If-

y

SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS,

HELD FORTH BT

ROMANISTS IN ENGLAND
AS A NOTE OF SANCTITY,
AND
A MEANS OF GRACE.

" We must show Protestants of the Anglican theory that there is a
radical and essential difference of principle between the [Roman] Catholic
Saints, and the Wilsons, and Hookers, and Lauds, and Andrewses, [and
Kens, and Taylors, and Herberts,] which the Protestant Establishment
has produced." — Tablet, (Roman Catholic Newspaper), Dec. 9, 1848.

"And they [the prophets of Baal] cried aloud, and cut themselves after
their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon
them." — 1 Kings xviii. 28.
" Ye are the children of the Lord your God : ye shall not cut your
selves. — Deut. xiv. 1.

LONDON:
HENRY BATTY, PUBLISHER, 159, FLEET STREET.

1848.
Price Two-pence.

SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS,

The Saints and Servants of God. The Lives of St. Rose of Lima,
the Blessed Colomba of Rieti, and of St. Juliana of FalconierL
London: Richardson, (pp.416.)
This is a Roman Catholic work ; and our attention and curiosity
were excited towards it by a review in Dolman's Magazine for
September. After considerable deliberation, especially in connec
tion with some circumstances which have occurred since the pub
lication of this volume, we have deemed it our duty to depart
from our general rule of allowing such works to pass without
notice in our columns. In fact, we intend to devote a considerable
space to our notice, in the conviction that there are some signifi
cant and valuable lessons to be gained in connection with this
volume. Our extracts from it will be entirely confined to the first
memoir — that of St. Rose of Lima — " translated from the French
of Father Jean Baptist Feuillet, a Dominican Friar, and Mis
sionary Apostolic in the Antilles."
This series of Lives of " The Saints and Servants of God," is
edited by the Rev. F. W. Faber, whom many of our readers will
recollect as the gifted Rector of Elton, and author of some beau
tiful Tracts on the Church and her Offices — but who, a few short
years since, quitted his appointed place in the Lord's vineyard.
This volume is dedicated —
" To the Nuns of England, who shield their Country by their Prayers,
and by their meek austerities make reparation for its sins."
To the dedication is added some poetry, of which the following
is an extract : —
For you the holy past is now unfurled,
That with its bright examples you may feed
The spirit of devotion. While the world
Honours your goodness with its hatred, you,
Still to your high and calm vocation true.
May win fresh tight and strength from what you read.
Here then is a work offered — not by a bigotted or ignorant
Roman Catholic Priest, of former and less enlightened days, and
intended for congenial minds, in congenial countries — but an
Englishman of our own times — nay, one who was till very lately
a Priest of our own Church — comes forward and offers this book
to the daughters of England, as one in which they will find
" bright examples "to " feed the spirit of devotion," and from which
they may " win fresh light and strength." Further, Mr. Faber
tells us that what he has done—
Has not been done in haste, in blindness, or in heedlessness, but after grave
counsel, and with high sanction.

We now proceed to give, in the exact words of the memoir, as^
far as we can consistently with brevity, some account of the life ot
St. Rose of Lima. She was born April 20, 1586, and baptized
" Isabel ;" but, owing to her great resemblance to a rose, her
name was changed to "Rose," when she was three months old.
When older, she had some scruple on this point, but the Blessed
Virgin —
Consoled her, assuring her that the name of Rose was pleasing to her Son
Jesus Christ, and that, as a mark of her affection, she would also honour her
with her own name, and that henceforward she should he called Rose of St.
]V!ary. So that we may 6ay that, of all the Saints whose names Almighty
God has changed by an extraordinary favour, our blessed Rose is the first,
and perhaps the only one, whose surname has been changed by heaven.
Here, in passing, we may observe that an act attributed to the
Blessed Virgin, is at once assumed to be the act of Almighty
God. (See Note, p. 16).
The Blessed Rose, when only THREE MONTHS old, gave proof of an
heroic patience : for, some one having thoughtlessly pinched her thumb, by
shutting a chest hastily, she concealed the pain it gave her : her mother having
hastened to her at the first news of the accident, she hid the finger, and did
not let it appear that she had been hurt. The injury grew worse afterwards
from her silence " [at three months old !]
To obey the parents from whom we have received our life is only the
effect of an ordinary degree of virtue ; and there would have been nothing
remarkable in the obedience of the blessed Rose, if she had contented her
self with simply fulfilling this duty ; but she infinitely increased its merit by
perfectly complying with that which she owed to her parents, without failing to
accomplish what Almighty God required of her.
Let us see what constitutes perfect obedience to parents, in the
opinion of this author —
Her mother made her wear a garland of flowers on her head. Not thinking
herself strong enough to effect a change in this command, she obeyed; but
she sanctified her submission by the painful mortification with which she
accompanied it : for God having brought to her mind the remembrance of the
cruel thorns which had composed His crown in His passion, she took the
garland, and fixed it on her head with a large needle, which she plunged so
deeply into her head, that it could not be drawn out without the help of a
surgeon, who had much difficulty in doing it. Thus she contrived to elude
without resisting the orders of her mother 
The stratagem which she practised in order to avoid appearing at assem
blies, or accompanying her mother in the visits she paid to her friends and
relations, was not less surprising; for she rubbed ber eyelids with pimento,
which is a very sharp burning sort of Indian pepper : by this means she
escaped going into company, for it made ber eyes red as fire, and so painful
that she could not bear the light. Her mother having found out this attifice,
reprimanded her for it, and mentioned the example of Eerdinand Perez, who
had lost his sight by a similar act of indiscretion.
To this we may add the following : —
Obedience generally terminates with life, but the blessed Rose manifested
it even when in her tomb. The mother prioress of the Convent of Nans of
St. Dominic at Lima, commanded the picture of Rose, in virtue of the obe
dience which every one in the bouse owed to her, to enable them to find a
silver spoon which a servant belonging to the monastery had lost, that they
might avoid any rash judgment of innocent persons ; and, as if our Saint had
animated the colours of her picture with that spirit of obedience, which had
made her so submissive to God, and to His creatures for His love, the prioress
perceived immediately on the table the lost spoon, and toe might say that the
picture placed it there, to represent the perfect obedience of its original.

