to the commonly received opinions of the world; but he does not deny that he has come to take a very different view of Henry and his times from that accepted by the rest of mankind. He has this advantage over his criticsthat, as he makes use of state papers and other manuscript records which are not accessible to the world at large, it is not always possible to test the correctness of his quotations or the justness of his inferences from official documents. We can only say that in the few instances in which it has been in our power to follow him in his researches, we have learned to distrust not only his accuracy but his honesty. We must wait until some other and dispassionate historian shall have explored the same fields before we can detect all his misrepresentations and rectify all his errors. HUMOROUS POEMS. By Oliver Wendell Holmes, with illustrations by Sol. Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1865. A cheap but neat edition, bound in pamphlet form, forming one of a series of Companion Poets for the People, illustrated." Dr. Holmes is our Thomas Hood, in some respects more to our taste than his English compeer. His humorous poems, though steeped in the double distilled oil of wit, have no poison in them, and are wholesome and delicious, when taken laughing in small doses. THE PRACTICAL DICTATION SPELLINGBook, in which the spelling, pronunciation, meaning, and application of almost all the irregular words in the English language are taught in a manner adapted to the comprehension of youth. For the use of schools. By Edward Mulvany. New York: P. O'Shea. The plan of this book is excellent, and will, we have no doubt, be generally adopted in our schools. It has evidently been compiled with much care and attention. The scholar that mastors its various sections will not be apt to make those ridiculous mistakes in spelling and writing which are so prevalent in the community. In the next edition the typographical errors ought to be attended to. The present one contains too many such errors. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Messrs. Murphy & Co., Baltimore, arnounce for publication at an early de the following works: A new improv and enlarged edition of Archbishop Sp ding's "Miscellanea ;” a new editia "The Evidences of Catholicity," byt same author; "The Apostleship Prayer," a translation from the French the Rev. H. Ramière, S.J.; "The Mar of the Apostleship of Prayer:" new tions of Ellen Middleton,” · Lady B: and Grantly Manor," by Lady Fule ton; and of " Pauline Seward." P. O'Shea, New York, announces "The Life of St. Anthony of Padr "The Life and Miracles of St. P mena ;""The Christian's Daily Guide a new prayer-book; the second volt of "Darras' History of the Church" P. Donahoe, Boston, announces flat publication of a new illustrated mazi zine for the young folk. It is to be edi Spare Hours," and is to appear ext in December. There is room for sue. publication, and we hope it will pre a success, and that Mr. Donahoe w make it equal to anything of the ki published in this country. A ge magazine for the young has been a war long felt. The subscription pries two dollars per year. BOOKS RECEIVED. From THE AMERICAN NEWS C PANY, New York: "Aurora Floyd."" M. E. Braddon. 12mo., pp 372. “T Ordeal for Wives." A novel, but author of "The Morals of Mayfer 12mo., pp. 448. "Rebel Brag and Br ish Bluster: A record of unful prophecies, baffled schemes, disapp ed hopes, etc., etc. By Owls-Glas Paper, pp. 111. We have also received a neat pamphlet, of twenty-four pages titled: "Notes on Willson's Readers by S. S. Haldeman. From the Hon. WM. H. SEWA Secretary of State, Washington: "!! plomatic Correspondence for 1% Parts 3 and 4." From CHARLES SCRIBNER, N York: Plain Talks on Familiar> jects," a series of popular lectures. 3 J. G. Holland. 12mo., pp. 335. From P. O'SHEA, New York: N bers 14, 15, and 13 of " Darras' Histor of the Church." From D. & J. SADLIER & Co., N York: Parts 5, 6, and 7 of “ D'Artati® Lives of the Popes.' THE CATHOLIC WORLD. VOL. II., NO. 11.-FEBRUARY, 1866. anslated from Etudes Religieuses, Historiques et Littéraires, par des Pères de la Compagnie de Jésus. CHARLES II. AND HIS SON, FATHER JAMES STUART. I. Of all the Stuarts who reigned over reat Britain only one, if historians n be trusted, abandoned Anglicann and became a child of the CathoChurch. It is true that to the me of James II. that of his elder other, Charles II., has sometimes been ded; but the general opinion is that arles had no religion whatever, d scoffed at all creeds alike. Docuents, however, which have lately en brought to light, enable us to ove that both the sons of Charles I. andoned Protestantism, and that in eir persons Catholicism occupied for ore than twenty years the throne of enry VIII. To understand how the religion of harles II. could remain so long an storical enigma, we must recall to ind the peculiar circumstances in bich he was placed. Surrounded by natical sectaries, who yielded him a nd of insubordinate obedience, and VOL. II. 37 kept him in continual fear of the axe by which his unfortunate father had suffered, he felt constrained to observe in public the forms of worship which he had solemnly renounced before the altar. And to this we must add another reason. Far from reforming the disorders of a licentious youth, he prolonged his excesses to the very eve of death, and his unbridled passions tended to extinguish in his naturally weak and timid soul all the energy alike of the man and of the Christian. So, though a Catholic at heart, Charles never had the courage during his whole reign to avow his sentiments. Some thought him a zealous Presbyterian; others, a devoted Anglican. Those