from the veins of the followers of the Lamb-whose most rare and precious ornaments were the blood-stained sponges and vials and instruments of torture-while the venerable bodies of the slaughtered flock upheld the altar on which the divine sacrifice was offered up to God. 95. THE RELIGIOUS MILITARY ORDERS. ARCHBISHOP PUROELL. JOHN B. PURCELL, D. D., Archbishop of Cincinnati, was born 1th of February, 1800, in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland. Emigrated when a boy to America; studied in Mount St. Mary's, Emmettsburg; went to Paris, and followed up his theological studies at St. Sulpice, where he was ordained priest. On his return to the United States, Dr. Purcell became Professor of Theology in his Alma Mater, at Emmettsburg and was subsequently appointed President of that noble institution. He was conseerated Bishop of Cincinnati on the 18th of October, 1888, and was since made Archbishop of that province. Although this eminent prelate has not found time amid the onerous duties of his high office to apply himself to literary pursuits, proofs are not wanting that he might attain distinction in the walks of literature. Soon after his consecration as Bishop of Cincinnati, he was called upon to defend the doctrines of the Church in a protracted discussion with the Rev. Mr. Campbell, founder of the Campbellites, in which he distinguished himself as well by his skill in dialectics, as his profound scholastic attainments. The archbishop's lectures, delivered on various subjects, are admirable specimens of such composition, and have done much for the diffusion of valuable information. What he has done and achieved for the cause of religion is well known to the Catholics of America; and when future historians trace the fortunes of the Church .n the New World, the name of Purcell shall be held in honor, as one of the first great patriarchs of the West. 1. By the religious military orders, I mean, 1. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or Hospitallers, or of Rhodes, or of Malta, as the same order has been successively designated. 2. The Templars. 3. The Teutonic Knights; leaving out of this view the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, of Calatrava, of St. Jago, of the Sword, and others, which cannot be regarded as strictly religious orders, have no such name in story, nor rendered such important services to Christendom as those which I have first named. * 2 In the middle of the eleventh century, the merchants of Amalphi, in the kingdom of Naples, who traded with Egypt in rich merchandise and works of art, and who had often ex perienced in their visits to the Holy Land the cruelty of Greeks and Saracens, purchased, by costly presents to the Caliph and his courtiers, permission for the Latin Christians to have two hospitals in Jerusalem, one for men and the other for women. The chapels attached to these hospitals were dedicated, respectively, to St. John the Almoner, and St. Magdalen. They were served by self-appointed seculars, whose charity induced them to forego the pleasure of homes and friends, to devote themselves to the care of the sick, the poor, and the stranger, in the Holy City. This was the cradle of the Knights Hospitallers. 3. The Hospitallers were divided into three bodies, or classes. 1st. Those distinguished by birth, or the rank they had held in the army of the Crusaders. 2d. Ecclesiastics who were to superintend the hospitals, and serve as chaplains to the army in peace and war. 3d. Lay-brothers, or servants. A new classification was afterwards made from the seven different languages spoken by the Knights-i. e., those of Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy, Aragon; a little later including Castile and Portugal, and England, until she apostatized. 4. The government was aristocratic. The supreme authority was vested in a council, of which the Grand Master was president. The different houses of the Order were administered by preceptors, or overseers, removable at pleasure, and who were held to a strict accountability. The same austerities were practised by all, and the necessity of bearing arms was not suffered to interfere with the strict observances of the convent. Purity of life, and prompt obedience to orders, and detachment from the world, were the distinguishing virtues of the soldier monks. 