Another specimen of obedience is given in the following
extract : —
Her mother, who only looked upon her with the eyes of flesh and blood,
seeing her face pale and disfigured, blamed her conduct, and even wished to
persuade her that she committed a mortal sin, by thus denying herself the
necessary nourishment for the preservation of life. To prevent her from conti
nuing this manner of living, she obliged her to sit at table with the rest of the
family, but this enlightened daughter contrived to elude her vigilance, by beg
ging the servant to offer her only a sort of dish made without salt, composed
of a crust of coarse bread, and a handful of very bitter herbs.
We now come to those features in this biography which we
presume constitute, in Mr. Faber's eyes, the " bright examples "
which afford food for " the spirit of devotion," and in which the
nuns of England may " win fresh light and strength." But be
fore giving the extracts which follow, it may be well, though we
trust it is not necessary, that we should earnestly disclaim any
intention of rudely exposing such matters to irreverent criticism,
or self-indulgent levity : we confidently trust to the principles and
good feelings of our readers to prevent any such effect.
She hid under the largest tufts of these plants a vessel full of sheep's gall,
with which she sprinkled her food, and washed her mouth every morning.
It was no less astonishing that she could find room on her emaciated body
to engrave in it by her disciplines the wounds of the Son of God ; and that
she should have been able to draw from it those streams of blood which she
every day caused to flow; with iron chains and her other instruments of
penance, she practised such terrible austerities that her confessors were
obliged to restrict her in the use of them. After she became a nun she was
not content with a common sort of discipline ; she made one for herself of
two iron chains, with which she gave herself such blows every night, that
her blood sprinkled the walls and made a stream in the middle of the room, so
prodigious a quantity did she draw from her veins 
As she practised this penance every night, she re -opened her bleeding
wounds by making new ones ; and being careful to prolong her suffering, she
contrived not to strike always in the same place ; but 6he reiterated her blows
so frequently that she did not allow her wounds time to close ; scarcely did
tbey begin to heal than she opened them again by fresh blows ; thus her
whole body was almost one entire wound.
Those in the house who heard the sound of the blows she inflicted on
herself had a honor of this cruel treatment, and were, at the same time,
touched with pity for this innocent penitent, who felt none for herself.
Rather John of Laurenzana, her confessor, being informed of the manner in
which she treated her body, commanded her to use moderation ; she obeyed,
but she begged so earnestly, that he could not refuse her the permission she
asked to take five thousand more stripes in the course of three or four days. She
had shown from her infancy the first sparks of that fire which inflamed her
soul with the love of penance ; for when Ehe was only five years old she
carried through mortification heavy tiles and stumps of trees from one place
to another with great difficulty. She entreated Marianne the servant, and
the dear confidant of her austerities, to load her with hiamj stones in the corner
where she usually prayed; and she heaped upon her so great a quantity
sometimes, that Rose, overcome with the weight of this burden, fell fainting
and half dead to the ground. When she was fourteen, she used to leave her
room at night when every one in the house bad retired to rest, and walk about
barefooted in the garden, carrying a long and heavy cross on her wounded
shoulders; the joy which she felt under this beloved burden rendering her
insensible to the effects of the air and the season.
Her confessor having ordered her to use an ordinary discipline and leave
off ber iron chain, she made it into three rows, and wore it round her body,
and after passing the ends through the ring of a padlock, she threw the key

6
into a corner, where it would have been very difficult to find it. This chain
very soon took the skin off, and entered so deeply into her flesh that it was no
longer visible ; and one night she felt so terrible a pain from it, that she fainted
and was near dying. The servant having awoke at a cry she uttered,
quickly ran to her assistance. Rose, seeing herself obliged to confess the
truth, begged her to help her to take off the chain, before her mother,
awakened by the noise, should come up to ber room. Marianne found no
other means than by breaking the padlock ; but they could not do this, and
she was obliged to go down to the garden for a stone to break it. While she
was gone, Rose, fearing her mother would surprise them, had recourse to
prayer, which served as a key to open the lock, for Marianne, entering with
her stone, saw the padlock open of itself and separate from the links of the
chains ; thus they succeeded in taking it off, though not without causing
great pain and an abundant effusion of blood. Her wounds were no sooner
healed than she put the chain on again ; but as soon as it had entered into
her flesh, her confessor ordered her to send it to him, and in obeying bim
she suffered the same pain and loss of blood as before. After her death,
Mary of Usategni kept some links of this bloody chain, which exhaled so
sweet an odour that every one who smelt it was obliged to confess it to be
supernatural. She bound her arms from the shoulder to the elbow with thick cords,
¦which caused her great pain by compressing tightly the muscles of this fleshy
part. In order to suffer more she rubbed herself with nettles, making her
body one entire blister, and with thorns, which, entering deeply into the flesh,
drew forth quantities of blood. She used two hair-shirts : the first being only
two feet long, did not satisfy her desire of suffering ; nevertheless, she used it
till she obtained another, woven of horse-hair, with two sleeves, and which
hung from her shoulders to her knees. She appeared yet more glorious in
the eyes of God when wearing this strange coat of arms, from her having
armed it underneath with a great quantity of points of needles, to increase
her excessive sufferings by this ingenious cruelty. She wore this frightful
hair-shirt several years with incredible joy, and she only quitted it by the
express order of her confessor, when a vomiting of blood came on. . . .
As she was insatiable of pain, seeing her hair-shirt taken from her, she
chose a sack of the coarsest stuff she could find, and made it neatly in the
form of a shift. It would be impossible to express the suffering this rough
dress caused her ; sometimes it made the perspiration stream from her in
great drops ; sometimes she fell fainting under it, and was unable to take a
step without great torture. These austerities were insufficient to satisfy her
thirst for suffering : she watched also for the hour in which cooking was
going on in the house, and, when no one could see her, she exposed the soles
of her feet to the heat at the mouth of the oven, where it is the greatest, that
no part of her body might be without a wound, and she kept them there till
the pain of her half-roasted feet quite overcame her 
Iu this ardent desire of suffering she made herself a circlet of a plate of
silver three fingers broad, in which she fixed three rows of sharp points, in
honour of the thirty-three years that the Son of God lived upon earth.
Fearing that her hair, which was beginning to grow, would prevent these
points from entering in, she cut it all off, excepting a handful which she left
on her forehead, to hide this penitential crown from the eyes of men. She
wore it underneath her veil, which made it the more painful, as these points,
being unequally long, did not all pierce at the same time, but one after another,
according to her different movements ; so that with the least agitation these
iron thorns tore her flesh, and pierced her head in ninety-nine places with
excessive pain ; and as the muscles of this part are connected with one
another, our Saint could scarcely speak ; and when she coughed or sneezed
this violent effort caused the three rows of points to penetrate even to the
skull with almost inconceivable pain.
As she had only invented this sort of torment to imitate the sufferings of
the Son of God, she would have willingly changed this circlet for a crown of
thorns, to imitate Him more closely; but her confessor thought it better for
her not to change it, for fear that the holes which the thorns would make

