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VOL, I1l.—No, 38,
. THE CATHOLIC*HERALD is published
every Thursday, at the S. Ex Corner of Market
and. Second Rireets: (up stairs.)
‘Terus—! OLLARS perannum, payable
half yearly in 1 advance. _ Any’ person remitting
$5 in advance, shall receive | wo copies of the
‘Herald, for one year, or one copy fortwoyears.
communications (except from Agents, and
from subscribers containing remiances,) must
be post paid, and die e “Editor of
the Catholic Herald, Pb plis, Penn.
. No paper will be discuntinued until. all
arreatages are settled.
Le eEEaEEEEEREEEEEEaenenaemaneae
“ Doetryp. a
For the Catholic Herald.
. STANZAS.
The last dim morn shall rise
Life’s lamp is fading ni
Wher friends shall shut “iy “closing eyes,
And smooth thy dew:
Then to the oblivious ‘omy
‘They'll hurry thee away,
And o'er thy cold and stiffened form,
. Will cast the heaving clay.
Thy voice no more shall sound,
‘That sings so wild and w well,
Thy mirthfal heart’s quicie throb be o'er,
» Where sinful feelings dwell;
“The fairy hopes depart,
2, Phat round thy bosom twine,
All past delights, all present joys,
No longer shall be thing
The mournful breeze shall sigh,
Above thy cold damp walls— :
“The voice of Time's eternal surge,
‘That sad and solemn falls;
_ But all unheard by thes
Sleeping beneath the
Dreamless and cold, free fram the weight,
‘The burden of life's toil.
Dark storms anoa shall roll,
: ‘Through the waned autumn sky
.'The wild winds rave, the hoarse waves roar,
And deep to deep reply;
Winter resimes his ren
Over the withered earth, o
But thou no more like sunshine, wilt
Light up the cheerless hearth.
‘The stranger at thy stone,
“May pause awhile to see,
Letters by Time's rude fingers wora,
‘That bore the name of thee 5
But he will onward stray,
‘Amid the barial seene-— ;
None through the cloud of years can tmce;
©". Phat thou had’st ever been
* But oh! do not depart,
With no star beaming o’er thee,
‘And leave the world of life behind,
Hell’s darkest gulf before thee;
~ Seek for a home in heaven,
While tending to the dust,
Then in the resurrection, thou
\ Shalt waken with the just.
“LMS.
. From Moore's Ireland.
LEARNED IRISH EMIGRANTS.
“Under the auspices of the munificent Charl.
whose shor
joyed that prince’ 's patronage,
Th not the least conspicuous or deservil
e strange circumstances under which two
erant Irish scholars, named Clementand Albinus,
contrived to attract the emperor's notice, are thus
related by a monkish chronicler of the time.(a)
Arriving, in company with some British mer-
chants, on the shores of France, these two Scots
of Ireland, as they are designated
cler, observing that the crowds who flocked
around them on their arrival, were eager only for
drawing attention to themselvess than by erying
out, “+ Who wants wisdom? let him come to us,
for we have it tosell.”” By continually repeating
this ery, they soon _ guceended in becoming ob-
as they were found, upon
nearer inquiry, t men, an account
hem was
magne, who gave
ducted into his pres
whichsoever it might have been,
crowned with success; as the king,
Eretensions to wisdom
time was by courtesy called) to be not
foun dation,” placed Clement at the head
and sent Albinus to preside over a similar insti-
tution at Pavia.| he historian Denina, re-
marking the fallen state of Italy at this period,| |
impelled, as he says, to look to
that Irish monks were placed by Charlemagne at
the head of some of her schools.(c)
—
{p Monech. Sang {cea Benedictine atc Is go
(say th
operateurs de Charlemagne davs execution yn do son grand des-
i wis de nation,
man, the authors of the Hist. Litteraire de ia France
Don
saleable articles, could think of no other mode of'
a
seminary which he then established in France,
“GO TEACH ALL NATIONS.” Matt. xxvii, 19.——“ AS MY FaTiiER HATH SENT ME, I ALSO SEND YOU.” . John xx.21. ©“
Some doubts have been started’ as to the truth |
