But not Chap. I. Lammas-tide, and another about Martinmas, &c. fo that were these names quite left out of the calendar, we might be at a lofs to know when feveral of thefe tranfactions happened. But for this and the foregoing reafons our fecond reformers under Queen Elizabeth (though all those days had been omitted in both books of King Edward VI. excepting St. George's Day, Lammas Day, St. Laurence and St. Clement, which were in his fecond book) thought convenient to restore the names of them to the calendar, though not with any regard of being kept holy by the -Church. For this they thought prudent to forbid, as kept holy. well upon the account of the great inconveniency brought into the Church in the times of Popery, by the obfervation of fuch a number of holy-days, to the great prejudice of labouring and trading men; as by reason that many of thofe Saints they then commemorated were oftentimes men of none of the best characters. Befides, the hiftory of thefe Saints, and the accounts they gave of the other holy-days, were frequently found to be feigned and fabulous. For which reafon, I fuppofe, the gene-rality of my readers would excufe my giving them or myfelf any farther trouble upon this head: but being fenfible that there are fome people who are particularly defirous of this fort of information, I fhall for their fakes fubjoin a fhort account of every one of these holy-days as they lie in their order: but must first befpeak my reader not to think that I endeavour to impofe all these stories upon him as truths; but to remember that I have already given him warning that a great part of the account will be feigned and fabulous. And therefore I prefume he will excufe my burdening him with teftimonies ; fince though I could bring teftimonies for every thing I fhall fay, yet I cannot promise that they will be convincing. But, however, I promise to invent nothing of my own, nor to fet down any thing but what fome or other of the blind Romanists superstitiously believe. January 8. Lucian, and Mar. SECT. I. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in UCLAN (to whofe memory the eighth day of this month was dedicated) is faid by fome to have been a Confeffor difciple of St. Peter, and to have been fent by him with St. Dennys into France, where, for preaching the Gofpel, he fuffered martyrdom. Though others relate that he was a learned prefbyter of Antioch, well versed in the tyr. Hebrew Hebrew tongue, taking a great deal of pains in compar- Part II. ing and amending the copies of the Bible. Being long exercised in the facred difcipline, he was brought to the city of the Nicomedians, when the Emperor Galerius Maximianus was there; and having recited an apology for the Christian Religion, which he had compofed, before the governor of the city, he was caft into prifon; and having endured incredible tortures, was put to death 19. 13. Hilary, §. 2. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers in France, (comme- Bishop and morated on the thirteenth of this month,) was a great champion of the catholic doctrine against the Arians; for which he was perfecuted by their party, and banished into Phrygia about the year 356, where, after much pains taken in the controverfy, and many troubles underwent, he died about the year 367. Confeffor. - §. 3. Prifca, a Roman lady, commemorated on the 18. Prifca, eighteenth, was early converted to Christianity: but re- Roman fufing to abjure her religion, and to offer facrifice when Virgin and The was cominanded, was horribly tortured, and afterwards beheaded under the Emperor Claudius, A. D. 47. Martyr. §. 4. Fabian was Bishop of Rome about fourteen years, 20. Fabian, viz. from A. D. 239 to 253, and fuffered martyrdom un- Bishop and Martyr. der the Emperor Decius. Roman Virgin and §. 5. Agnes, a young Roman lady of a noble family, 21. Agnes, fuffered martyrdom in the tenth general perfecution under the Emperor Dioclefian, A. D. 306. She was by the Martyr. wicked cruelty of the judge condemned to be debauched in a public few before her exécution; but was miraculoufly preferved by lightning and thunder from heaven. She underwent her perfecution with wonderful readiness, and though the executioner hacked and hewed her body moft unmercifully with the fword, yet fhe bore it with incredible conftancy, finging hyinns all the time, though fhe was then no more than thirteen or fourteen years old. About eight days after her execution, her parents going to lament and pray at her tomb, where they continued watching all night, it is reported that there appeared unto them a vifion of angels, arrayed with glittering and glorious garments; among whom they faw their own daughter appareled after the fame manner, and a Lamb ftanding by her as white as fnow; (which is the reafon why Why paintthe painters picture her with a Lamb by her fide.). Evered with a after which time the Roman ladies went every year (as her fide. they still do) to offer and present her on this day the two 19 Eufeb. Hiftor. Eccl. 1. ix. c. 6. p. 351. C. best Lamb by Chap. I. beft and pureft white lambs they could procure. Thefe they offered at St. Agnes's altar, (as they call it,) and from thence the Pope gives orders to have them put into the choiceft pafture about the city, till the time of theepfhearing come; at which feason they are clipt, and the wool is hallowed, whereof a fine white cloth is fpun and woven, and confecrated every year by the Pope himself, The origi- for the Palls which he ufed to fend to every Archnal of Arch- bishop; and which till they have purchased at a most exbishops travagant price, they cannot exercise any metropolitical jurifdiction. Palls. 22. Vin con of Martyr. §. 6. Vincent, a Deacon of the church in Spain, was cent, a Dea-born at Ofcard, now Huezza, a town in Arragon. He Spain and was inftructed in divinity by Valerius, Bishop of Saragofa; but, by reafon of an impediment in his speech, never took upon him the office of preaching. He fuffered martyrdom in the Dioclefian perfecution about the year 303, being laid all along upon burning coals, and, after his body was broiled there, thrown upon heaps of broken tiles. : Blaffius, SECT. II. