Why,' said he,

I replied that I did not know. 'Brunner, formerly minister at Pöstlingberg, has sent your friendly letter, with your propositions (which you wrote the day before I came to Gallneukirch) to the vicar-general, with a number of charges, so that the vicar and the whole chapter are again alarmed.'

"After some further conversation we went to the court. The vicar would not undertake the examination alone, but brought as his coadjutor, the aged canon Reiccessi, an Italian. They began with reading the letter which I addressed to the vicar-general on March 4th. Various expressions were objected to; for instance, that I doubted whether all men possessed living faith in Christ and his gospel. No one (they maintained) was deficient in faith, but only in works. The term 'living' applied to faith, was strongly reprobated; they proposed to substitute working by love.' This point I can concede to them. Then three hours were spent in examining the propositions which were to be tried by the standard of the decrees of the Council of Trent; but we could not agree as to the result. I quoted Scripture on my side, and they on theirs; but which party had the victory was undecided. At last we rose, and I began with tears to confess my faith in Jesus Christ, and entreated them not to disturb the belief of one who must soon die, nor my dying parishioners: for we all rendered only an imperfect obedience, and therefore came to our death-beds as sinners, and needed

Christ, not as a mere supplement to make up the defects of our doings, but required him wholly, with all his merits; and that with any other faith than this, I could not venture to prepare myself and my parishioners for a happy death. This, and much more, I said with many tears. Then one took me by the right hand, and the other by the left, and tried to comfort me, by saying, that I might use this faith for myself, and my dying parishioners, for our mutual comfort, but that for the healthy, and such as were likely to live, if this faith were publicly preached it would create a disturbance. It would become me, therefore, to take suitable opportunities for presenting the subject to the people more simply, and in a less offensive manner. They said that the esteem they had felt for me before this investigation, so far from being lessened, had rather increased, but I ought to be on my guard against mysticism, lest I should fall into fanaticism, etc.

"But to sum up the whole, it was evident that they knew neither the Father, nor the Son, nor us, nor the faith in which, through grace, we stand. St. Paul, for instance, they thought, speaks in his Epistle to the Romans, merely of the ceremonial law, and not concerning the whole Mosaic law, divine and moral. The veil is still upon their hearts. They consider Sailer as the greatest enthusiast and fanatic in all Germany; this they told me three times to my face. You may imagine

how I was pained to hear it. I told you long ago, that we had been greatly mistaken about these men. Christ is too great a gift for them;

their heart is too narrow.

"After this grievous conflict at Augsburg, I went to dine with Bertgen, who comforted me as a father would his child. In answer to his inquiries, I gave him the details of all that had occurred. He said, 'To-morrow I will attack them, and call them to account for not having believed me, and for giving ear, instead, to such knaves as Brunner and Parzer, who merely sought to promote their own base ends, by bringing charges against me and you.'

"What has transpired in the consistory to-day I know not. . . . According to my opponents, no man knows anything of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and he who professes that he knows any such thing is a fanatic, or an enthusiast ... The whole country, they say, needs renovation; the Catholic religion is on the eve of extinction, and Lutheranism is gaining the ascendency; and how lamentable. will that be! Bertgen is aware of all this, and will do his utmost to defend us; but he stands alone. The whole country is disturbed as in 1797. In my parish, where they are most quiet, a thousand persons are ready to go to Lintz, and defend us against our accusers; for they all see that Brunner is only actuated by the mean motive of wishing to get possession of my parish."

CHAPTER XII.

Professor Sailer.

ONE powerful voice, however, was raised in behalf of Boos; that of his ancient instructor and friend, professor Sailer, a distinguished preacher and writer, who was deservedly held in high esteem, both by Protestants and Catholics. This excellent prelate had heard with great satisfaction of the zeal and piety of Boos, and of the generous manner in which Bertgen had undertaken to plead his cause. His sentiments are fully expressed in the following letter to Bertgen, dated May 11, 1811 :—

on

"I can be silent no longer. The manliness, prudence, and love for apostolic Christianity which you have displayed in defending our friend Boos, when so violently assailed matters relating to his faith and conscience, have so filled me with delight and with esteem and affection for you, that I cannot be sufficiently thankful to God, and must pour forth the feelings of my heart to you.

"There is one holy catholic faith, but this catholic faith may be either-1, mechanically and outwardly learned; or, 2, scholastically apprehended; or, 3, spiritually received.

"Boos is a spiritual catholic Christian. What to the mechanical Christian is the mere letter, and to the scholastic Christian nothing but notions, is to him spirit an 'ife. His disposition is spiritually catholic; for he receives and judges of all the doctrines of the Catholic church from a spiritual point of view, in their relation to the inner life-their influence on the heart-their devotional tendency. Whatever has no beneficial effect on the inner man, is nothing to him. For this reason, the scholastic Christians charge him with heresy; and the mechanical Christians are afraid of him. To the latter, his expressions are offensive; and it must be admitted that many of them are not perfectly correct in mere formal strictness, but, tried by the standard of the Spirit, they are so."

After quoting several passages from the Council of Trent, Sailer goes on to say, "When Boos speaks of good works, after justification, a distinction must be noted. 1. If these good works are considered as proceeding from the man himself, and altogether his own, they are certainly tainted with selfishness, and therefore have no intrinsic worth in God's sight. 2. But if these good works are considered as performed by the Spirit of Christ, in and through the man, they are certainly wrought in God, are precious in his sight, and have a Divine value; but this value comes from the Spirit of Christ, which rules and reigns in the will that is animated by Christ; these good works are good from the applied merits of Christ.