of this characteristic adventure of the two Irish
scholars.()
i
lied “upon for ‘mos
magne, the incident is marked throughout with
features so truly Irish—the dramatic
the expedient, the profession itself of an itinerant
scholar © a late period common in Ircland,—
that appear but slight grounds for doubting
the authenticity of the anecdote. ‘I'he vehement
denial of its truth by ‘Tiraboschi is actuated ‘0
offended ‘national vanity, at th
thought of an Irishman having been chosen to
preside over a place of oducation in Italy,
received with the deference his authority might
otherwise command; and both Muratori and De-| g
nina have given their sanction to the main fact of
the narrati
In the latter part of this century we find another
native of Ireland, named Dungal, trying his for-
France, and honoured in Jike manner will
patronage of her imperial ehief.. Of the letter
addressed by this learned Scot(e) to Charlemagne,
on the two solar eclipses“alleged to have been
observed in Europe in the yeat 810, i have al-
ready had occasion to speak;
perficial the astronomnical Iknowledge displayed i in
this short tract, the writer has proved himsel
been well acquainted with all that the an-
cients had said upon the subject ;(/) while both
in his admission that two(g) sole eclipses might
take place within the year, his doubt that
such a-rare incident td occurred in 810, he is
equally correct, ‘The very circumstance, indeed,
of his having been selected by Charlemagne,
though living a recluse, at that time, in the monas-
tery of St. Denis, as ong of the few European
scholars worthy of being Consulted on such. a
point, shows sufliciently the high estimation in
which he was then held”
ind him some time. after in aly, acting
as Master of the great public school established at
Pavia by Lothaire I. ; with jurisdiction, too, over
all the other subordinate schools which this prince
founded in the different cities of Italy(#). How
‘igh was the station assigned to the Irish profes-
sor, may be judged from a Gapitolar(i) issued by
Lothaire, in which, while the various cities where
the name of Dungal alone of all the diferent pro-
fessors is mentioned, and every other institution
is placed in subordination to that of
A work written by this eminent ma about the
year 827, in answer to an attack made by Claud-
tus, bishop of ‘Turin, on the Catholic tice of
honouring images and paying reverence to saints,
is praised by a distinguished Italian writer, as dis-
playing not merely a fund of sacred learning, but
also a knowledge of polite jirerninre, and of the
classical graces of style In opposition to
it reviving the heresy of Vigilan-
tivs, maintained that saints ought not to be hon?
oured, nor any reverence paid to images, the Trish
Doctor contends zealously for the ancient Catho-
je aid of
tice of the church from the very earliest times,
which has been, he says, to revere, with the hon-
our suitable to them, the figure of the cross, and
the pictures and relics of saints, without either
sacrificing to them or paring them the worship
which is due to God al In honour of his
countryman, St. Columbanuss Dungal bequeathed
‘0 the monastery of Bobbio, a valuable collection
of books, the greater part of which are now at
Milan, having been removed to the Ambrosian li-
ary by Cardinal Frederie Borromeo(t).
rendere in_ quell. stearo tempo to ace 0 piu necessa
che bisognasse dagli uttiani ‘nliai Toveidente et dol ord
Fens in Unis maosir ad segnate, non © che altro, la lingu:
tai ng nel 781 nen prepoato alle acuole d
nacht Irlandesi."—Delle Kivolusiont
a Me Lica, lid viiie
ftct mentioning that one of these T
wilt been detamned in France by Charlemagne
“£1 altro fu fu da fa ‘mandato int
men, Clement
ait Iu aseignato if
eth rutiorebbe a provare.che ¥1 jose ta va
Fuominn dott in fala, che convenisse inviarvi stranter
‘Starie della Letterat, Hatian., tom. iti lib. 3. cap. 1.
