his beloved mother, who had the least personal defect; and that although he might be forty when the virgin was fourteen, yet he ought not to be so exposed as leaning on a staff, and so decrepit as almost to be useless, when he was vigorous and able to work thirty years in serving the sacred, family both at home and abroad. He adds, that St. Barnard thinks St. Joseph was the likeness of Mary, and that the learned Gerson affirms that the face of Jesus resembled the face of Joseph; and he remarks, that, as 'It would be reviving the blasphemous heresy of stigmatised Cerinthus to assert, that Jesus was by nature the real son of Joseph, yet he must be looked on as his legitimate parent and entitled in all things to the right of paternity, except that of generation, which the eternal Father supplied, by infusing into the husband of Mary a paternal love for her son Jesus. A child lawfully conceived in matrimony, may strictly call the husband father, which title the Holy Ghost honours St. Joseph with, by the mouth of the immaculate Virgin, your father and I have sought you sorrowing (St. Luke ii. 48). Children reputed by common fame to belong to such a parent, or those who are adopted, have a right to inherit titles and patrimonies; much more Jesus, who was born of Mary, Joseph's wife; for according to the approved axiom of the law, whatever grows in, or is built upon another's soil, belongs to the owner thereof. The work has many accounts of miracles performed by Joseph; the following may be quoted as an example- It is a matter of fact that a person of quality having lost all his children by witchcraft a few days after their birth, was counselled by one who had too great an insight into that black and diabolical art, to name his next son Joseph; it was done, and the child lived to inherit his father's estate and honour.' There are also in this book, directions for choosing St. Joseph as a patron, with his office, litany, a hymn in his honour, his beads, seven prayers in honour of his seven dolours and seven joys, and other exercises. A prelude to one of the meditations is in these words: 'Imagine yourself to be in the temple of Jerusalem when the high priest gave to Joseph the immaculate Virgin Mary. How the patriarch espoused her, by putting a ring upon her finger, with other ceremonies according to the written law, in token that he made her partaker of all his goods, and took her under his protection.

The Wedding-Ring of MARY and JOSEPH was of onyx or amethyst, wherein was discerned a representation of the flowers that budded on his rod. It was discovered in the year 996, in this way. Judith, the wife of Hugo, Marquiss of Etruria, being a great lover of jewels, employed one Ranerius, a skilful jeweller and lapidary of Clusium, to go to Rome to make purchases for her. There he formed an intimacy with a jeweller from Jerusalem, who, when Ranerius was about to return home, professed great affection, and offered him a ring as a pledge of friendship. Ranerius looking upon it as of little value, declined it with a slight compliment; but the jeweller from the Holy Land bade him not contemn it, for it was the wedding-ring of Joseph and the blessed Virgin, and made him take it with an especial charge that it should not fall into the hands of a wicked person. Ranerius, still careless of what he said, threw it into a little chest with articles of inferior value, where it remained until his forgetfulness cost him dear: for when his son was only ten years old, (the number of years that his father disregarded the Virgin's ring), the boy died and was carried to his burial. But, behold as the hearse went forward, on a sudden the dead child rose from the coffin, ordered the bearers to stop, and calling to his father, told him, that by favour of the

far

;

