posed, where all religious parties should be represented. This, however, did not take place; but the cause of the Reformation gained a signal triumph at the Diet of 1556.. It enacted a law by which every nobleman might introduce into his house such a mode of worship as he thought proper, provided that it was based on Holy Scripture; and the king himself was induced, in the name of the same Diet, to send a letter to Pope Paul IV., at the council of Trent, then sitting, demanding the following concessions:-1. That mass should be performed in the national language. 2. The communion in two kinds. 3. The marriage of priests. 4. The abolition of the Annates. 5. The convocation of a national council, for the reform of abuses and the union of different sects. From this point the Reformation begins to fail, and the glories of Poland are obscured. We must briefly relate the melancholy story of her decline and fall. The Pope was alarmed, and felt it necessary to temporize. He sent a legate, Lippomani, who arrived in time to be present at the Diet, and with the assistance of the Romish party soon gained considerable influence. In the same year he and the Polish archbishop convoked a Synod, and resolved upon measures which should clear Poland of her heresies. They first attempted to prosecute a refractory priest, and summoned one Listomirski, canon of Przemysl and rector of Conin, to their bar. How far the Reformation had made its way in Poland, we may judge from the following circumstance: Listomirski took advantage of the summons as a fit opportunity for making a public declaration of his principles. He arrived with a large number of powerful friends, each of whom carried a Bible, as the most efficient arms against Romanism. The Synod did not dare to open the prosecution against so bold an antagonist; and the doors of the hall, where he was to be tried, were found closed against the accused and his friends. Foiled in their attempt to punish heresy, the Synod tried their power with more success in the case of sacrilege. We shall give the horrible recital in the words of the historian Krasinski : "In order to have a better chance of attaining their object, the clergy chose now their victim amongst the inferior classes of society. Dorothy Lazecka, a poor girl, was accused of having obtained from the Dominicans of Lochaczew a host feigning to receive communion. It is said that she wrapped that host in her clothes, and sold it afterwards to the Jews of a neighbouring village for three dollars and a gown embroidered with silk. This host was said to be carried by the Jews to the synagogue, where being pierced with needles it emitted a quantity of blood, which was collected in a flask and preserved for some religious rites. Notwithstanding the absurdity of this accusation, the legate seized that occurrence, which, according to Roman Catholic authors, most opportunely happened, in order to prove by a miracle the reality of transubstantiation, and that the communion of two kinds was quite unnecessary, as the host contained the blood as well as the body of Christ. The Jews tried in vain to prove the absurdity of the charge, arguing that as their religion permitted them not to believe the mystery of the transubstantiation, they could never be supposed to try a similar experiment on the host, which they considered as a mere wafer. The synod, influenced by Lippomani, condemned them, as well as the unfortunate woman, to be burned alive. This iniquitous sentence could not, however, be put into execution without the exequatur of the king, which could not be expected to be obtained from the enlightened Sigismund Augustus." The Roman Catholic bishop of Chelm, Pezerembski, who was also vice-chancellor of Poland, made a report of these proceedings to the king, and implored him not to allow so horrible a crime as that of sacrilege to go unpunished. The king, however, supported by the Protestants in his council, refused to credit such absurdities, and sent an order for the release of the accused. But the vice-chancellor had the audacity to forge the exequatur, and to send an order that the sentence should be immediately carried into execution. The king was informed of the treachery, and despatched a messenger to forbid its being carried into effect. It was, however, too late. The murders, perpetrated with the forms of law, had already been committed both on the Jews and on the Christian girl. Lippomani had overreached himself. The atrocity filled Poland with horror, while at the same time it strengthened the antiRomish feeling. Lippomani was universally hated, and abruptly fled from the country, having to all appearance failed in the great object of his mission. But it was not so. His schemes had been too deeply laid. The open assault had been defeated, but Poland might still be won by silent action and more insidious means. Compared with other states, she was the land of freedom; compared with other people, the Poles were an educated race. Here, then, as was too probable in an age of speculation, error first ventured to appear in public and demand an audience. The works of Servetus were extensively read, and those of Lelius Socinus; and their anti-Trinitarian doctrines were preached by Peter Gonesius, and maintained at a Synod in 1556. He was soon followed by an accomplished and eloquent Italian, Blandrata, and an Unitarian church was formed. It gained many adherents, especially amongst the wealthy and educated. Yet, on the other hand, the Bohemian brethren, a pure and orthodox body, supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Paulicians, retained its hold upon the piety of Poland. The Lutheran churches, too, and the Helvetian church, each had their converts; and an attempt was made to effect a union amongst all the orthodox reformers at the Synod of Sandomir in 1570. An act entitled the Consensus of Sandomir was agreed upon. Vol. 63.-No. 318. 3 P It was signed and sealed with great solemnity by the representatives of the greater and lesser Poland, Russia, Lithuania, &c., and all seemed to promise well. The Consensus closes in an excellent spirit.* "After having mutually given each other our hands, we have made a sacred promise faithfully to maintain the peace and faith, and to promote it every day more and more for the edification of the Word of God, and carefully to avoid all occasions of dissension. "Finally, we do oblige ourselves not to seek our own interest, but, as it becomes the true servants of God, to seek only the glory of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and to spread the truth of His Gospel by words and deeds. "And that it may last for ever prosperously, firm, and without infraction, we ardently pray to God the Father, who is the Author and abundant source of all comfort and peace, who has snatched us and our churches from the dense darkness of popery, and gifted them with the light of His pure Word and Holy Truth, that He should bless this our holy peace, concord, union, and covenant, to the glory of His name and edification of His Church. Amen. "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in amity. Psalm cxxxiii." National Education seems to have been carried further in Poland than in any other country with which