who knew him better declared he was nothing but a bad Protestant, and for that declaration they had more reason than they supposed. There is no question that he died in the bosom of the Church, but that he had returned to it long before he died is a fact which has only lately been established. After lying for two hundred years among the dusty archives of a religious order in Rome, a remarkable correspondence has been brought to light between the sixth successor of Henry VIII. and Father Paul Oliva, the general of the Jesuits. The occasion of this singular interchange of letters between Whitehall and Rome was the presence in the Jesuit house, in the last named.city, of a young novice whom all the fathers, even the general himself, believed to be a French gentleman. Charles informed Father Oliva who this young man was. By the right of paternal authority he demanded that James Stuart, the eldest of his natural sons, should be sent back to him. He wished to keep him for some time about his person, and by his assistance to instruct himself more thoroughly in the Catholic faith, and so finish the work which he had long ago commenced. After reading these letters, and penetrating the hidden thoughts and mental tortures of the conscience-stricken king, who knows his duty, and fears, yet wishes, to fulfil it; a crowned slave, bearing beneath his royal robes a yoke of iron, and sighing in vain for liberty to believe and worship after the dictates of his heart, we cannot resist the conclusion that Charles II. was neither a deist nor a waverer; he was a Catholic-a timid and a bad one, if you will, but firm in his convictions. tuousness should turn his back upon the easy-going Anglican Church, so complaisant even to the monstrous pas sions of Henry VIII., and choose ti most inflexible of all Christian conmunions, the one which preferred l ing her hold upon the glorious ac powerful Island of Saints to connivia: at adultery; which defended the ar nocent Catharine of Aragon aga her ferocious spouse, and mig one hundred and forty years lat have protected Catharine of Pors gal also had a royal caprice a attempted to displace a virtuo queen in order to raise a vicious favor ite to the throne of England. Th monarch, timid by nature, and surrounded by sanguinary fanaties, kner that the bare accusation of "popery" would be enough to stir up his whole kingdom against him; yet he did not hesitate to become a "papist"-he p on whom the laws conferred the ti so much coveted by his predecesso of supreme head of the Establis Church. Do we not see in this a nal triumph of God over man, of truth over falsehood? Should it be asked why this co spondence has remained so long published, we answer that it was its nature strictly confidential. long, too, as the Stuarts maintain their pretensions to the English croma the publication of such letters wo have seriously compromised the Then came the suppression of the s ciety, after which it would appear the all trace of the correspondence lost, until it was recently brought : light by the learned Father Boer The original letters form part of collection of autograph manuscripts t Charles II., Father Paul Oliva, Chrtina of Sweden, James II., the que mother, Henrietta of France, Cathari of Braganza, and other celebrated p sons of the time. The letters Charles are impressed with the ro seal. But, you may say, a conversion such as this is not much for the Church to brag of. Here you have a prince born a heretic, and becoming a Catholic so quietly that his people know nothing about it. The Church declares that faith without works is dead. Well, it is true that Charles's life was in perpetual discord with his faith. We certainly do not propose our neophyte as a model penitent; it is enough if the reasons which led to his conversion afford his countrymen another proof of the divine origin of Catholicism. It is surely a startling circumstance that this slave to volupture autentiche ed originali. Istoria della conversione alla Chiesa Ce di Carlo II., Re d'Inghilterra, cavata da a′′ II. Ir is easy enough to mention circumstances which would naturally have prepossessed Charles in favor of the Church. In the first place, he was indebted for his life, after the defeat of Worcester, almost entirely to Catholics, who at great risk to themselves concealed him from the soldiers of Cromwell and enabled him to escape to France. In Paris he must have seen many things to influence his religious sentiments. The most profound impression, however, was made upon him by the venerable M. Olier, the founder of St. Sulpice. "God opened to him," says his biographer, the Abbé Faillon," the English monarch's heart. In the new conferences which he had with this prince, he showed him the beauty and truth of the Catholic religion with so much grace, force, and energy that Charles II. was constrained to acknowledge afterward to one of his friends that although many distinguished persons had spoken to him about these matters, there was none of them who had enlightened him so much as M. Olier; that in his words he recognized and felt an extraordinary virtue; in fine, that he had fully satisfied him. There can be little doubt that M. Olier had persuaded the king to abjure his errors and to take the first step toward a return into the bosom of the Church; that is to say, by sending a secret abjuration to the Pope, who, as has been said above, required nothing more. For, in the first place, it was rumored all through France and England that Charles had sent to the Pope a secret abjuration; and beside, M. de Bretonvilliers, after mentioning that his majesty recognized and felt an extraordinary virtue in his conversations with M. Olier on the