Haviog sted that Mabillza ssaponco Dunsal to bean Irish-
ui paroit appuye tant sur son nom que surce que IL Tieynie
fourait alors plusieurs avires grands hommes
) Dacher, Spices tome iii, The following rewarts son
from the, pen of Ismael Bulliadus, “ astro-
rte indo i" 8, Ricoh, ple hm, whom
i ai
Isis ie r ori
tium binge eclipses solis cernantur, qu.
noel a cs i uae <rraltclaaben aon lnge
ro quinquemestre spatium in
Doreall vel nso be ee lipece solares
esenpuinn idere
eodem
ph
. weU ‘omnia demonstra t_utpote vera.
Sed eh ‘Epinolw Auctor Dungalus hax ws dfferentias ignoraese
‘ies
(9) In Strusk’s Catalogue of Eclipses ilcre occur, T think,
foAP Instances of a nolar
eclipse hnving been observed twice
within the space of a year, viz. aD. 23
1408.9
17-8, 812-3, 1185-6, and
ing to Denina, not merely the management of|
re rt at the rec of of founding them ies ‘a ‘0 boat
tributed re Dung —Funell fatto
aco per _nome Dungalo, i et
tO oe cee auioro€ eeu dar
is
i Pavia, ma
dello altre. ecnele
Y erea, diTorino, di F padi Vices
f rr aritamente gli
del rial alle fe Raed rsparamente et
moso capitol
i a8 given by ry Tiraboarhi, thus commences:
vgn, megoeeh Dangaliam de Medilane,
de Novaria.” ib.
rida, * Chi forwer9 i re
citta, non 7 Solo quel di Pavia si nomina in
questa legge, ioe Dungalo."—Il
“Caterum lier ille Dusgali hominem oraditam sacris-
que etiam literia 0} rod at nl i. ra ‘amnraaticali foro
‘ac Prisciani ‘ieliciia cnttom
library. at
(k) A catnlogue of th th e A
Bob! ther with the: Bei re donors, has
font by Marton (Ang al ok “i Dao 435)
tune, with far more valid claims to distinction in | p,
ver su-| a
schools had then been founded are enumerated, | y;
a
s | countess, Agues of Burgut nye
i
‘| the monk’s
raezza
which wat the subject of partial inquiry.
From the British Magazine.
TILE DARK AGES.
(Continued)
Sed quis pejerat hoct Non Muratorius hercle
Maleate Averanis hon on a Calepinum
Restituit nupor."—L. Secta
“Scientia fere omnes nolo et ubigue i loco-
rum non mediocris ignorantia successi aod
cum aio, non est mihi animus signitcandi, hala
in Lapponiam tum fuisse convers erasqne
adeo sublatas, ut neque Jegere neque seribere quis-
e | quam nosset, Aut detir
hominis hac opinio fore
~ Proceeding with his proofs and illustrations of
the exireme darkness of the: middle ages, Robert-
on tel
“The price of books beeame s0 high, that per-
sons of a moderate fortune could not afford to pul
chase them. ‘The Ci
copy of the Homilies of Haimon, Bishop of Hal-
erstadt, two handred sheep, five quarters of
wheat, and the same quantity of rye and millet.”
—tHlistoire Literaire de France, par des Religieux
Benedictins, tom. vii.
Ofcourse we are to understand that this was
somewhere about the market price arising out of
lume of homilies; and a price arising out of
re scarcity of the article, and the consequent dif-
ulty of procuring it; and if this was the case, it
is ey clear that in tl those days most people must
either have made ho: Ythemselvess or gone
without them. The stury is, however, so very
‘ood, that one would be tempted at first sieht to
PIRILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1835.
abbot was parking about it, and the monk, who
knew fits history, describes it as the volumes
which the Countess bought at ‘a great
So that whut she gave was then considered extree
ordinary. .
The price was paid at different times, and
is so strange a story, that it looks rather as if the
chaplain was some skilful artist who washonored
on account of his talents, and took advantage of
them to work on the liberality of his patroness.
4, As to the quantity of grain—T avifer modius
to stand, because if I were to translate it, I should
be inclined to say ‘tone bushel” instead of “five
quarters,” whieh ye of course, divide Robert-
son’s quanti
that the English Iyuchele i is the exact. repre
tive of the modius here spoken of, for Mhat that
wos precisely I really donot know; and whoever
looks into the subject of weights and measures
will perecive that it is to think that f shou'd be
giving very good measure.
