practices of his fathers, and not to submit to the prevalent practice of the church.

He might, indeed, have conceded certain external things, not of any importance in themselves, for the sake of securing what was more essential; but it was an object of some importance to him, to place himself in opposition to an arrogant ecclesiastical authority, which refused to acknowledge the rights of christian liberty, and aimed by its enactments, to force an uniformity in outward things. His enemies gladly availed themselves of this departure from the prevailing church usages, to excite a prejudice against him.

He by no means wished to introduce all the usages relating to Divine worship which he had brought from Ireland, though he believed they were preferable; all he desired was, that he should be at liberty to follow his own method with the convents under his superintendence.

With christian frankness, subjecting himself to no human authority in matters of religion, he addressed a letter to the bishop of Rome, Gregory the Great.

He called on him not to bind himself by the authority of the earlier Roman bishops, but to examine freely, and to adopt whatever he found to be best. "In such a matter," he wrote to him, "you must not depend merely on your humility, or the dignity of the person, which often deceives. In such inquiries, perhaps, "a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Living saints may improve what had not been improved by a greater than themselves in a former age."

Gregory, in a case which required a free examination of the truth, was not justified in a humility which would not permit him to submit the enactments of his predecessors to a fresh examination.

At a later period, he wrote to the Roman bishop, Boniface IV., saying, that as they were connected with one another by unity of faith,—since they agreed in believing with the heart, and confessing with the mouth, one Father in Heaven, of whom are all things, and one Redeemer, the Son of God, through whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in whom

are all things, he hoped it might be granted to him and his associates, without injury to the peace of the church, to continue in their own usages; as in former times, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Anicetus, bishop of Rome, without injury to the faith, separated from one another with uninterrupted loves, and each one adhered to the customs be had received.

About the year 602, a Frankish synod was held to deliberate on this matter, and Columban addressed an epistle to it, full of zeal for the welfare of the church.

As, partly owing to political disturbances in the kingdom of the Franks, and partly to the remissness of the bishops, who had involved themselves too much in worldly concerns, the salutary institution of provincial synods had been for a long time neglected, Columban thanked God that the disputes with him had led to summoning such a synod; and he prayed God to grant that they might, on this occasion, be occupied with more important things relative to faith and practice. On this occasion he asserted, with all respect to his opponents, the great truth that if they did not evince by their lives that they had heard the true voice of the Shepherd, and follow him, they could not expect that those words which they uttered only as hirelings could meet with obedience.

An attack from another quarter led to important consequences for Columban. He was held in great respect by Thierry II., the King of Burgundy, where his convents were situated. He availed himself of this to administer reproof to the king, on account of his voluptuous life, and to urge him to a better course. But his influence on this side came into collision with the policy of the powerful grandmother of this prince, Brunehault-and she laid a plan, with the nobles and prelates, to whom Columban's proximity had long been offensive, to drive him away. It was not his manner to evade the machinations that were formed against him.

In accordance with his maxim "to be bold in the cause of truth, and unconquerable by evil," he met the plot with unbending firmness. At last, after five and twenty years of ac tivity, he was banished from the country in the year 610.

Orders were at first given that he should be sent back to Ireland, but peculiar circumstances prevented their execution.

In his journeying through France, he met with many consolatory proofs that God was with him.

When he had arrived with his followers at the city of Nantes and was occupied with meditating in his cell, a beggar came before it. Columban caused the last measure of meal in his stores to be given to the hungry man.

The two following days he was obliged to contend with want himself, and continued joyful in faith and hope, when suddenly some one knocked at the door, and it was the servant of a pious female of the city, whom she had sent with a considerable supply of corn and wine for him.

From Nantes he wrote an epistle full of paternal love to these he had left behind in France, in which he exhorted them to unity and humility.

He then withdrew into Switzerland, near Tuggen and Pregentia, where he labored several years for the conversion of the Suevi and Alemanni.