might suppurate. She followed his advice, seeing that it would be very
difficult to conceal a crown of thorns, as the points would come through her
veil, and reveal what she so much wished to hide ; for this reason she made
this silver crown, in which she fixed the points so firmly that after her death
the goldsmith could not draw even one out with his instruments.
To increase the pain, she changed every day the place of this crown,
causing new wounds, or re-opening those which were beginning to heal. She
had put strings at each end of this painful diadem, that by tying them closely
she might force the points in more deeply ; and in changing it, which she did
every day, this crown caused her new pain. Every Friday, which she par
ticularly consecrated to penance, she tied this circlet more tightly, and made
it come down upon her forehead till it pierced the cartilage of her ears in
many places.
The following passages afford further illustrations of the Saint's
obedience to her parents : —
Rose made herself a bed in the form of a chest, of rough wood, and put in
it a quantity of small stones of different sizes, that her body might suffer
more, and might not enjoy the repose a smoother bed would have afforded it.
This bed still seeming too soft, she put iu three pieces of twisted and knotted
wood, and she added seven more, filling up the spaces with three hundred
pieces of broken tiles, placed so as to wound her body. This was the luxurious
couch on which this insatiable lover of the cross took the rest necessary to
recruit her exhausted strength. She always kept behind her pillow a bottle
full of gall, with which she rubbed her eyes before going to bed, and washed
her mouth in the morning, in memory of that which was given to Jesus
Christ her Spouse on the cross. When Almighty God called her to this sort
of crucified life, she had only a piece of coarse cloth doubled for a pillow ;
soon after, not finding this hard enough, she used bricks ; but all this not
being sufficient to satisfy her ardour for suffering, she took a rough stone for
her pillow. Her mother becoming aware of it, from the bruises which this
stone inflicted on her face, forbade her ever to use it again, and insisted on
her having a bolster, like the rest of the family - she certainly obeyed, but in
filling it with wool, as was mentioned at the commencement of this history,
she put also vine branches, and bits of broken rushes, in the place where she
laid her head, and by this invention she rendered her pillow as hard and
painful as it was before 
She did all she could, by prayers and tears, to prevail upon her mother to
allow her some part of the house, where she would not be seen, and no longer
to oblige her to go with her to the town. Though her mother did indulge
her in some degree, she still required her, in spite of her repugnance, to go
with her sometimes to pay her visits. One day, when she had been ordered
to dress smartly on this account, she pulled out of the oven as she passed a
large stone, which fell so heavily on her foot, that she was obliged to remain
at home, for the wound, of which she had been herself the cause, made her
walk lame, and gave her great pain.
Of the chapter headed " Jesus Christ espouses the blessed
Rose, in the presence of the Blessed Virgin," as_ well as of
several pages which follow, we must forbear giving any ex
tracts. To our minds they present nothing but the most shocking
profanity and fearful irreverence. Other passages also, are, on
different grounds, so entirely revolting, that we cannot quote them.
In an account of a certain image of the Blessed Virgin,
the biographer of St. Rose states that Philip IV. had exhorted
the Peruvians " to choose some image of the Blessed Virgin, and
address to it their prayers." Upon this, Dolman's Magazine, also
edited by a Roman Catholic Priest, exclaims —
If this is not gross and palpable idolatry, we are still ignorant of the
word. We blush for shame that anyone calling himself a Christian, much
more a Christian Catholic, and moreover a Catholic Priest, should translate
and publish such very objectionable doctrine.

