to other classes more highly favored in pecuniary matters. They were as much bound by the laws which they taught as others, though there were two exemptions in their favor as compensation for disability to hold lands, as before noticed.

Like the Levites, but more especially, they were set apart for the general welfare; the altar and tabernacle were under their control, they had an oversight of the judiciary, an eye on the administration generally, sometimes were engaged as genealogists or judges, being capable of varied service and ready and effec tive in adaptation. And here we may remark that the Levites had not only to tithe their one tenth for the support of the priesthood, but every third year to divide their tithes from the people that year with widows, orphans and strangers in need in their respective localities; and from the one tenth income of the Levites' tithe to the priests the sacrifices for the tabernacle service were supplied, leaving but little, and that uncertain, for family or personal support.

HIGH PRIESTHOOD.

The incumbent was chosen from the priesthood. He was the chief in ecclesiastical matters, frequently filled high places in the civil department, was the chief justice of the judiciary and sometimes appeared as chief magistrate of the nation.

His introduction into office was accompanied by great display and solemnity, the chief magistrate and senate taking part in the ceremonies. His appointment by magistrate or senate required the sanction of the masses. The office was hereditary in the family of Aaron. Of the sanctity of the position, the grandeur of attire, the majesty and precision of movement, the sublimity of utterance, the near approaches to the terrible presence of the overshadowing cherubim and seraphim, speaking by Urim and Thummin, revealing, from the holy of holies, like the cloud and fire, the will of God, and thereby symbolizing his presence, majesty and glory, no particular mention need here be made. Through this medium we not only ascend to the oracle of God but reach the source of knowledge and power. They were a favored, "peculiar people," "a royal priesthood," exalted infinitely above the surrounding nations. But how much more

exalted are we, for our lawgiver is Christ, our mediator and great high priest, the medium of access to the Father and the mercy seat, the channel of divine communication between heaven and earth, through which a world instead of a nation is to be redeemed and saved..

ART. III. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. IN CHURCH
HISTORY.

On the seventh of March, 1861, cardinal Mazarin, shrinking with horror at the conviction that it was impossible for him to enter the kingdom of heaven, solaced with cards, bade a final adieu to his vast treasures, his "beloved pictures" and his power.

At his death, Louis XIV., then twenty-two years of age, assumed direction of the affairs of the realm and inaugurated the most brilliant age of French history. "To whom, Sire, shall we now apply for directions?" asked the secretary of state, when the crafty Italian minister was no more. "To me," was the decisive, unhesitating reply. Absolute monarchy was begun and Louis stood as its perfect representative before Europe. “I am the State," was the declaration of a monarch who spared nothing to fulfil his central thought: "One Faith, one King, one

Law."

At the head of his armies were Turenne, Conde, Luxembourg and Vendome ; Colbert was his financier. Under such leaders the fortunes of France, almost ruined by the wretched administration of the cardinals, were placed in the foremost rank among the nations. Freed from the menaces of Spain, the plots of Fronde and League ended, the land at length rested from the civil wars which for nearly a century had brought fearful disaster to financial and political life. Her boundaries were extended by the addition of the rich provinces of Lorraine, Flanders, Franche-Comte and Strasbourg.

The period from the death of Mazarin to that of the king in 1715, is fittingly called the Age of Louis XIV. Under his patronage arts and sciences flourished as in no previous reign. The genius of Vauban, of Riquet, Perrault and Mansard appeared in the construction of fortifications, canals and palaces; the great names of Poussin and Le Sueur head the list of celebrated painters; in literature we meet Corneille, Racine, Moliere and La Fontaine, Bossuet and Pascal.

An age opening with wonderful brilliancy in art, in letters and in war, it was apparently the dawning of a long illustrious career of glory for France; but the sun of its glory no sooner approached its meridian splendor than it hastened to set in gloom. The seeds of destruction were planted by the very hand that scattered largesses to poet and painter; deep and cruel wounds were inflicted upon France by the heart governed by mistresses of the court. The prodigal expenditures in wars and upon palaces bore with grievous weight upon the people. Monarchy was triumphant, parliament and the people were nothing. The most hideous aspects of absolutism were placed before the realm, and long before the peevish, "stagy" old monarch died, that reaction began which resulted in the revolution of 1789.

