that are in danger of being profaned which is to burn them In like manner he alledg'd That not knowing how to dispose of his great Crucifix and being afraid lest it might be profaned he had imitated the Custom of the Church in this Point This puts me in mind of many sad Accidents which daily happen to the Holy things of Papists and especially to that which is the chiefest Object of their Devotions viz. the Holy Host or their Sacrament I take it for a thing that is sure and certain that there are very few days in a year when in some part of the World or other they are not fain to burn it or to put it into a filthy stinking Hole to which notwithstanding they give the fair Title of a Sacrarium or Sanctuary which is as it were the Dunghil where they cast forth that which they believe to be the true Body of Jesus Christ that the same may there return to Corruption I my self have found upon two several Occasions the Hosts which are kept in the Ciboire in very bad order The first was near Orvieto in a Country Parish where the Ciboire being not close shut and the Tabernacle or Cupboard of the Sacrarium not being close joyned the Pismires had made bold to visit the Holy Sacrament and finding the Hosts to their Tooth had eaten some part of them and were dragging the rest in little pieces to their Ant-hills I acquainted the Curate after I had said Mass with this disorder who was much troubled at it for it was occasion'd by his Negligence who had forgot to shut the Ciborium He entreated me more earnestly than he would have done God not to speak a word of it to any Body because if it should come to the Ears of the Grand Vicar of Orvietto who was already his Enemy he would have been undone We therefore both of us endeavoured to remedy it as well as possibly we could and indeed the Bishop himself had he been there could have done no more than we did To prevent all manner of Scandal we staid till all the People were gone out of Church and traced the Pismires to their Hole which went under-ground and pursuing it we found it to lead to a Cossin wherein there was a Body that was half Rotten which cast forth a most dreadful stink and infection Forasmuch therefore as it was impossible for us to search any further we filled the Hole of the Ants with Straw and Wood and set fire to it in order to consume the Host the Ants and all that was in it and there is no doubt but this succeeded according to our desire We met with many of these little Animals who being laden with their Sacrilegious Prey ran up and down the Church which we pick'd up and burnt them in a Chasing-Dish as many as we could meet with and after that we had well Swept the Church we cast all the Sweepings into the Fire and consumed them This was indeed as much as could be done But alas there were several other things which it was impossible for us to remedy for seeing that in all probability the Ants had been long a labouring at the transporting of these Hosts the Country People who all this while came to Mass had without doubt crushed many of them with their Feet and had carried away with them pieces of the Host sticking to the dirt of their Shoes Yea we our selves who had taken so great pains to remedy this Mischance when we viewed the Soles of our Shoes found several Particles sticking to them Now according to the Doctrin of the Papists the Body of Jesus Christ is whole and entire in the least Particle as well as in the greatest and consequently we may imagin how great this Profanation was I have read something of a Book Printed in Flanders and made by a Jesuit where treating of the Eucharist he takes upon him to confound the Protestants by the Examples he alledgeth of Beasts who have paid their Adorations to the Sacrament Amongst other things we read there That Ants and Bees having by chance met with Consecrated Hosts which some Hereticks had thrown away in the Fields they had with a great deal of Reverence gathered them up and carried them to their Hills and Hives and having divided themselves into Quires they by turns chanted musically and sang forth the Praises of God until the Priests being drawn that way by their melodious harmony came and fetch'd away their Hosts What Experiences of this kind the good Father Jesuit may have had I know not but for the good Curate and my self I am sure we met with no Musick The second place where I found the Consecrated Hosts much abused was in a Little Church near to Ancona in a very moist place I found the Ciborium full of Wafers those that lay uppermost stuck to one another and those at the bottom were turn'd into a kind of Glue or Jelly And forasmuch as it was evident that some of them were wholly spoiled and the rest in a fair way to be so too after that Mass was ended I cast them all into the Sacrarium which is a Hole made in the Wall express for this purpose and poured upon them great quantity of Holy-Water to make them sink to the