we are acquainted at the same period. It was the great weapon of the Unitarians; and the orthodox churches would be compelled to adopt it, if only in self defence. Unitarianism has always failed in the pulpit. She touches none of those chords which reach the heart. What influence she has is brought to bear upon the understanding; and therefore the school naturally becomes more important with her than what in other communities we term the means of grace, namely, prayer and the preaching and hearing of the Word. The flight of Lippomani was soon followed by the introduction of the Jesuits in vast numbers. At first they excited the Romish mob to several outrages. They pulled down some churches, and riots were the consequence, in which both parties shared. Skega, a Jesuit, published a pamphlet on the occasion of the destruction of the Protestant church at Cracow, applauding the rioters; and he tells his readers that he speaks by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as he believes. But such measures brought no success. After a time the Jesuits settled down to their proper work; they got the schools into their hands, and thus it was they accomplished the destruction of the Reformation. They persisted, until they had accomplished *Consensus mutuus in religionis Christianæ capitibus, inter ecclesias Majoris et Minoris Poloniæ, Russia, Lithuaniæ, et Samogitiæ, &c., quæ juxta confessionem Augustinum, Fratrum Bo hemiarum, et Helveticam, aliquo modo a se dissentire videbantur; factus in Synodo Sandomiriensi, anno Domini 1570, 14 Aprilis. the destruction of Poland herself. Her schools became one grand source of her misfortunes. Under the Jesuits, the national intellect decayed. Legends of saints, and the dogma of absolute submission to the priest, took the place of manly science, and whatever adds vigour to the intellect. At the same time, the Romish party was sufficiently powerful to irritate the various sects of the Reformers, amongst whom the Unitarians still lingered, against each other. Thus their influence was paralyzed, till at length their existence was scarcely perceived, and the fruit of the Reformation was lost. The monarchy was an elective one. This again opened a boundless field for Jesuit intrigue. At length surrounding nations saw the helpless state to which Poland was reduced,-torn by internal dissensions, lying helpless at the feet of the Papacy. They saw and coveted. Then came the infamous partition of Poland, and all the miseries that Poland has endured down to the present hour. And this is the explanation of the spectacle which has just taken Europe by surprise. The Pope holds an allocution, issues a manifesto expressing the tenderest regard for his dear Polish children, and thunders out his censures, wild, bitter, and imbecile, against the Russians, who owe to him no submission, and the Austrians, the most slavishly submissive of his subjects; who seem determined, however, to convince the holy father that even they can venture to treat him with contempt. We are not indifferent spectators of the struggle in which Poland is now engaged against an overwhelming tyranny. We do not wish to cool the ardour of our countrymen, but it has become necessary that we should ask ourselves, for what it is that Poland contends. Is it for a mere choice of masters, the name of independence, while she returns to be a vassal of the Pope? Or is it submission to her secular tyrants with their divided churches? Of the two, we should prefer the latter; it would be less injurious to Europe, and not more so to unhappy Poland. But we still hope she may see her danger, and reject in time the insidious offers of assistance from a source which was never yet known to aid the oppressed, except with the most selfish regard to her own aggrandizement. And great beyond expression will be our own folly if we cannot see in this melancholy story the certain danger of permitting the Romish party, under whatever pretext, to interfere with our national system of education, either at home or in our sister island. Rome is at the best a perfidious ally, who in return for concession makes a fresh demand, and for confidence in her promises has a base betrayal always waiting, always ready to be employed. CORRESPONDENCE. OUR LORD'S AND OTHER ALLEGED MIRACLES. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. SIR, I have met with incidental notices of events in the Life of Apollonius Tyanæus, but not with his Life by Philistratus. It is evident, from such notices of that work as I have met with, that much of it is fabulous; but with much of fable may have been mingled much of extraordinary and, in the present day, unacceptable truth. The respect shown for it by Eusebius, even when writing against Hierocles, who employed it in the attempt of refuting Christianity, shows that it is not a work which is wholly or lightly to be set aside. He seems, indeed, to have admitted the general truth of the accounts given by Philistratus, even whilst showing that Apollonius did not deserve to be compared with Christ. In answer to the queries of K. B., I would make the following observations. I believe it was alleged that Apollonius had restored persons to life. Of multitudes alleged to have been fed by loaves and fishes, whether by Christians or by Heathens, I, in my ignorance or forgetfuless, can say nothing. As to the broader question of alleged miracles performed by persons not Christians, "which cannot by any possibility be explained away as tricks or delusions," a very wide field of enquiry is opened by it, in treating which, much would depend upon the precise sense in which the term "miracle" is used. I am fully satisfied that between the pure miracle wrought immediately and exclusively by Divine power, and the ordinary natural, there is a wide intermediate region which it is the habit, alike of scientific rationalism and of modern popular belief, to ignore, and of which, indeed, we know little in modern, in comparison of what was know of it in ancient days. There may be -the Christian must admit there is—a supernatural influence, which is not divine, as when Peter's prison doors were opened. There may be a præternatural influence, as distinguished from the influence of superhuman beings, depending on occult powers of nature only that there is, I do not think that any intelligent person investigating the subject, and not under the power of blinding prejudice, can fail to believe. As the early heathen opponents of Christianity-who had so much better opportunity of ascertaining the facts than modern "Essayists and Reviewers"-did not deny the miracles of Christianity; so did not the early Christians deny the miraculous, or quasi-miraculous, cures performed in the heathen Temples, attributing them, doubtless erroneously, to Satanic power; nor did they deny the truth of the heathen Oracles. As to the "curative power of imagination," without denying the influence, to a certain extent, of such a power, I believe that a great deal more is attributed to it than it is capable, unless miraculously, of producing; and a moment's consideration will show us, that by attributing too much to it, many of the miracles of the Gospel may be "explained away." A candid examination of the : |