We shall look with interest for the religious developments of such a reign,—we shall expect to find the happiest results of unbiased catholicism, for never was there closer union between church and state; the Bible was withdrawn and the massbook everywhere appeared instead; papal influences permeated and controlled the realm; the heart of the sovereign was open to the poison of a Jesuit confessor; the most brilliant minds, with few exceptions, were either engaged in the defence of the Romish church or by their talents gave it glory in the eyes of the world. In the firmament of the church shone Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Massillon, Bridaine and Fenelon. But uncontrolled Catholicism brought in the reign of reason; the crosier, raised aloft in pride and insolence, became the object of contempt.

At the begininng of this age we see Italy, Austria and Spain no longer leading the nations in art and in war. The efforts of the Pontiff and of that favorite son of the church, Philip II., to establish the Catholic faith by the poniard of the assassin,

by the inquisition and by arms, had failed in every land save Spain. There intellectual vigor and the spirit of inquiry, were hopelessly crushed. The monk and bigot sat grimly smiling over the corpse of freedom and called the universal stillness peace, but it was the startling quiet of death. No heretic disturbed the devotee of the "most holy faith," but the nation, once the terror of Europe, the chosen, secular arm of the papacy, sank into pitiable insignificance and, during the greater part of the reign of Louis XIV., was ruled by the half-idiotic grandson of Philip II., under the title of Charles II.

Henry of Navarre, chief of the Huguenots, ascended the throne in 1594. From motives of expediency he abjured the faith of his childhood and the object of his noblest struggles, thus losing the glorious opportunity of giving to France the reformed religion and of breaking up forever the religious and political centralization of the realm. He satisfied his conscience by the fact that his course enabled him to promulgate the edict of Nantes, and thus he hoped to serve his faithful followers better by his apostacy than by his truth. So the reign whose opening was radiant with no common promise, accomplished little for the civil and religious liberties of France. His "perpetual and irrevocable law," as the edict in favor of religious toleration was styled, was unceremoniously and cruelly revoked by his grandson, in whose reign the banished Jesuits returned, maddened by long years of depression, to wreak a more fearful vengeance and a more complete extermination upon those whom that Protestant charter had protected, than the abjuring Bearnese could have imagined.

After the death of Henry IV., alliance with Spain was sought with as much eagerness as he had repelled it. Protestantism was imperilled and its chiefs gathered once more for its defence. Another civil war was inaugurated, resulting in the loss of the province of Bearn, the patrimony of Henry of Navarre; its lands were confiscated and its privileges annulled. In answer to the remonstrances of the province, claiming the favors granted by Henry III. and Henry IV., the king, Louis XIII., replied that "the one feared, the other loved them, but he neither feared nor loved them."

татсани

པ བསIས སྡ5@IIཐོv IསIvuvI P་བ༦་

the death of that ecclesiastic, Louis, in the flush of yout ver, sought some appropriate way to signalize his ere must be but one faith, and he resolved to be the s ngel of that faith to France; he would make proselytes ry day should witness new converts.

The terrible work was inaugurated. Flight from the co forbidden by the severest edicts; children were kidna be brought up under Catholic teaching; dying Hugu e tormented by magistrates and priests who imposed sence to receive recantations. Often the crucifix was pl he lips from which the last breath was issuing and the ng subject was pronounced a convert. But kingly zeal ed new measures for producing conversions more rapi e gown and the cassock employed only spiritual devi soning was a slow and somewhat uncertain process, and refore declared unnecessary. Military agency was invol conversions might be effected in a moment at the point bayonet.

The Huguenots offered no resistance. "The peaceful floc Mazarin was pleased to term them, met in sorrow to p the king's heart might yet be softened toward them. E w followed blow with increasing force. Their churches we elled; they were required to bury their dead after night-fal singing of psalms was forbidden; pastors were banished _dren were prohibited from gathering in schools.

We have not the heart to dwell upon or to rehearse at an gth the story of the insults, indignities and horrors of thi