Queen of Hungary, Saint Matilda, and Saint
Bridget, being anxious to know some particulars
of the Passion"— I omit the great name that
follows here— " made especial prayer, in answer
to which " the Divine Teacher, whose great name
I omit again, " appeared to them, speaking to
them as follows."

The text proceeds (I translate it with scrupulous
and literal exactness) thus: " My beloved
servants, know that the armed soldiers were an
hundred and twenty-five in number. Those
who led me, when I was bound, were thirty-three.
The executioners were thirty-three. The
blows which they gave me on the head were
thirty. When I was taken in the garden, to
make me get up from the ground, they gave me
an hundred and five kicks. The blows given by
the hand on my head and on my breast were
an hundred and sixty-eight. I received eighty
blows on the shoulders. I was dragged with
cords and by the hair twenty-three times. The
spittings on my face were thirty in number;
stripes, six thousand six hundred and sixty-six.
On my body I received an hundred wounds, and
an hundred on my head. They gave me a thrust,
which was mortal. I remained on high on the
cross, by the hair, two hours. At one time I
breathed forth an hundred and twenty-nine
sighs. I was dragged by the beard twenty-
three times. The pricks of the thorns on my
head were an hundred. Mortal punctures on
the forehead were three. The wounds which I
received from a thousand soldiers who conducted
me, were five hundred and eight. They who
guided me were three. The drops of blood
which I shed were four thousand three
hundred and eighty.

"To any person who will recite seven Paters
and seven Aves, for the space of twelve
successive years, to make up the number of the
drops of blood which I shed, and who shall live
like a good Christian, I grant five boons."

The five boons are set forth as follows:

"1. Plenary indulgence, and remission of all
sins.

"2. He shall be free from the pains of purgatory.

"3. If he should die before completing the
twelve years, it shall be all the same as if he
had completed them.

"4. He shall be as if he were a martyr, or had
shed his blood for the holy faith.

"5. I will come down from heaven to earth for
his soul, and for those of his relatives to the
fourth generation."

These are the advantages to be obtained by
the twelve years' Paters and Aves. But these
promises do not by any means comprise all the
benefits obtainable from this incomparable
half-pennyworth of letter-press. The wonderful book
proceeds as follows:

"Whoever shall carry this Orazione about
him shall not die by drowning, or by other
disastrous end, nor by sudden death. He shall
escape from contagion, from the pestilence,
from being struck by lightning; and he shall
not die without confession, he shall be freed
from his enemies, from the pursuit of justice"
(a great temptation this to certain likely classes
of purchasers) " and from all malevolent and
false witnesses. Women in childbed, having
this about them, shall be immediately delivered,
and shall be out of all danger. In the houses
where there shall be a copy of this Orazione,
there shall be no treachery or other evil things;
and forty days before his death (I translate
literally, and without omission) he shall see the
blessed Virgin Mary."

Who would not spend a halfpenny on such
terms, even if it were his last? It is not
necessary, observe, even to read a word of the
miraculous little book. That might exclude a
large number of purchasers from the market.
But, neither will one copy— except in the case of
that household copy which is to protect an
entire family, from each other apparently— serve
for more than one individual. The talisman must
be carried about the person.

The book concludes with an anecdote
explanatory and exemplificatory of its operation;
and a remarkably strong case of its
efficacy under difficult circumstances has been
selected.

"A certain captain, while travelling, saw a head
which had been cut from the body. That
decapitated head spoke. It said, ' Since you are
going to Barcelona, traveller, bring me a
confessor that I may confess myself; for three
days ago I was killed by thieves and assassins,
and I am not able to die without confessing
myself.' A confessor having been conducted to
that spot by the captain, the living head
confessed itself, and then forthwith died. And this
Orazione was found upon it."

Now is it not matter for sadness in all true
men, whatever their creeds or opinions, to find an
European government, at this period of the
world's civilisation, shutting out from its people
the rudiments of real instruction, and providing
them witli such mental food as this? Providing
them with it, and selecting it for them; for,
the system of press censorship and supervision
of the vendors of such articles, which is most
strictly enforced in the Papal States, saddles the
government with this responsibility. Is it not
evident that a people among whom such
statements and promises can find acceptance, must
be far from any conception of real Christianity?
Indeed, this is abundantly well known to those
who are acquainted with those populations.
Englishmen at home who have beloved
acquaintances and friends among English
Catholics (as we all have), and who justly respect and
honour them,are apt to think that it is mere odium
theologicum and exaggerated Protestant
sectarian fanaticism, which can assert that numbers of
the Catholic populations of Central and Southern
Italy are in fact pagan in sentiment, idea, and
practice. But they are, too often and in great
masses, to all effects and purposes, whether
moral, religious, or intellectual, as much pagans
as when their fathers sacrificed pigeons to Juno
and Ceres, instead of sacrificing candles to one
Madonna, specially powerful over one class of