blessed Virgin he was come from heaven to tell him that as he had contemned religion by concealing her most holy ring in a common heap, he must immediately send for it, and publicly produce it, that it might be .openly venerated. The chest being brought and delivered into the son's hand, he presently found the ring, although he had never seen it before; then most reverently kissing it, and showing it to the spectators, they religiously adored it during the joyful pealing of the bells which rung of their own accord; whereupon, ordering himself to be carried to the place where he desired to be buried, he delivered the ring to the curate of the parish, and then laying himself down in the coffin, he was interred. This ring wrought many miracles; ivory ones touched with it worn by women in difficult labour relieved them; an impression of it in wax, applied to the hip, removed the sciatica; it cured diseases of the eyes, reconciled married people that quarrelled, and drove out devils. Five centuries afterwards, in 1473, the church of Musthiola, where it effected these wonders, becoming ruinous, the ring was deposited with a religious community of the Franciscans at Člusium. One of the brethren of the order named Wintherus, a crafty German, and very wicked, having obtained from the magistrates an appointment to shew the ring, on a certain occasion after exhibiting it at the end of his sermon stooped down, as if he was putting it into the place provided for it, but instead of doing so he slipped it up his sleeve, and privily conveyed himself and the ring from the city across the water. All was well so but when he got into a neighbouring field it suddenly became dark, so that not knowing which way to go, but well knowing what was the matter, he hung the ring on a tree, and falling on the ground penitently confessed his sin to it, and promised to return to Clusium if it would dispel the darkness. On taking it down it emitted a great light which he took advantage of to travel to Perusia, where he sojourned with the Augustan friars till he determined on making another effort to carry it into Germany. He was again hindered by the darkness returning. It infested him and the whole city for twenty days. Still he resolved not to return to Clusium, but told his story in great confidence to his landlord, one Lucas Jordanus, who with great cunning represented to him his danger from the Clusiuns, and the benefits he would receive from the Perusians if he bestowed the ring on that city. Wintherus followed his advice. As soon as the ring was shown to the people the darkness disappeared, and Wintherus was well provided for in the house of the magistrate. Meanwhile the Bishop of Clusium coming to Perusia, endeavoured in vain to regain the relic. The city of Sena sent an ambassador to assist the claim of the Clusiuns; he was entertained by the Perusians with great respect, but they informed him that having used no sacrilegious arts to obtain the blessed Virgin's ring, they respected her too much to restore it to its owners; that they received it within their walls with as much respect as they would do the Ark of the Covenant, and would defend their holy prize by force of arms. The bereaved Clusians laid the case before Pope Sixtus IV., and the Perusians did the same. Wintherus was ordered by the Pope on the importunity of the Clusians, into closer confinement; but as the heat abated he passed a merry life in Perusia, and at his death the Franciscans and the canons of St. Lawrence disputed for the possession of his body. This honour was in the end obtained by the latter, in whose chapel he was buried before an altar dedicated to St. Joseph and the Virgin; and a monument was erected by the Perusians to the ring-stealer's memory, with an inscription which

acknowledged that the receivers were as much indebted to him for it as if it had been his own property and he had offered it of his own accord. In the pontificate of Innocent III. A.D. 1486, the arbitrament of the dispute was left to Cardinal Piccolominæus, who adjudged the relic to Perusia. The important decision was celebrated in that city by every imaginable expression of joy, and for the greater honour of the sacred ring a chapel was built for it in the church of St. Lawrence, with an inscription, informing the reader that there the untouched mother, the queen of heaven, and her spouse, were worshipped; that there in the sanctuary of her wedding ring, she lent a gracious ear to all prayers; and, that he that gave the ring (Wintherus), defended it by his protection. The pencil was called in to grace the more substantial labours of the architect. A curious picture represented the high priest in the temple of Jerusalem, taking Joseph and Mary by their hands to espouse them with the venerated ring; one side of the solemnity was graced by a band of virgins, the companions of Mary during her education; the other side was occupied by a company of young men, Joseph's kinsmen of the house of David, holding their withered rods. The imagination of the artist employed one of these in breaking his own rod across his knee, as envious of Joseph's, which by its miraculous budding, had ended the hopes of all who by the proclamation had become candidates for her hand. In addition to this an altar was raised and dedicated to St. Joseph; his statue was placed at its side; his birth-day was kept with great pomp; a society of seculars called his Fraternity was instituted to serve in the chapel jointly with the clergy of St. Lawrence; and on the joint festival of the Virgin and her spouse, the splendid solemnity was heightened by the solemn exhibition of their ring, and by the picture of their miraculous nuptials being uncovered to the eager gaze of the adoring multitude.-Bp. Patrick's Devot. of Rom. Ch. p. 46.