Afterward he went to Italy and established, in the vicinity of the Apennines, the famous monastery of Bobbio, where he found rest for the last years of his life.

Still he was active to the last, in order to compose an ecclesiastical division which had existed in Italy from ancient times.

The Emperor Justinian, who, by his indiscreet and des potic interference in church affairs, by his strong inclination to exercise his imperial power in making theologians instead of faithfully fulfilling the duties of his office, had caused such great disorders in the Greek church, had also allowed himself to be moved, by the intrigues of a troublesome theological court-faction, publicly to brand as heretical the memory of the three great Syrian fathers of the church, Theodorus, Thesdoret, and Ibas, and the vascillating, weak-minded Roman bishop, Vigilius, had allowed himself to be compelled. to favor the foolish undertaking of the emperor.

As the later Roman bishops followed the decision of their predecessor, a division of the church in Italy was the conse

quence; for several churches in Istria and the Venetian territory disapproved of this decision.

Many accusations against the orthodoxy of the Roman church were occasioned by it.

Columban now wrote a very respectful, but at the same time very frank epistle, to Pope Boniface IV., in which he required from him an unprejudiced examination of this affair, and pressed upon him to take measures for restoring the peace of the church.

"Watch," he writes to him, "first of all over the faith, and then to command the works of faith, and to root out vices; for your vigilance will be the salvation of many.

Our concern here is not persons, but the truth.

As in virtue of the dignity of your church, you are held in great honor; you need to take greater, not to lessen your dignity by any aberration; for the power will remain with you as long as you are in the right way. He is a true key bearer of the kingdom of Heaven, who by true knowledge opens it to the worthy, and shuts it against the unworthy."

Then follows a beautiful exhortation which applies to so many divisions which arise from laying greater stress on subordinate differences than on unity in the essentials of faith, and thus the bond of love was broken.

"Quickly return," says he, "to unity, and not prolong old controversies; but rather be silent, and consign these controversies to everlasting oblivion.

"When any thing is doubtful, reserve it for the decision of God. But what is clear, or what man can judge, decide justly upon it without respect of persons.

"Mutually acknowledge one another, that there may be joy in heaven and earth over your peace and union."

He thus continued fruitful in works of faith and labors of love, till he died in his seventy-second year, or a little older, after having in the course of an active and very laborious life, scattered the seeds of christian knowledge in France, Switzerland and Italy; and, by the scholars whom he left behind him, made provision for its still wider propagation in suc creding ages.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Gallus, the Apostle of Switzerland.

SUCCESS OF GALLUS PROMOTED BY HIS FAMILIAR INTERCOURSE WITH THE PEOPLE; FOUNDS AN INSTITUTION, AND BECOMES A TEACHER.

MONG the scholars whom Columban brought with him from Ireland to France, Gallus was one of the most distinguished.

He was early intrusted by his parents to that venerable teacher, to be educated for the service of the kingdom of God. Columban, as we have seen, was a zealous student of the Scriptures, and deeply imbued the mind of youth with a love for acquaintance with the sacred volume.

He knew how to discourse from the Scriptures with simplicity and fervor, and to apply the Word to the hearts of men.

When with his associates, he met with a hospitable reception from pious persons, and after laying down his luggage, wished to have some portion of Scripture read; he called on his favorite scholar, Gallus, to perform this office, and at the same time to explain what was read.

When, they took up their residence among the ruins of the ancient castle of Bregenz, they met with an old dilapidated chapel, which they resolved to consecrate for christian wor ship, and in which they constructed their cells.

But they found in that chapel three gilded images of idols which the pagans worshipped as tutelary divinities.

As Gallus, during his residence in the Frankish territory, had made himself well acquainted with the German language, Columban permitted him to preach the Gospel to a numerous multitude who had flocked together to witness the consecra. tion.

It is indeed a true saying of Luther's, "It is God's work alone to banish idols from the human heart; whatever comes from without is a farce