Such is the unity of the Roman Communion, for which Mr.
Faber and his friends have broken their solemn vows to their
spiritual mother, the Church of England !
Mr. Faber, at the end of this memoir of St. Rose, (who died
at the early age of 31), adds the following observations : —
 She was canonized 1671, by Clement X., who appointed
the 30th of August for her Feast. Thus solemnly has the Church of God
set the seal of her unerring approval upon that series of wonders, that end
less chain of miracles, which, reaching from her cradle to her grave, make
up the life of this American virgin. There was never a time and never a
land, when and where it was more needful for the daughters of the Church to
learn how to make themselves a cloister in the world, tban England in the
present age ; and it is precisely this lesson which the life of S. Rose conveys.
Amidst so much that is false and hollow, heartless and unreal, how beautiful
before Almighty God would be the child-like simplicity of this virgin of the
South, copied even faintly in the lives of our Catholic country-women I For
it is this simplicity which was her fairest ornament; indeed, so completely
child-like was she herself, and so ehild-like the wonders with which her
Divine Spouse encircled her, that in reading her life it seems hardly ever to
strike us that she was anything but a little girl. It is as though she grew no
older, but remained still the baby cradled in the arms of Jesus, as when the
vermilion rose bloomed miraculously on her little face when three months
old. Let us also thank Almighty God in the fervent simplicity of our faith
for the seal His Church has set upon these authentic wonders ; wonders not
lost in dubious antiquity, but adequately proved in the face of modern criti
cism so short a time ago ; and remembering that this bold exhibition of the
marvellous is by no less an authority than the Catholic Church presented to
our veneration and our love, let us take it like awe-struck children, as a
page from the lost chronicles of Eden.
By this, it will be observed, that he concludes as he began, by
holding up St. Rose as an example which the daughters of Eng-
gland will do well to follow. But let us hear what his brother
Priest, the Rev. Edward Price, of Dolman's Magazine, thinks of
his labours : —
We beg to differ much and seriously from the views which Mr. Faber
seems to have had in compiling or translating (we care not which) this life
of bis saintly heroine. Does he mean it as a mere speculation — a stringing
together a mass of incredible and inimitable austerities, painful to read, im
possible, nay, sinful to imitite  Does Mr. Faber give these marvellous
austerities of St. Rose of Lima as the vade mecum, the rule of imitation for
Catholics living in the world, and pressed upon so heavily by its crushing
responsibilities ? . . . We grieve, and that most sincerely, that such details,
so harrowing to a sensitive mind, so dangerous from their initiating weakly
disposed minds to similar excesses of religious zeal (we had almost said
fanaticism) should ever have been published  We pass over the many
and extraordinary miracles. We are not denying their truth, though, with
regard to some, we certainly suspend our judgment. [The process of Canoni
zation set forth all these miracles as true, aud gave the testimony of the
Church to them.— Ed. E. C] In the name of all those who know their
religion ; in the name of all those who revere it in its innate and immaculate
purity and truth, we protest most solemnly against this and such like publi
cations. — Dolman's Magazine for September.
Who, then, shall give judgment in the case of the Rev. F.
W. Faber, a recent convert, acting under the " highest sanction,"
versus the Rev. Edward Price, educated as a Roman Catholic
Priest, and speaking in the name of all those who know and
revere their religion ?

9
Behold, the lay Editor of the Tablet ascends the bench ! Let
us hear his judgment. Speaking of Dolman's Magazine, he says—
We have of late passed over in silence the monthly appearance of this
work. We had no sympathy with its principles  On a great
Ecclesiastical question it took the Lay side, and, by implication, charged
Bishops and Priests with evil intentions, and equally evil acts  It
has now ventured to revile the Saints  The last number contained
a review of the Lives of the Canonized Saints, but particularly of St. Rose.
edited by Mr. Faber, and with the expressed sanction of his Ecclesiastical
Superiors, who have lately been appointed by the Holy See to rule over the
London District. The Right Rev. Dr. Walsh has given his approbation to
Mr. Faber's labours, and the Right Rev. Dr. Wiseman has been most active
and zealous on his behalf. The Bishops come to London, and are told, though
indirectly, that they have been, while presiding over the midland districts
sanctioning idolatry, "gross, palpable idolatry." Their successor also in
that district, the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne, is liable to the same accusation ;
for he has publicly expressed his approbation of this life of St. Rose 
Acts like those condemned by the Reviewer are mentioned everywhere in the
Breviary  Mr. Faber is guilty only of publishing in England what
the Holy See has approved, and what St. Rosewas inspired to do (! !) . . . .
Our own Bishops, the Dominican biographers of St. Rose, the Ecclesiastical
authorities who sanctioned the publication of his book, and the Sovereign
Pontiff also who, in the Bull of Canonization, recorded the marvellous
austerities of St. Rose, are here condemned together. They are said to send
forth to the world a record of acts, which the Reviewer tells us are " sinful
to imitate." Thus the Holy See, infallible in faith and morals, is pronounced
by our Reviewer to have erred, in proposing an example of the Christian life,
which is not merely " impossible, but sinful to imitate."
The Tablet then goes on to say —
This [Dolman's] magazine is published September 1. Every Priest, on
the 30th of August, reads in bis Breviary that St. Rose sub velo coronam densis
aculeis inlrorsus obarmatam interdiu noctuque gestuvtt. This was done with
the permission of her confessor, and is mentioned with approbation by
Benedict XIV. Yet the Reviewer, having quoted a passage from the " Life,"
the substance of which is expressed in those words, remarks : — ¦
The kind invitation of the all-merciful Redeemer was " Come to me all you that labour
and are heavily burthened, and I will refresh you." The Confessor of this innocent child
adopted a far different doctrine, if this account be true. — (p. 181.)
These acts of mortification, which he condemns, are recorded in the Bull
of her Canonization, where also it is stated that she practised them, not of
her own will, but according to the direction of her Confessors, et in his non
suo, sed confessariorum arbitralu, modum constituisse ; nay, more, the Sacred
Congregation is said by his HoKness to have concluded with one consent —
unanimi spiritu, voto et sententia, — that the way in which the Virgin Rose
walked before God was true and safe, sinceram ac tutum esse viam. It is
worthy of observation here that every single act of St. Rose which the
Reviewer marks for condemnation, is recited in her honour in the Bull of her
Canonization ; they are the evidences of her sanctity, and are set forth for the
admiration, if not tor the imitation, of all good Christians throughout the world.
"Monstrous penance" and "charnel horrors" are, however, the expressions
applied by the Reviewer to the austerities of the virgin Saint, and portions
of her history are called a " horrible narrative " and " a revolting detail."
 " Monstrous penances " and " charnel horrors " meet them now
in every page of the Breviary, and their almost daily petitions to heaven are
entrusted to some of those whose "Lives" are, in his opinion, a "horrible
narrative " and " a revolting detail."  In modern literature we
know nothing so admirable as these Lives of the Canonized Saints 
If religion is to grow in England, and to prosper again, Mr. Faber has had
no slight share in promoting such an issue.
The Tablet concludes its notice by stating that it will " return