truth of the Catholic religion, adds these significant words: At present, I can say no more.' This reticence naturally leads us to infer that Charles had taken some step toward becoming a Catholic which it was not then prudent to make known." III. Two years after his restoration to the throne, and under the influence, probably, of the queen-mother and the. queen-consort, he resolved to open with the Holy See a negotiation which he hoped might lead to the restoration of the English people to religious unity. It was necessary to proceed with the greatest caution. He chose for his envoy Sir Richard Bellings--the same to whom he afterward intrusted the most secret and delicate of his missions to the court of Louis XIV. Sir Richard set out for Italy under pretext of attending to affairs of his own; and as soon as he could do so safely, he quietly went to Rome. His first business was to ask for a cardinal's hat for Louis Stuart, duke of Richmond and Lennox, better known under the name of the Abbé d'Aubigny. He was a near relative of the king's, and had been summoned from Paris to fulfil the functions of grand almoner to Queen Catharine. Charles wished to place under his charge the affairs of the Church in Great Britain. A memoir on this subject was drawn up for Bellings by Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and copied by Clarendon's son. It is dated October 25, 1662. Each leaf is authenticated by the royal signature. A minute of the instructions given by Charles to his ambassador is preserv ed at Rome. It can only have been drawn up by Sir Richard himself: "1. His majesty solicits this promotion for the advantage of his kingdom, and in order to give the Catholic party an authorized chief, intimately united with the sovereign by the ties of blood, and upon whom he can depend securely under all circumstances. The king, to quote his own words, sees in the elevation of the Abbé d'Aubigny to the cardinalship 'an essential condition to the good understanding which ought to exist between the Pope and his majesty; he deems this a measure of the last importance for the welfare of his Roman Catholic subjects throughout his dominions.' "2. The cardinal once appointed, his majesty engages to support him in the style which his dignity and his relationship to the sovereign demand." a The Holy Father summoned secret congregation of cardinals to consider the matter, and also appointed a council of theologians, who were instructed to draw up their opinion in a careful report. In this document we find a careful resumé of the "Benefits which the Catholics of England have received from his Britannic majesty." They approved of the proposed appointment; but unfortunately the Abbé d'Aubigny was given to the errors of the Port Royalists, and the Pope felt compelled to refuse Charles's request. He refused, however, with so much delicacy, and gave such good reasons for the refusal, that the king, instead of breaking off intercourse with the Holy See, as he had threatened to do, ordered Bellings to proceed to the second object of his mission. This was nothing less than the conversion of the king and the reconciliation of his realms to the Roman Church. IV. SIR RICHARD was instructed to treat directly with the Holy Father, and the number of counsellors whom the Pope might call to his assistance was to be strictly limited. On the side of the English there is every reason to believe that nobody was in the secret except the king, the two queens, the envoy, and the person-whoever he may have been-who drew up the document which we shall presently have occasion to quote. Clarendon certainly knew nothing about it; he was ready to assist in the promotion of d'Aubigny; but he was a stern enemy of the Catholics, and even before Sir Richard's return we find him opposing in parliament a proposal of his sovereign's for granting liberty of conscience to dissenters. There is no doubt that Charles II. himself made known to the Holy Father his intention of becoming a Catholic and re-establishing Cathol cism as an authorized form of worship in his kingdom. There is, moreover, no doubt that Pope Alexander VII. replied to him. This is all that we can now affirm with certainty; and w should not have known even this if the king had not mentioned it inc dentally in one of his letters to Father Paul Oliva. The absence of these two letters is much to be regretted; but we have fortunately at hand a document of still greater value. This is the profession of faith presented in the name of the English monarch as the basis of a concordat: "Proposition on the part of Charles II., king of Great Britain, for the i much-to-be-desired reunion of his three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland with the apostolic and Roman see. "His majesty, the king, and all who aspire to the unity of the Cath olic Church, will accept the profession of faith drawn up by Pope Pius IV. after the decisions of the Council of Trent, and with it all the other de crees respecting faith or discipline enacted either by the aforesaid coun or by any other general council. 2 well as the decisions of the last t pontiffs in the affair of Jansenius; r serving to himself, however, as is done in France and some other places, cen tain special rights and certain custome which usage has sanctioned in o own particular Church. These var ous decrees are to be understood wiz the restrictions which other ecume ical councils have, prudently no dou and after mature consideration, posed upon them, as the aforesaid pr fession of faith proves. Whenes 1 follows that, except within these lim nothing may henceforth be imposs upon or prescribed to either the or any of his Catholic subjects: a |