5. THE TEMPLARS were founded by Hugn de Payens and eight others, all natives of France, to protect the pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem, and to unite with the Hos pitallers and aid the king of Jerusalem in repelling the incur sions, humbling the pride, and chastising the audacity of the Their infidels. They were too proud to serve in hospitals. costume was a white mantle, with a red cross on the left breast. Their name was derived from their residence near the Temple. They were approved by Honorius II. Their rule was given them by St. Bernard, by order of the Council of Troyes. Their exemption from what was considered the degrading, or ignoble, obligation of waiting on the sick, drew to the new Order a vast multitude of the richest lords and princes of Europe, so that the Templars soon outshone the Hospitallers in the splendor of wealth-but never in that of virtue. Nevertheless, they continued for centuries to render essential services to Christendom in checking the aggressions of Mohammedanism. 6. THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS Commenced their existence on the plain before Ptolemais, or St. Jean d'Acre. Many of these brave Germans, who had followed their gallant Emperor, Frederick I., and his son, the Duke of Suabia, to the holy wars, when wounded in the frequent sorties of the garrison, lay helpless on the battle-field, unable to communicate their wants and sufferings in a language unknown to their brethren in arms. A few Germans, who had come by sea from Bremen and Lubeck, commiserating the hard fate of their countrymen, took the sails of their ships and made tents, into which they collected the wounded, and served them with their own hands. Forty of the chiefs of the same nation united with them in the work of charity, and from this noble association sprang a new religious and military order like to those of the Templars and Hospitallers. They were approved by Pope Celestine III., at the prayer of Henry VI. of Germany, in 1192, receiving the name of the Teutonic Knights of the House of St. Mary of Jerusalem. They got this name from the fact of a German having built in Jerusalem a hospital and oratory under the invocation of the blessed Virgin, for the sick pilgrims from his fatherland. Their uniform was a white mantle, with a black cross; they were bound by the three vows, like the Hospitallers and Templars. Before being admitted to the Order, they were required to make oath that they were Germans, of noble birth, and that they engaged for ufe in the care of the poor and sick, and the defence of the Holy Places. These were the three orders on which Christendom relied, more than on the irregular efforts of the Crusaders, for the protection of the Holy Land. 96. MARY MAGDALEN. CALLANAN. His CALLANAN was born in Ireland in 1795; died in 1829. During his life, ne was one of the popular contributors to 'Blackwood's Magazine." reputation as a poet is well established. 1. To the hall of that feast came the sinful and fair ; She mark'd not the splendor that blazed on their board, 2. The hair from her forehead, so sad and so meek, 3. The frown and the murmur went round through them all 4. She mark'd but her Saviour, she spoke but in sighs, She dared not look up to the heaven of his eyes; And the hot tears gush'd forth at each heave of he breast, As her lips to his sandals she throbbingly press'd. 5. On the cloud after tempests, as shineth the bow, 97. DIALOGUE WITH THE GOUT FRANKLIN. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Boston in 1706. In early life he was printer. He was a prominent politician before, during, and after the Revolutionary War, a member of the Continental Congress, and subsequently Minister of the United States to France, having at an earlier date, been the agent of the Colonies in England. But he was particularly distinguished for his philosophical discoveries, especially that of the identity of lightning and electricity. He died in 1790. 1. Franklin. Eh! Oh! Eh! What have I done to merit these cruel sufferings? Gout. Many things: you have ate and drank too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence Franklin. Who is it that accuses me? *Gout. It is I, even I, the Gout. Franklin. What! my enemy in person? Gout. No; not your enemy. You re Franklin. I repeat it, my enemy; for you would not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good name. proach me as a glutton and a tippler: now all the world that knows me will allow that I am neither the one nor the other. 2. Gout. The world may think as it pleases. It is always very complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but very well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who takes a reasonable degree of exercise would be too much for another who never takes any. I Franklin. I take-Eh! Oh !-as much exercise-Eh!-as I can, Madam Gout. You know my sedentary state; and on that account, it would seem, Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not altogether my own fault. 3. Gout. Not a jot: your rhetoric and your politeness ar thrown away: your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active. You ought to walk or ride; or if the weather prevents that, play at something. But let us examine your course of life. While the morn ings are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by |