10
to this subject at a very early time :" but we find no further
mention of it for several weeks. In the Tablet, of Nov. 18, we
find the following letter from Mr. Newman to Mr. Faber — which
will excite a melancholy sigh in many hearts among us, even
though it may also tempt some lips to a transient smile : —
Mary Vale, Oct. 30, 1848.
My dear Father Wilfrid,— I have consulted the Fathers who are here on
the subject of the " Lives of the Saints," and we have come to the unanimous
conclusion of advising you to suspend the series at present. It appears there
is a strong feeling against it on the part of a portion of the Catholic com
munity in England, on the ground, as we are given to understand, that the
lives of the foreign Saints, however edifying in their respective countries, are
unsuited to England and unacceptable to Protestants, lo this feeling we con
sider it a duty, for the sake of peace, to defer. For myself, you know well,
without my saying it, how absolutely I identify myself with you in this
matter ; but as you may have to publish this letter, I make it an opportunity
which has not as yet been given me, of declaring that I have no sympathy at
all with the feeling to which I have alluded, and, in particular, that no one
can assail your name without striking at mine.
Ever your affectionate friend and brother in our Lady and St. Philip,
J. H. Newman, Cong. Orat Presb.
Rev. F. W. Faber, St. Wilfrid's.
Upon this letter the Tablet, in an article full of unmitigated
regret at the decision, says —
It is surely a mistake to suppose that these Lives are a scandal to Protes
tants  This seems on the surface a concession to an evil spirit 
The Council of Trent did not consult the opinions, nor minister to the whims
of heretics, whom it condemned  Mr. Faber, if any one, must know
what is hurtful to Protestants ; and we think his experience, both as a Pro
testant himself, and as having instructed so many in the truth, ought to be
treated with more respect by those of our brethren whose objections to his
proceedings have had so fatal an issue.
In the following week the Tablet's regret is turned to the fiercest
wrath, in an article headed " The Saints and their revilers ;" and
it proceeds to denounce the suppression of the Lives —
In obedience to a clamour got up nobody knows where or how, and sup
ported, at the best, so far as rumour informs us, by the tritest, most twaddling,
most inefficient and unworthy objections that ever issued from the mouth of
man !
What can we make of such a phenomenon ? If it means anything, it means
that an irresponsible and secret junta, probably the most ignorant of the
whole Catholic community ; the most averse to spiritual perfection ; the most
worldly, the poorest-spirited and lowest-minded, those whose counterparts in
the Anglican Establishment are called the " High-and-Dry," and the Port-
Wine school,— that these very excellent and purblind individuals are to sit
in judgment on the spiritual food of their fellow-Catholics, and, proceeding
on no known Ecclesiastical principles and by no known methods of any kind,
are to have the moulding of our minds, thoughts, tempers, and inclinations,
at their absolute will and discretion. Let who will submit to this baleful
tyranny we shall always resist it to the besl of our power. What Ecclesiastical
authority, proceeding after a known method, condemns that we condemn until
(if ever) the Ecclesiastical sentence be reversed. But for the outcry of a
parcel of unknown elderly gentlewomen, who shake and shiver in their shoes
whenever the south wind blows, we have no soit of respect or consideration.
If they wish, let them have a literature of their own, and be shut up with it
air-tight, where no pestilential gale of higher principles and loftier influences
can enter to disturb or blast them. Within the limits of Law and Gospel let
them make for themselves, as tbey can and how they can according to their