bottom and to cleanse the Orifice of the Sacrarium This was at that time all the Ceremony I used to bury that which I then believed to be the Body of our Lord. Others have found the Hosts full of Worms and in other places the Rats have eat them up whole The Divines at Rome admit for the most part as many Miracles in these kind of Corruptions as they do in Transubstantiation For after the same manner say they as at the Consecration the Substance of the Bread is transubstantiated into that of the Body and that the Accidents of Bread and Wine are supported by the Divine Power without a Subject so in the next moment to Corruption say they the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ cease to be in the Host and in the Chalice and that God by his Omnipotence creates in it another Substance which becomes the Subject of Corruption I have been an Eye-witness of many other considerable Accidents that have hapned to their Holy Sacrament It frequently comes to pass that Priests whilst they are saying Mass let some of the Consecrated Wafers fall down to the ground and tread upon them without thinking of it Others spill the Consecrated Cup upon the Altar so that the Precious Blood of our Lord runs down on all sides and is spilt upon the Ground amongst the Filth and Spittings of the People Sometimes Priests have been taken with a Vomiting immediately after Communion A Priest at Venice as he was lifting up the Calice for the People to worship it spilt it all upon his Head and Sacerdotal Habit which was all stain'd with it These are some of those great Accidents that happen to the Papists with respect
admire the Hymn he made on that Subject and more particularly the Prose which to this day is Sung at the Mass It is full of the Rapsodies and contradictions which the Papists at present do believe on that Subject And he himself owns about the midst of the said Prose that what he saith of it is incomprehensible doth not fall under the Senses and is contrary to or beyond the order of natural things Quod non capis quod non vides Animosa firmat Fides praeter rerum ordinem What thou dost not understand and what thou dost not see Courageous Faith confirms beyond the course of things that be I am astonished how he durst assert that it is Faith alone that assures us of it for as subtil as he was 't is evident that in his Searching he himself was very doubtful whether what he had writ on this Subject was true or no. This Passage of his seems too remarkable to be past by without giving you an occasion of making some Reflexion upon it To this purpose I shall relate to you what Ribadeneira tells us of it in his Legends in the Life of S. Thomas Aquinas Notwithstanding saith he S. Thomas in his Explication of other matters goes beyond all other Doctors yet in the point of this ineffable Sacrament and Divine Sacrifice he surmounts and outvies himself as may be seen in his Works and in the Office he composed at the command of Pope Urban IV. for the Celebration of the Feast of the Holy Sacrament This thorny and difficult Question having been once canvas'd in the University of Paris concerning the Accidents of Bread and Wine which continue there visible after the Conversion of the Substance to which they belong into that of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and which are called the Sacramental Species or Kinds S Thomas to whom they had all referr'd themselves writ to them his thoughts of this Question upon a Paper which he laid upon the Altar and having his Eyes and Heart fixed upon a Crucifix which was there he beseeched him most earnestly that if he had writ the Truth he would be pleased to do him the Favour to tell it him and if not that he would please to stop and hinder it And as he was in the greatest Fervour of his Prayer Jesus Christ shewed himself visibly unto him upon the Altar and said to him You have writ this well Thomas The Saint continuing his Prayer being Prostrate on the Ground his Body was lifted up into the Air and continued so hovering there for a good while in the Presence of many Religious of the Convent At another time when he composed the Office of the Romish Church which they sing on the day of the most Holy Sacrament being then in the City of Orvieto a Crucifix spake to him the same words which Crucifix is to this day called S. Thomas his Crucifix The same hapned to him also at Naples as he was writing the Third part of his Sum the Crucifix which was upon the Altar spake to him with a loud and intelligible Voice saying Thomas thou hast well writ concerning me What will thou that I give thee for thy Reward Thus far are the Words of Ribadeneira the Jesuit in his Legend which is so highly approved by the Church of Rome Upon all which I desire you to make this Reflexion That if S. Thomas had not been doubtful of what he wrote he would not have had recourse to so many Crucifixes to be confirm'd and assur'd