Now let me appeal to every rational and reflect-
ing person, whether it is from such eases that we
can judge of the price of books in general, or of
y of procuring
we to form our See from the sums
paid or given by royal and noble patrons and pat-
ronesses to artists, whose skill in writing, illumi-
nuting, and embellishing manuscripts, enabled
them to ask what they pleased, and get
th yas) kod
is considered a high accompilsh-
ment. .It is carefully taught in the schools,
| and those who excel in it are almost classed
as that we are more likely
come ata true notion of value—than if it had been
stated in terms of money. ‘The scribe, itis said,
received two hundred sheep, and fifteen quarters
(that is, thirty sacks) of grain. It may reasona-
is 3 Or, atany rate,
dred skins, which would of themsetves be worth
a litle fortun: 10 lived upon parch-
ment. But waiving all thisy and considering the
sheep as mere mutton, the scribe would be furnish-
be with almost half a sheep per wee!
Was there nobody who would transcribe
omilies on more reasonable terms? Surely | ©
from that time forth every man in Anjou, and
every where else, who heard of the transaction,
set about learning an art Wvhlet must ave been,
beyond all comparison, which
had ever been practised, and which might fairly
vie with alchemy itself.
Let us, however, look at authorities. Robertson
refers to the Histoire Literaire de France, where
the story is thus told:—*Un trait que l’histoire
nousa conserve vouchant| le prix excessif des livres
ence temps la, nous doit faire juger de leur rare-
te. Encore agit-ild’un anteur ecclesiastique, le
recuil des homilies on, l’acheta, deux cents brebi
un muid de froment, un autre ae feigles un troi-
sieme de millet, et un certain no: le peaux de
peaux de parires. nl falloit etre 1 riche pour form.
er de nombreuses bibliotlieques au meme prix.”
Perhaps noboily will dispute the inference which
these historians draw from the story 3 but some
will be surprised that Robertson omitted the **cer-
tain nombre de peaux det martres.” This certain
(ofcourse uncertain + may be supposed to
for any quantity of rich and cos tly furs, 2
increases the price
ut let us. fetrograde another nlepe ‘and look at
the authority to which the ate ‘of the “Iis-
toire Literaire” refer, Mabillon g occa
ston, in’ bis Benedictine Ann:
tion the Countess Grecia as a vabeeribing wit
ness toa Chara er of about the year 1056, by which
eoffr fontel, Count of Anjou, granted certain
priv wiledes to the monks of St. Nicholas at Angers,
tds, that she was the second wife of that Count,
d married to him after his divorce from his first
that the divorce is menti
monk to the Abbot Oderie, who had asked him
bout a certain homily of Uaymo; andre.
marks, that though not very important in itself,
letter is worth transcribing, because
it shows both the high price of books, and the es-
timation in which these homilies were held at
that period. He then gives the letter, which is
is Tord the Abbot O. brother R. offers
his prayers in Christ. Most dear father, I would
have you to know that the Countess bought the
book of which you have heard, for a great price,
of Martin, who is now a bishop. On one occa-
sion she gave him a hundred sheep on account of
that book at another time, on accouut of that
book, a modius of wheat, another of rye,
and athird of millet. Again on the same account,
abundred sheep; at another time, some marten
skins. And when she separated herself from the
Count, he received from her four pounds to buy | ro
sheep. But afterward, when she asked for the
change, he began to complain about his book.
She ‘immediately gave up to him what he owed
a this letter I would obse:
. If there is really any reference to the divorce
i seems obvious that it must have been Agnes
(who separated herself,) and not Grecia(her suc-
cessor) who purchased the books T cannot hel;
doubting, however, whether there is any such re-
ference; though I have so fe oterred to Mabil-
¢,"" by “she sepa-
ccepit, the received. ”” We learn
from the subscription to a another. charter, that
Maw in had been the Count’s chaplain ; and from
his letter, that he had ceased to be so; and I can-
hot but think that the *separavit se” may mean
when he quitted the Count’s service.