11
discretion, a paradise like that where " carek ss Quiet lies, wrapt in eternal
silence." Let them do for themselves and by themselves just what pleases
them ; but in the name of common modesty let them not presume to dictate
to others and raise childish clamours against those who are more active and
more knowing than themselves.
Of the persons to whose " noise and nonsense" Mr. Newman has consented
to surrender his better judgment we know nothing ; because every name of
any importance is denied as sure as it is uttered ; but one thing is abundantly
certain, that the books have been sanctioned by competent authority ; have
been condemned by none ; and that none wishes for their suppression.
We cannot, therefore, very clearly see the grounds on which Mr. Newman
has proceeded. As we understand, Mr. Newman and his Order of the
Oratory, have been sent amongst us, commissioned directly by the Holy See,
to teach and instruct ; to correct — as far as they admit of correction by books
and teaching — the abuses of the time in men's soul's ; to do battle against the
Protestant, sceptical, lukewarm, Gallican, Jansenist, worldly, irreverent,
cowardly, and generally against all the wn-spiritual influences of the time,
whether within tbe Church or without it ; and to assume a voice of authority
for which their habit and the Pope's Bull are their sufficient warrant.
Possibly we have been mistaken in this notion of ours. Possibly Mr.
Newman has been sent from Rome with express instructions to propagate not
truth, nor virtue, but peace ; to swim with the stream ; to cocker up ancient
prejudices and solemn stupidities ; and to provide specially for the banish
ment from our House of Morpheus, of all those impertinent intruders and
intrusions " which oft are wont to trouble gentle sleep." If this be so we
have no difficulty in understanding Mr. Newman's letter. On that supposition
he is quite right to abandon to an unfounded clamour what he knows to be for
the service of God and the salvation of his neighbour's soul. He is in the
right to abandon a contest which we imagined it was his special duty to fight
out to the uttermost. He is in the right to make himself the instrument and
medium of concession to the barreu and shallow spirit of the age. He is in
the right, in the heat of tbe conflict, to lead over his forces to tbe side of the
enemy, and to let tbe ark— which we thought entrusted to his special keeping
— be taken captive. He is in the right to consider his mission as one of com
promise, concession, and false peace ; and to give the world to understand
that he is not sent here to instruct, but to receive instruction, and to be a
pipe for other men's fingers to play upon what tunes they list. But on the
other supposition, and with such facts as the world has before it, we cannot
understand how he is right ; nor how what he has done can have any other
consequence than to disedify and discourage those whom it is so all-important
to stimulate and build up.
. * * * * * *
This it is which compels us to ask Mr. Newman whether Rome has com
missioned him not merely to surrender his judgment in matters of expediency,
but to wink at, and therefore to co-operate with, heresy ; to help ill-disposed
persons to bring Saints into contempt ; and to give a seeming sanction
to those who blow about with derision the Bulls and judgments of the Holy
See ? . v *
The case stands thus. Mr. Faber's series has been for a long time before
the world. In September last part of the dislike to it was aired under tbe
auspices of the Rev. Mr. Price, in an article which for blasphemy of expres
sion and the errors of doctrine involved in it was worthy of Exeter Hall.
On the 23rd of that month— if the evil deed had not got wind before— public
attention was drawn to it by a detailed analysis in this journal, which pointed
out how Mr. Dolman's Reviewer insulted both the Church in general, the
Holy See in particular, and Mr. Faber still more specially, with charges of
idolatry and of mistakes as to the essential nature of Christian doctrine.
We pointed out that to Mr. Faber in particular restitution of character was
due for the gross attacks made upon him. _ ,
Since that time we have heard not a whisper of retractation, even in private.
Not a syllable of regret ; not a word indicative of a tardy admission that a
mistake has been made. But, on the contrary, rumours— which we certainly

12
do not believe — of letters of approbation written by distinguished Divines,
and every indication of a deliberate wish to maintain the clamour — not
against IVIr. Faber, but against Roman and foreign Catholicity ; and to uphold
the heresy, that English good sense and common sense ore superior to the
inspirations of the Holy Ghost and to tbe decisions of the Holy See. True
or false, every one of our readers who is in the way of bearing rumours upon
such matters must have heard these, and having heard tbem, tbe next thing
they hear is — what? That some clamours, and presumably these clamours — for
these only are generally known or talked about — have produced their effect, and
that Mr. Ne w m an for th e sake of peace ( H eaven helpus!)has consented to with
draw Roman Christianity out of the field, and to let the blasphemers of Saints,
the revilers of Papal Bulls, and tbe propounders of false doctrine, enjoy the
field uncontested for all time to come. This is the way in which the case
stands at present. A brace of antagonists challenge the attention of the
public. On the one side are tbe Saints of whose virtues Rome is tbe mouth
piece ; on the other side, certain English Catholics, of whom Dolman's
Magazine is the mouthpiece. For its part, Rome comes into the field with a
Bull which is nearly two centuries old ; which pronounces that certain acts
are in the highest degree holy, admirable, heroic, edifying, and as such are
fit to be promulgated through every tongue and every people of the whole
world. On tbe other side, comes Mr. Dolman's Reviewer, who takes upon
him to deny all this ; declares that the austerities approved by the Holy See
are not approved by the Church; denounces as "monstrous," "frightful,"
" dangerous," "extravagant," "far different from the all-merciful Redeemer's
doctrine," " unmeaning puerilities," " rigid," " pitiless," " gloomy," " worthy
neither of admiration nor imitation," "false and unnatural piety," "appal
ling," " sickening," " revolting," " horrible," " harrowing," " astounding,"
contrary to " the innate and immaculate purity and truth " of religion, and
finally as " idolatrous," those very things with the praises of which Pope
Clement X. almost exhausts the Latin language, and the impugners of which
he solemnly devotes to the indignation of Almighty God and the vengeance
of His Apostles.
Issue being thus joined between the combatants, earth and Heaven being
thus fairly pitted against each other, for the present the victory remains with
tbe Lower Powers. The small Titans of our day have beaten the Immortals
out of the field. The Saints are ordered to go to Jericho or elsewhere, as
not fit for decent English society. The Pope's Bull is quietly ignored or des
pised ; and " peace " is thought to be obtained by a total and generous aban
donment of Roman Christianity. The misfortune is, that those who reckon
on gaining peace by such a course have reckoned rather prematurely. We
can answer only for ourselves, but we will take care that until the state of
the case before the public be fundamentally altered, there shall be no peace
or rest. We put before our readers this plain alternative : either Dolman's
Magazine is erroneous in doctrine, or the Pope is Anti-Christ, and the Church
has erred. In this land of liberty every one of our readers has a clear con
stitutional right to take which side he pleases of this beautiful dilemma ; but
before we have done we shall make it as clear as the sun at noon-day to
every child who can read, that every word and letter of the Dolman attack
on Mr. Faber is really directed against tbe Holy See and the Church, and
that all his censures of these Lives of the Saints are blasphemies against the
Saints themselves.
But in order to disturb the " peace " a little more effectually, we must be
thrifty of our ammunition, and not fire it all off at one bombardment. For
the present, therefore, we stop, merely referring our readers to a notice of
Dolman's Magazine for November, under the usual head of " Reviews."
In the same number of the Tablet as the foregoing article, is
the following notice of Dolman's Magazine for November : —
We draw attention to this periodical merely for the purpose of warning
our readers that it now stands before the world as a scandalous and anti-
Catholic publication ; a propounder of false doctrines ; a blasphemer of the
Saints; an impuguer of the Bull of Pope Clement X , " Cozlestis Pater f ami-