in his own mind for otherwise it would have been an open tempting of God as it would surely be if at present we should desire Miracles of him to prove to us the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ And if S. Thomas doubted of this matter it follows that he was convinced that these things were not solidly ratified in the Gospel or in the Doctrin of S. Paul or at least could not be deduc'd thence as natural and necessary Consequences Wherefore then doth he say in his Prose Animosa firmat Fides that Faith confirms these matters Men have begun in these latter Ages to recover a little from these Apparitions of Jesus Christ and from these speaking Crucifixes But Thomas Aquinas had Wit enough at that time to discern that his novel Doctrin did stand in need of such Proofs True it is also that probably he might have imagined it for his assiduous Application and Meditation of matters purely Metaphysical had made him extreamly abstracted and Hypocondriacal and to make use of the Expressions of him who hath composed his Encomium He was so extatical and so insensible that he seemed rather a Statue than a Man Insomuch that whilst he was a writing his Books of the Trinity a Candle burnt his hand without his feeling of it And that which is yet more wonderful is that he fell into these Extasies and Ravishments how and when he would himself The same Author in most pious Terms relates a very pleasant thing of him and which shews the great abstraction of Spirit in which he was at times He saith that S. Thomas at a time sitting at Table with S. Lewis King of France who made him to Dine with him out of the great respect he bore to him and his Order without minding what he did or in whose Company he was he thump'd with his Hand upon the Table saying I am sure the Manichees will never be able to answer this Argument The Prior who was there with him pull'd him by his Gown and put him in mind that he was at the King's Table whereupon he came to himself again as one that was returned from the other World and asked Pardon of the King for his Indiscretion This puts me in mind of a like Action of his in Presence of the Duke of Mantua He had swallowed a Fly and having almost immediately let it escape again he made a most fearful outcry and a thousand frustraneous efforts to catch it again without considering that he was in his Masters Presence I don't pretend by all this to imply that Thomas Aquinas was a Fool but on the contrary do affirm that he had a great stock of Wit yea and it may be was over-stock'd with it but withal that he had as many topping Wits have many bad Intervals The only thing I am astonish'd at is that they would needs make a Saint of him and extol that for an act of Heroical and transcendent Vertue which indeed was a formal Disobedience to the declared Will of his Mother and of those that had the Authority over him and this when he was yet a young Child Moreover I was willing by the way to make this short Digression to give you some kind of Idea of the Man whom the Papists dignifie with the Name of The Angel of the Schools The Hammer of Hereticks c. This is he that is the Head of that great Party called Thomists whereof the chiefest are the Dominicans Another Party
other at the end of the Benediction I cannot give you any Reason for it except it be that the Beasts being greater in bulk seem to them therefore to stand in need of a greater Sanctification It will not now be look'd upon as a strange thing what Dr. Burnet hath writ in his Letters concerning the Blessing of Asses and Horses which he saw in Italy having here given you the Authentick Form of it which the Papists cannot deny There is another Observance in the Church of Rome which is still more ridiculous than this which is their Exorcising of Rats Caterpillars Flies and all other Insects between the Feasts of Easter and Ascension I my self have assisted very often both in France and Italy to the performing of this Ceremony and herein I can say that I have been among the number of Fools True it is that it was for our Advantage for we were well paid for our pains We go from one Farm to another from one Country-House to another and almost upon every piece of Ground we repeat our Exorcisms We bespeak all these little Insects no otherwise than if they were Reasonable Creatures and make use of the Name of God to Adjure them Adjuro vos per Deum Sanctum per Deum vivum per Deum Omnipotentem c. I Adjure you by the Holy God by the Living God by the Almighty God to depart these Grounds and to get you gone to Desert and Waste places where you may not be in a condition of hurting any one nor the Fruits of the Earth If this be not to take the Name of God in vain I don't know what is Besides all this was nothing but meer Labour in Vain because there was not so much as one poor Worm or Caterpillar that offered to budge from its place for all this puther When we were quite