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in February. February 3. BLASSIUS was Bishop of Sebafte in Armenia, reported to have been a man of great miracles and power, put to death in the fame city by Agricolaus the prefident, under Dioclefian the Emperor, in the year 289. His name is not put down in fome editions of the Common PrayerBook, but it occurs in the most authentic. 5. Agatha, a Sicilian Martyr. Virgin and 14. Valen §. 2. Agatha, a virgin honourably born in Sicily, fuffered martyrdom under Decius the Emperor at Catanea. Being very beautiful, Quintianus, the Prætor or Governor of the province, was enamoured with her but not being able to work his ill defign upon her, ordered her to be fcourged, and then imprifoned, for not worshipping the heathen gods. After which, the, ftill perfifting conftant in the faith, was put upon the rack, burnt with hot irons, and had her breaft cut off. And then being remanded back to prison, she had several divine comforts afforded her: but the Prætor fending for her again, being half dead, the prayed to God to receive her foul; with which petition the immediately expired; it being the fifth of February, A. D. 253. §. 3. Valentine was an ancient prefbyter of the Church; tine, Bishop he fuffered martyrdom under Claudius at Rome. Being and Martyr. delivered delivered into the cuftody of one Afterius, he wrought a Part II. miracle upon his daughter; whom, being blind, he reftored to fight; by which means he converted the whole family to Chriftianity, who all of them afterwards fuffered for their religion. Valentine, after a year's imprisonment at Rome, was beheaded in the Flaminian-way about the year 271, and was enrolled among the martyrs of the Church; his day being established before the times of Gregory the Great. He was a man of moft admirable parts, and fo famous for his love and charity, that the The origicuftom of choofing Valentines upon his festival (which is nal of ftill practifed) took its rife from thence. SECT. III. Of the Romish Saints-days and Holy-days in March. choofing Valentines. of Menevia. DAVID, to whofe memory the firft of this month was March 1. formerly dedicated, was defcended from the royal fa- David, mily of the Britons, being uncle to the great King Ar- Archbishop thur, and fon of Xantus Prince of Wales, by one Melearia, a Nun. He was a man very learned and eloquent, and of incredible aufterity in his life and converfation. By his diligence Pelagianism was quite rooted out, and many earnest profeffors of the fame converted unto the truth. He was made Bishop of Caerleon in Wales, which fee he afterwards removed to Menevia; from him ever fince called St. David's. He fat long, viz. fixty-five years, and (having built twelve monafteries in the country thereabouts) died in the year 642: being, as Bale writes out of the British hiftories, a hundred and forty-fix years old. He was buried in his own cathedral church, and canonized by Pope Calixtus II, about five hundred years afterwards. Many things are reported of him incredible; as that his birth was foretold thirty years before-hand; and that he was always attended by angels who kept him company; that he bestowed upon the waters at Bath that extraordinary heat they have; and that whilft he was once preaching to a great multitude of people at Brony, the ground fwelled under his feet into a little hill; with feveral other fuch ftories not worth rehearfing. Bishop of §. 2. Cedde was, in the absence of Wilfride Archbishop 2. Cedde, of York, who was gone to Paris for confecration, and or Chad, gave no hopes of a speedy return, enforced by Egfrid Lichfield. King of Northumberland to accept of that fee. But Wilfride being returned, Cedde was perfuaded by Theo dorus Chap. I. dorus Archbishop of Canterbury to refign the fee to him: after which for fome time he lived a monaftical life at Leftingeag; till, by the means of the fame Theodorus, he was made Bishop of Lichfield, under Wolfhere, King of Mercia, whom he is faid to have converted. He died March 2, A. D. 672. a Maurita tyr. 7. Perpetua, §. 3. Perpetua was a lady of quality, who fuffered marnian Martyrdom in Mauritania, under the Emperor Severus, about the year 205. She is often very honourably mentioned by Tertullian and St. Austin; the laft of whom lets us know that the day of her martyrdom was fettled into a holy-day in his time; and remarks of her, that the gave fuck to a young child at the time of her sufferings. 12. Gregory §. 4. Gregory the Great, who stands next in the calenthe Great, dar, was defcended from noble parents. He very early Bishop of Rome and addicted himself to ftudy and piety, giving all his eftate Confeffor. to the building and maintaining of religious houses. He ward, King Saxons. was confecrated Pope about the year 590, but vigorously oppofed the title of univerfal Bishop (which the Bithops of Conftantinople did then, and the Bishops of Rome do now affume) as blafphemous, antichriftian, and diabolical. Among other his glorious and Chriftian deeds, his memory was annually celebrated here in England, for his devout charity to our nation, in fending Auftin the monk, with forty other miffionaries, to convert the Saxons, (who had teftified their defire to embrace Chriftianity,) which in a fhort time they happily achieved. Having held the Popedom fourteen years, he died about the year 604, leaving many learned books behind him, which are ftill extant. 18. Ed- §. 5. Edward was defcended from the Weft Saxon of the Weft Kings, and the fon of King Edgar, who firft reduced the Heptarchy into one kingdom: after whofe death, in the year 975, this Edward fucceeded to the crown at twelvel years of age, but did not enjoy it above two or three years. For paying a vifit to Elfride his mother-in-lawat Corfe-caftle, in Dorfetfhire, he was by her order ftabbed in the back, (whilft he was drinking a cup of wine,) to make way for her fon Etheldred, his half-brother. His favour to the monks made his barbarous murder to bet esteemed a martyrdom; the day of which was appointed to be kept feftival by Pope Innocent IV. A. D. 1245. 1905 §. 6. Benedict was born in Norcia, a town in Italy, of an honourable family. Being much given to devotion, he fet up an order of monks, which bears his name, about the year 529. He was very remarkable for his mortifica 21. Benedict, Abbot. |