13
tias," a.d. 1671 ; and therefore in the words of the said Bull, devoted to " the
indignation of Almighty God and of His Holy Apostles Peter and Paul."
Those who wish for such a publication will no doubt find it extremely to the
purpose. We have not read tbe present nor any past number since September,
except to ascertain that the abominations of that month have not been with
drawn, and (consequently) are still persisted in. Those who fear the above-
named " indignation " will be cautious how they meddle with such condemned
goods ; and for their special protection we mean to repeat this special report
every month until the danger shall have disappeared.
Here, then, wo conclude our evidence in this most significant
and instructive case. We have still to give the judgment. On
which side do our readers suppose that it will be ? Those who
have carefully watched Romanism and Romanists in this country,
during the last few years, will have little difficulty in anticipating
the result. But let others look at the extracts which we have
given from the life of St. Rose, and judge how far the Reverend
Editor of Dolman's Magazine is justified in his criticisms ; taking
also into account the fact that the publication which he censured,
has been actually suppressed by the parties themselves, although
it had received the, distinct sanction of three Roman Catholic
Bishops ; and let them, on the other hand, look at the opinions
and language of the Lay Editor of the Tablet in his remarks on
the life of St. Rose — his assertion of its value and merits — his
justification of its publication, and his denunciations of opposers
in general, and the Rev. T. Price in particular. Again, we ask,
on which side do our readers suppose that the judgment — the
verdict — will be given ? The Court of Appeal has been held with
" closed doors : " instead of a summing up and a judgment,
we have, in Dolman's Magazine for December, the following humi
liating confession — humble we cannot term it, until we know
under what circumstances and influences it was obtained : —
The Editor begs to express his profound regret for whatever scandals may
have arisen from tbe review of Mr. Faber's Lives of the Saints. Whatever
was said in that review against truth, or justice, or charity, be begs in the
most explicit manner to withdraw, and to solicit Mr. Faber's entire forgive
ness in whatever way he may have offended him. If the Editor erred, it
was more from misconception, from erroneous judgment, than from a deli
berate intention of attacking truth, or of wounding Mr. Faber's feelings, or
those of his venerable brethren. Peace and charity are too precious to be
sacrificed lightly ; and if this public reparation be not sufficient, let Mr.
Faber only point out a better way, and it shall be done. It is the Editors
earnest wish that the past should be buried in the grave of a generous obli
vion, and that all our future efforts should cordially cooperate to promote
the glorv of God by the continued spread and advancement of our holy faith.
& J Edward Price, M.A.
Sardinian House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Nov. 27, 1848.
We have called this a confession— a plea of guilty— because it
is evidently intended to convey the notion that the writer has been
in the wrone, but in its letter this document very carefully and skil
fully avoids all express acknowledgment of error ; and the apologist's
Ecclesiastical Superiors doubtless consider that they are paying only
a very small price to secure the continued good-will of such an

organ as the Tablet : for that this document— whether so intended
not— does give a flattering triumph and support to the Tablet,
well as an apology to Mr. Faber, cannot be doubted. That a

or as

14
Roman Catholic Priest, having written and published his honest
opinion and conviction on any subject, should be forced to appear
to retract and ask pardon for them, is no new thing : —
The English Church invites the obedience of intelligent love : the Roman
Church commands the utter unreasoning submission of a soul denuded
of its power  Every Priest must, in this mysterious
absorption, gather into his own mind the minds, the voluntary force of his
quota of people ; and the Priests' Superiors, again, must absorb theirs.
But will that moral suicide fare as leniently at the Bar of the Everlasting
Tribunal, as he who resorted to powder and ball to destroy the body ? —
Oxford to Rome.
May we not also most justly ask this concluding question with
regard to those who, by the infliction of serious wounds, and other
injuries upon their bodies, shorten their lives, as well as unfit
themselves for many of the daily duties of life ? The worship
pers of Baal " cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and
lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them ;" but the worship
pers of God are forbidden to do so. " Ye are the children of the
Loed your God : ye shall not cut yourselves." For fasting, and
watching, and self-denial, we have abundant precept and example,
in both the Old and the New Testament, and St. Paul records the
" stripes " which others inflicted upon his body ; but for the self-
inflicted tortures of stripes with iron chains — " half-roasted feet,"
— points of needles — crowns with sharp points " penetrating even
to the skull " — beds with " three hundred pieces of broken tiles "
— streams of blood — bodies " almost one entire wound " — we
have no other sanction than that of heathen idolators, and of the
Roman Catholic Church.
God, of His mercy, forbid that Mr. Faber, or Mr. Newman, or
any one else, under the highest or the lowest sanction, shall
ever be able to excite among the daughters of England any
other feelings than those of pity, and horror, at such suicidal
lacerations, and fanatical impieties, as are recorded in the Lives of
St. Catherine of Sienna, and St. Rose of Lima ! It is not by
following such examples that they will be enabled to fulfil the
Apostohcal injunction —
Present your bodies [not a self-mutilated, self- enfeebled, dying, butj a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
" Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. [to deface, and wound,
and mutilate] ; for ye are bought with a price — therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
That such men as Mr. Newman and Mr. Faber recently were,
should, in so short a time, have so vitiated their spiritual and
literary tastes, and so dimmed their spiritual perceptions, as not
only to eat of such food themselves, but also to imagine that
others might be tempted by it to follow their example, and quit the
healthy pastures of the Church of England to join in their sick
ening repast, is as marvellous as it is melancholy, significant,
and instructive. The whole subject, indeed, affords such a
useful lesson and warning, that we consider it a plain, though a
v«ry painful duty, to bring it thus fully before our readers.