to}eminence in this
k, for four} wert
sh
men. mployed
‘3, and some have attained to such
art, that a few lines writ-
ten by one of those celebrated penmen are o}
sold for a considerable sum.” He adds in a note,
“I have known seven pounds given for four lines
writen by Dervish Musjeed, a celebrated pen-
who has been dead some time, and whose
beautiful specimens of w:
upposed, however, that there
ting in the case, it is still very possible that, on
other grounds, the book might have been worth
twice, or twenty times as much as the Countess
gave for it, without proving that books i in general
@ $0 outrageously scarce and rom
such eases, indeed, we cannot, as Ihave already
said, prove any thing. Will itnotbe quite as
fair for some writer a few centuries hence to bring
forward the enormous and absurd prices which
by some modern coll
a
3
readers, (at a time too when the march oh ence
has got past the age of cumbersome an
sive peany magazines, and is rerelling i in “tirth
ing eyclopedias,) that in the year 1812, one o
our nobility gave 2,260l., and another 10601, 10s,
for a single volume? and that the next year
ohnson’s Dictionary was sold by public auction
0 a plebeian purchaser for 2001.1 A few sucl
fa cts would quite set up some future Robertson,
whose readers would never dream that we could
get better reading, and plenty of it, much cheaper
at that very time. ‘I'he simple fact is, that there
has always been such a thing as bibl jomania since
there have been books in the world ; andno mem-
ber of the Roxburgh Club, has ze equalled the
Elector of Bavaria, who g: wn fora single
manuscript—unless, indeed. i it be. argued that it
nd| ¥as amore pure, disinterested, and brilliant dis-
play of the raling passion, a more devoted and he-
roi sacrifice of property and respect, to give
20001. for a unigne specimen of obscene trash,
fan ‘9 0 part with a German town for a copy of the
i
of this description, however, does
not enter into the question, though another species
of it does, and it is necessary to say afew words
about it, which I hope to do Presently.
meantime fe me ask, ae not Robertson pro-
next senienes wi
nig ight, by. itself, show hey readers that the trans-
action which just recorded was not pecu-
Niaely characteristic of the age in which it occur-
He goes on to say :—
2
8
XI, borrowed the works of Rasis, the Arabian
physician, from the Faculty of Medicine in Paris,
he not only deposited as a pledge a considerable
e, but was obliged to procure a
nobleman to jon with him as surety in a deed,
binding himself under a great forfeiture to restore
it —Gabr. Naude Addit. a Phistoire de Louys
Xt. pas Comines edit. de Fresnoy, tom. iv. p.
any curious circumstances with respect
to the veeaiat tice of books in the middle
ages are collected by that industrious compiler, to
whom [refer such of my readers as deem this
small branch of literary history an object of curi-
osity.”
Might I not add, that ‘even so late as"? two
cen after this, when Selden wished to bor-
a MS. from the Bodelian Library, he was re-
quired to give a bond for a thousand pounds? but
are we to infer that in that dark age he could not
have got as much ‘good reading on easier terms!
1 however, that there was frequently
an intrinsic value in books independent of that
we ich might arise from their subject; and I mean
that which was inseparable from the nature of the
s from the art and labour bestowed in mak-
thing but a thing to read, and looking back to the
as ‘only acramp illegible scrawl on
dirty parchment, they will form a very erroneous
opinion on the whole matter. Books, and espe-
cially those used in the church service, (of which
by the way, general readers are most likely to
=
Ps
2. te ‘more to the purpose to observe, that
this book of homilies was.a peculiar volumes
he
hesr, and to which class I suspect this homilary
to have belonged,) were frequently written with
great care and “paints illuminated and gilded with
mea to ray deal
et May he not tell his gaping |ed
aleranda ver:
¢ | intellig
Upes so late as the year 1471, when Louis I
sony materials of which they were composed, as | or
WHOLE NUMBER 142, .
