his ordination. In the English Church it seems always to have been observed on the 4th April, the anniversary of his blessed departure. He is generally accounted one of the four great doctors of the Latin Church, with Jerom, Augustin, and Gregory the Great. It is doubtful whether the Ambrosian Rite at Milan was compiled by him, or whether it was named in honour of him when it was first used in his church. The present Rite differs in some things from that which prevailed in the time of the saint, and in others it is the same. Changes were made in it in the end of the eighth century, under the influence of Pope Adrian I. and of Charlemagne, who used great efforts to abolish it entirely. Since then

it has not been altered.

To thee an eye to trace out the third heaven
In holy writ, and see the mercy-throne,―
A brother's love,-a poet's lyre was given,
But yet o'er all thy gifts the Pastor shone,
To God's high altar bound, no more thine own.

I see thee stand before the injured shrine,

While Theodosius to thy stern decree

Falls down, and owns the keys and power divine;
For kings that fain her nursing sires would be
To the Eternal Bride must bend the knee.

I see thee throned upon the Teacher's seat,—
And 'mid the crowd a silent wanderer steal;
In his sad breast, while sitting at thy feet

The Father doth the Eternal Son reveal,
And Austin from thy hands receives the Spirit's seal.

Cathedral, p. 287.

APRIL 19.

S. Alphege, Archbishop and Martyr.

1012.

S. ALPHEGE was born of a noble family in Britain about the year 954. While he was still very young he renounced the world, and notwithstanding the tears and entreaties of his mother retired into the monastery of Dersherste in the county of Gloucester. After a time he became abbat of the religious house at Bath. The discipline had been very much relaxed before his coming, and the irregularities of the monks gave great offence. His efforts to restore order were unceasing; and at last the sudden death of one of the most irregular alarmed the consciences of the rest, and they all submitted to the government of the saint.

On the death of Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, in 984, disputes arose between the monks and seculars regarding his successor. S. Dunstan, who was then primate of England, was directed, as some historians say, by S. Andrew to appoint the holy abbat of Bath to the vacant see. He carried with him the austerities of the monastery into the episcopal palace, and was a pattern of sanctity and self-discipline. His chief care was for the poor of his diocess, and he pleaded their cause so irresistibly both by words and by example, that it was said there was not a beggar in the whole of his diocess during his episcopate. "Behold the Jew and the Pagan!" he would cry; "observe how they are bound together in the ties of their religion; see how none of them are oppressed

with penury, whom they do not immediately relieve with money. But they behold us destitute of this virtue, to which the pagans are drawn by a natural pity, and the Jews by Divine command: and they blasphemously revile Christ, and the faith and religion of Christians, and their hopes of the future beatitude." The poor he would frequently exhort to practise the humility and patience of Christ.

In 1006 Alfric archbishop of Canterbury died, and S. Alphege was chosen to succeed him. He went to Rome to receive the pallium; and on his way was robbed by the inhabitants of a town which he passed through. A fire shortly after broke out and consumed many houses: and the guilty consciences of the inhabitants interpreting this event as a mark of the Divine displeasure, they sent after the holy man, and restored his money, begging his forgiveness and his prayers. He was honourably received by the reigning pontiff, John XVIII. and dismissed with his blessing. Before he left Rome to return to England he was favoured with a foresight of the premature death of his successor in the see of Winton which he had obtained by simoniacal means.

The humility and charity of this holy archbishop soon endeared him to the English Church. “He wept," says his historian, “for the sins of all; and for the salvation of all he daily offered the life-giving Sacrifice.” The fervour of his devotion and his great love for the honour of God's house, particularly on days of high solemnity, when he celebrated the Christian mysteries in his gorgeous pontifical attire, excited the piety and reverence of all who saw him.

During his primacy, a provincial synod of the

bishops, nobles, and clergy of the kingdom was held at Engsham or Oenham, and many canons were enacted for its spiritual and civil government. A less important council also met at Haba.

In 1010 the Danes made another invasion into England, and as King Ethelred was a weak and unwarlike prince, they found little opposition to their progress. They laid waste the central counties, burning and destroying towns and villages as they passed, and among other places the university of Oxford suffered severely. In the end of the year 1011 they laid siege to Canterbury. Alphege sent frequent messages to entreat their mercy and forbearance; but they pressed the siege so vigorously that in twenty days the city was reduced by famine to the greatest straits, and soon after fell into their hands, as some say by the treachery of Elmeric the archdeacon. The savage fury of the conquerors burst forth without controul; men, women, and children were inhumanly tortured and massacred in the streets. The archbishop could endure the sight no longer, and rushed from the enclosure of Christ Church where the monks had taken refuge, pleading with the furious soldiers for the lives of his people. They immediately turned their cruelty against him, and after torturing him they thrust him into prison where he lay for several months. The priests and religious and the inhabitants of the city were slaughtered by a new process of decimation, in which every tenth man only was spared. Those who could purchase their lives were allowed to go free. In this way Godwin bishop of Rochester seems to have

N

escaped. Leofruna abbess of S. Mildred in the Isle of Thanet was murdered.

The Danes had not been long masters of Canterbury before a pestilence attacked their army, and they began to repent of their cruelty, and entreated the archbishop to assist them. By his prayers, and by the distribution among the sick of bread which he had blessed, the pestilence was removed. Yet their avarice prevented them from setting the holy man at liberty till he should pay as his ransom sixty talents, or about three thousand pounds of silver. He was carried to Greenwich at the time of Easter, and payment of this money was publicly demanded from him. He refused to levy so large a sum on the lands of the church, which are the property of the poor, and cited the example of the holy deacon S. Laurence, who consented to die rather than commit a similar sacrilege. And he boldly warned his enemies of the anger of Almighty God which would surely overtake them if they continued obstinate in their cruelty. They were so enraged that they fell upon him on the spot, and stoned him to death, and one of them, who, as it is related, had not long before been confirmed by him, finished his life by a stroke of his battleaxe. As his soul was departing he cried, Jesu receive me in peace and forgive them. This hap

pened on the 19th of April 1012, within the Octave of Easter. Miraculous signs of his acceptance with God immediately appeared, and so moved the Danes that they allowed his body to be borne with every mark of honour to the Cathedral church of S. Paul in London, where it was buried.