15
Since writing the foregoing we have seen the Tablet of Satur
day last. The Editor, strange to say, had not seen the "apology "
in Dolman's Magazine, which had been published some days
before ; but he is " assured by the Reverend Editor " that he is
"fully warranted" in the following statement of its purport : —
The Editor of Dolman's Magazine (says the Tablet), on mature consider
ation, acknowledges that the doctrine laid down by his reviewer was unsound,
and his reasonings contrary to the tenor of the Bull which proclaims St.
Rose's canonization. Moreover, he agrees that the imputations upon Mr.
Faber's orthodoxy have been rashly made. . . . The Editor of the Magazine
withdraws every imputation brought by his reviewer against the acts and
austerities of the Saints .... We cannot but take upon ourselves to con
gratulate him most warmly and respectfully on this frank, manly, Catholic,
and honourable proceeding.
How far all this is actually borne out by the " apology " our
readers may judge for themselves : we confess that it reminds us
of " Lord Burleigh's shake of the head." The Tablet con
tinues —
We will add that in this little skirmish ( 1! ) with Dolman's Magazine
nothing has been done in hate, but all in honour  The reviewer in
Dolman merely re-echoed tbe opinion current among English Catholics, that
Alban Butler's great collection affords a perfect model for such compositions.
That was all ! And though poor purblind Protestants might
fancy that the parties were fighting for their lives, with the
sharpest swords they could find, they were in reality only fencing
with their canes, pour passer le temps !
Had this been a mere personal dispute or misunderstanding
we should not have thought of re-opening it after it had been
closed ; but the matter has a much deeper and far more extensive
bearing. The Tablet goes on to advocate the publication of the fullest
details of the self-inflicted tortures of the Saints, without omis
sion or modification. He shows that Alban Butler has suppressed
the most painful details of the sufferings of St. Dominic, St.
Catherine of Sienna, St. Louis Bertrand, and St. Collette : and
the article concludes with the following :—
These four examples of canonized Saints, all anterior to St. Rose, establish
an agreement not only in this species of austerity, but even in the degree to
which St. Rose carried it ; and if they had been faithfully related by Butler
they would have shown that the life of this innocent Saint offered no special
singularity in the way of penance, and that her austerities were of a kind
approved and sanctioned not merely in one instance, but by a succession of
examples in different ages, countries, characters, and modes of life ; Spain,
Italy, France, and Peru— the thirteenth century and the seventeenth— uniting
their testimony to show that in every tongue, people, and time there are
chosen souls whom the Spirit of God calls to a wonderful union with Him
through ways which to the worldly are inexplicable; innocent souls whose
voluntary sufferings, even to blood, and precisely by reason of their innocence
avert from the guilty earth the judgments of God; souls to whom, in the midst
of temptations, bodily torture is a delight and a refreshment; to whom
severe mortification is not merely as with many Saints an occasional or
subordinate exercise, but who have their whole lives built upon taking
" sweet things for bitter, and bitter things for sweet ;" to whom life would be
literally unendurable, if it were not made of such bodily anguish and torture
that the mere description causes our feeble nerves to shudder ; and who,
amidst this perpetual and terrible maceration of the flesh, enjoy within not

16
merely peace, but a felicity and rapture of joy which to a worldling is as
inconceivable as the endurance of the bodily pain by which those spiritual
delights are purchased.
What are we to say of a biographer who deliberately excludes these
highest facts from his narrative ; who tells you that temptations were over
come, but falsifies the means by which they were overcome ; and describes
the spiritual gifts and graces, but omits to mention the excess of penance by
which only those wonderful heights of virtue were rendered possible ?
That all this is of the very essence of Romanism we may be
well assured, or an ultra-Liberal and English journal of the nine
teenth century would not deem the defence and exaltation of
such practices a part of its mission as the organ of the English
Roman Catholics. Such practices Mr.. Faber and the Tablet
would fain see introduced into England ! The contemplation of
such examples is recommended to the daughters of England, as
affording food and strength for their devotion ; and the practice
of such suicidal macerations of the flesh is held up as . the only
means by which the most " wonderful heights of rvirtue are ren
dered possible !" In a word, self-inflicted " wounds, and bruises,
and putrifying sores," are held forth as a 'Note of Sanctity, and a
Means of Grace.

[From the " English Churchman," Newspaper, No. 310, Dec. 7, 1848.]

Note referred ,to, Page 4.
This, however, is not to be wondered at, when we recollect that the exclusive work and
offices of God the Son — our Lord and only Saviour, Jesus Christ — are distinctly attributed
to the Blessed Virgin, by Roman Catholics. In a work which is, at the present day,
largely circulated in England — the Glories of Mary, by St. Liguori — are the following pas
sages, from various authors : —
" Mary is our life, since she obtains us the pardon of our sins.
"If God has not destroyed man after his sin, it was in consideration of the blessed
Virgin, and out of the singular love He bore her. All the mercies granted to sinners in the
Old Law have been given in consideration of Mary.
" All generations shall call you blessed, because it is by you your servants obtain the life
of grace and the gift of glory; through you it is that sinners obtain pardon, and the just
perseverance. " Our prayers will often be more speedily heard in invoking her name, than in calling on
tliat of Jesus Christ.
" He who neglects Mary, shall die in his sins — he who does not invoke her, shall have no
share in the kingdom of God.
" It is now the general sentiment of the Church, that the intercession of the Mother of
God is not only useful, but necessary to salvation.
" Men have but one Advocate in Heaven, and it is you, holy Virgin."
St. Liguori, the writer or compiler of the wdrk from -which these extracts are taken, was
canonized as a Saint by the Roman Church in 1839, after a most rigorous examination of
his writings, in order to ascertain that his works contained nothing that was contrary to the
doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. ' '

IT. Batty, Printer, 159, Fleet Street, London.

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