almost incredible industry, boun: o
with plates of gold, ailveror. carved in ivory adore
ed with relics. Missats of a later date than the
period with which we are at present concerned
were, some years ago, the objects of eager rompe-
petiti on; collectors, and some of them must
tlwaye be admired for the exquisite beauty
their embellishments. I am not going to compare ©
the graphic ornaments of the ning th een-
turies with those of the thirteenth and fourteenth; ,
in this point of view it may suffice to say, that
they were the finest specimens of art which those
J ia
ich they were embellished, I hope I shail fnd
a more proper place to speak; and I feel that for
our present purpose it is quite sufficient to make
this general reference to it; bare there was another *
species of value attaching to 80 ks in those
ages which does not present itself 80. chviously or
forcibly. ‘Phe multiplication of books, by print-
ing, has not only rendered them much cheaper by
reducing the labour required for the production of
a large number of copies, but has provided that
each one of that large murober should be a fac-
simile of all the rest who sees one sees all;
the edition is dispersed ‘among those who can
best judge of its value; it receives from their suf-
frages a certain character; ani ym that time
forth, if we see the tile-page, we know what are
the contents or the errors of f every page in the
book. Among those who are likly to want it, it
is eenticient t to. jmention the time and place of its
publication, and if w eines and
readableness of our o own edition ofa father or a
classic, we recommend
or we should infallibly have heard of it from our
bookseller. Now in those days every copy was
unique—every one, if I may so speak, stood upon
ils own individual character; and the correctness
of a pa anuscript was no pledge for even
those which were copied immediately from it, In
fact, the correctness of every single copy could
be ascertained by minute and laborious collation,
and by the same tedious and wearisome labour
iter atl revises the
refore,
came out of the pcripiorium of se
monastery, if it had passed through learned
hands, and had been found, by the scrutiny which
it was then necessary to give to each individual
copy, to be an accurate work which might be pie
ly trusted a8 a copy of future transcripts; if all
this was known and ateated, i it would form anoth-
good reason why a book should
fetch an extraordinary puice.
CORRECTION OF MISSTATEMENTS.
The Rev. Mr. O'Reilly has addressed the following
letter to the Pittsburg Conference Journal, in the last
number of which paper it appeared.
Mr. Editor:—Sir, I am not in the habit of see-
ing the Conference Journal, but my attention has
been directed by a friend to the last number, dated
27th August, a great portion of which is devoted
to inform the public respecting the St. Clare Nun-
nery near Pintsborghy and dmatiers connected with
it, ” It was not unkno u that law-suits had
been pending, respecting “ihe slandens we com=
plain of, whose
3m sorry,
then, to perceive the impatience with which some
upersede
to prejudice the public
tel
tmind, alread prejodiced enough,
y improper
statements and nchart able comments. In what
professes to be “correct information” —which you
very properly leave open to correetion—I beg
leave to assure you there are not fewer than ten
misstatements,
- The order of St. Clare, as well as the other
orders in this country, is not under the immediate
control of the Pope, but either of the bishops in
whose dioceses they exist, or their respective
Generals or Provincials, agreeably to the canons
of the chure!
» Tris not true the bishop of Detroit owns the
property, as under the Pope, or cannecs
tion with him; but simply by "he tenure or Dare >
chase ‘rom the Abbess, who till then was the right-
ful proprietor,
3. Nor isit true that the Provincial wished
to sell the property, on the contrary, hi xp
ly refuses to do so in the hearing of the writer of
this.
Tt isnot =e oy this prelate received 860,-
000 from the Ps used man h:
enough to do wi rs besides sending them
to Michigan to atts convents. I cannot see
what could be the object of adverting here to this
“stale slang,” except it was for effect.
tis not true that the controversy be!
the Provincial andthe nuns caused “considerable, 7
indeed any ‘schism among the Catholic:
Pittsburgh aud vincinity.”? Among all the Catholics
there were only two who took part in the affair
atall.
It is not true that the “refusal to amit a
to that refusal there was no strife whatever among
them, and that was the very cause and Origin of
she controversy,
7% Ivis not true that the ledy superior and
nuns, two of the latter excepted—were excommue
nicated, or that the Catholics were prohibited,
“under pain of similar censure,” to have inter
which is now required from the editor who, with ~
eT SS
Yr SS re