristy.
Francesca went into the church. It was Easter Eve, and all the candles stood unlighted upon the altars, as a symbol of mourning. Francesca thought that every flame of hope which had ever burned within her was now extinguished.
In the church there was profound solemnity. There were many priests at the altar. The canons sat in a body in the chancel, with the bishop among them.
By and by Francesca noticed there was commotion among the priests. Nearly all who were not needed to serve at Mass arose and went out into the sacristy. ”

“ Six hundred years before Christ was born, there lived in the city of Jerusalem a prophet by the name of Lehi. He had at that time four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The Lord told Lehi that because of the wickedness of the city, it would soon be destroyed, and if he wished to be saved he must take his family and travel into the wilderness. This Lehi did. They went south-eastward until they got to the sea where they built a ship in which to cross to a promised land. ”

“ The son was hurt by again finding her without sympathy, and tried to persuade her to sympathize a little with his grief. "You, truly, more than any one else, ought to wish that the Pope might live," he said. "If he may continue to rule, he will name my parish priest for bishop before the year shall have passed and, in that event, my fortune is made. He will then give me a good place in a cathedral. You shall not see me going about any more in a worn-out cassock. I shall have plenty of money, and I shall be able to help you and all your poor neighbors." ”

“ Lewellin said, "If you are at the chapel in the evening we will sit in the same pew."
"O yes, my dear; we greatly prefer the chapel to the church. There we have the pomp of religion; here its beautiful simplicity. At church we hear the Church itself and its ceremonial rites held up to us from day to day; here the Saviour himself is placed before us as the Alpha and Omega of the service. We are more partial to the substance of the truth, than to shadowy forms."
In the evening a minister officiated, who was on a visit to Malvern for the improvement of his health. ”

“ Clement's,” as it appears in Winter's confession, seems to be the house described by Father Gerard as that which he occupied up to the time of the Powder Plot, “nearer the principal street in London, called the Strand,”199 in which street most of his friends lived. But he was not the only Priest who lived in that house. At least two other [pg ccxxiv] Priests200 resided habitually with him. One was Father Strange, who was in the Tower when the Autobiography was written; the other, whose name he does not give, “was thrown into Bridewell, and was afterwards banished, together with other Priests.” ”

“ So a room was hired for her in another person's house, where she often used to harbour Priests. One day (it was the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin) she let in a great many Catholics to hear Mass, a thing which she would never have done in my house. Good soul, she was more careful of me than of herself. Some neighbours noticed the throng, and called the constables. They went upstairs into the room, which they found full of people. The celebrant was Father Francis Page, S.J., who was afterwards martyred.67 He had pulled off his vestments before the Priest-hunters came in ”

“ George's Cathedral lies John Franklin Gell, a nephew of the bishop, the son of the Rev. John Philip Gell, for many years the Rector of St. John's, Netting Hill. The young man came out to his uncle and aunt, hoping that a warm climate would prove beneficial to his delicate constitution. His health improved and he became tutor to some minor zemindars who were living in Madras. ”

“ Faustina reflected a moment. “I am glad that we came to this city on the day that the people celebrate their festival,” said she. “It can not signify anything else than that the gods protect our journey. Do you think it likely that he whom we seek, the Prophet of Nazareth, has also come to Jerusalem to participate in the festivities?”
“You are surely right, Faustina,” said the Roman. “He must be here in Jerusalem. This is indeed a decree of the gods. Strong and vigorous though you be, you may consider yourself fortunate if you escape making the long and troublesome journey up to Galilee.” ”