The miracles of the wedding ring of Joseph and Mary were trifling in comparison to its miraculous powers of multiplying itself. It existed in different churches of Europe at the same time, and each ring being as genuine as the other, each was paid the same honours by the devout.

V. THE DESCENT INTO HELL.

'Mr. Warton, who smiles at the idea of their having anciently committed to the blacksmiths the handling of the Purification, an old play so called, would have had still greater reason, could he have assigned with truth to the company of taylors the Descent into Hell.'

Rev. John Brand, Hist. of Newcastle, v. ii. p. 370. n.

THE Coventry Mystery of Christ's Descent into Hell consists of only six verses; in one of which Christ expresses his determination to release the souls 'from the cindery cell.' Such brevity was occasioned, perhaps, by the subject being very hacknied. But the Chester Mystery of the same subject is a tedious paraphrase of circumstances in the Gospel of Nicodemus ;3 to which is added in one of the copies by way of epilogue, the lamentation of a cheating Chester alewife, on being compelled to take up her abode with the devils, one of whom she endeavours to wheedle by calling him her 'sweet Mr. Sir Sathanas,' from whom she receives the compliment of being called 'his dear darling.'

4

In strictness, the prints that I have, which illustrate this event, should have been described with the other engravings from Apocryphal New Testament story, but it seemed better to connect them with other particulars on the same subject; and accordingly

1 Cotton MS. Pageant xxxiii.

2 Harl. MS. 2124.

year

950

3 Apoc. N. Test. Nicodemus, xiii. 14 to xx. 14.-The Gospel of Nico, demus in Anglo-Saxon, by Elfric Abbot, of St. Albans, in the with fragments of the Old Testament in the same language, was published by Dr. Hickes at Oxford, in 1698.—Lewis's Hist. of Transl. of the Bible, p. 8.

4 Harl. MS. 2013.

they succeed the following extracts from the Apocryphal Gospel on which they are founded.

Nicodemus, xii.—3. In the depth of hell in the blackness of darkness on a sudden there appeared the colour of the sun like gold, and a substantial purple coloured light, enlightening the place.

xv.-1.-While all the saints of hell were rejoicing, behold Satan the prince and captain of death, said to the prince of hell.-2. Prepare to receive Jesus of Nazareth himself, who boasted that he was the Son of God, and yet was a man afraid of death, and said my soul is sorrowful even to death.

xvi.-19. The mighty Lord appeared in the form of a man.-20 And with his invincible power visited those who sat in the deep darkness by iniquity, and the shadow of death by sin.

xvii.-13. Then the king of glory, trampling upon death, seized the prince of hell, deprived him of all his power.

xix.-12. And taking hold of Adam by his right hand, he ascended from hell, and all the saints of God followed him.

ENGRAVINGS.

1. A landscape with a view of the earth beneath, containing a semi-section of hell, which is a globe divided into four parts: 1. the devil sitting on the body of Judas in the centre surrounded by a body of fire containing the damned in torment. 2. The compartment surrounding the centre is the flame of purgatory, with its inhabitants. 3. The next circle is the libo of infants whose heat seems to be less fierce. 4. The outer circle is the limbo of the Fathers to which Christ has penetrated from his grave, with a banner surrounded by a light cloud filled with angels. Engraved by Ant Wierix, after B. Pass-small folio.

2. Christ within the porch of hell bearing a banner in his left hand. Adam who holds the cross of wood, with Eve and a crowd of others are behind him; he is stooping down to receive persons who are grasping his right hand from a dark entrance; a furious devil is striking at him with the end of a pointed staff, from a square hole above; hell gates lie broken on the ground, while a demon flying in the air blows a horn. A fine engraving on wood by Albert Durer, 1570-small folio.

3. The same subject varied a little. An engraving on copper by A. Durer-small square quarto.