tired with Exorcising we went to refresh our selves in the first Farm that was next to us where the good Country People did not fail to set before us the best that they had We found some amongst them tho' that were no Fools They told us Sirs If we did not take the pains to rid our Trees of the Caterpillars your Exorcisms would stand us in poor stead We reproved them for their want of Faith which render'd the pains we took unprofitable to them The most part of the Peasants by way of acknowledgment for these Exorcisms send all their First-Fruits to the Priests that have Officiated them so that we had always the First-Fruit of every Season I was once Invited by a Noble Venetian to pass the time of Vintage with him in the Country at his House of Pleasure Two Miles from Rovigo in the Polesiné When we arrived there there were a kind of Flies which as they said were fallen from the Sky and did much mischief they suck'd and devour'd all the Grapes that were not yet ripe The Noble Venetian desired me to accompany the Curate of the Parish in order to Exorcise them Accordingly we went thither with five or six Clergy-men more The Heat was so excessive that we were forced to go for shelter into every House we met with in the Fields Now it hapned by Mischance that he who carried the Holy-Water whether by his having drunk much or otherways fell asleep in a Cellar where he was entred to cool himself We did not take notice of his not following us and we walk'd almost a Mile to a certain Field where we were to Exorcise Here we began to call for our Holy-Water without which nothing was to be done but the Man was not to be found and we were oblig'd to send some Body to seek for him with all speed We staid there near an Hour expecting him and during that time the Flies stung us so terribly that our Faces and Hands were all of a gore-Gore-blood they plainly shew'd by this their rudeness that they did not care a Rush for our Exorcisms and accordingly in our own defence we dispatch'd them as quick as possible and with all expedition return'd to our first House These Insects we found discharged their fury during the Heat of the Day for towards Evening one might safely walk abroad without being molested by them And then it was that we went and recommenced our Exorcisms tho' without the least success for the Flies persisted to make the same havock as before until that a continual Rain of four or five days kill'd and swept them all away better than all the Holy-Water might have done I went at another time during my stay at Bononia to Exorcise the Insects in the Country in Company of a Country Curate who had a very Comical Wit He had always a word ready to make the Company laugh and all his Exorcisms were meer Fancies or perfect Drolling He did not tye himself to the Ritual or Form prescrib'd by the Romish Church but made his Paraphrase upon every thing sometimes he spoke to the Pismires sometimes to the Grasshoppers sometimes he made his Apostroph's to the Rats Lizards and Worms He banish'd them all one after another to the Countries which he assign'd them for the place of their Exile and relegated the Moles to the Antartick Pole without once knowing what it was He had scarcely pronounc'd the dreadful Sentence but a Mole came forth out of his Hole whereupon the Curate cried out Courage my Friends look there 's one of them which is ready to begin his march But the Mole it seems had no mind to take so tedious a Journy and no sooner had smelt the Oar but crept into another Hole near to it in the same Field Then one of the Peasants that was present ran to look into the Hole to which the Mole had betaken himself and said very innocently What Sir is this the Antartick Pole We could not forbear Laughing and because we saw that this was diametrically opposite to that great Gravity that must more particularly be affected upon these sorts of occasions we desired him to leave off his Drollery but he was so habituated to it that he had much ado to command himself His way of Preaching also was much to the same purpose which made that tho' he was very ignorant they stock'd from all the Villages thereabouts to have the divertisement of hearing him Preach I have been present at many other Exorcisms and Benedictions of the Fruits of the Earth The Priests are very willing and ready to officiate or assist at them forasmuch as it is an employment both pleasant and profitable for those that discharge it For by this means they take the freedom to enter into all the Country-Houses of Lords and Gentlemen and into their Gardens where they never fail of being well Entertain'd At the time of Vintage they go and Bless the Wine in the Fat 's and at S. Martin the Wine in the Cellars I might proceed to relate to you a great number of other Benedictions and Exorcisms to shew you the Abuse is made thereof
to their Sacrament and which put them to extream trouble and concern for the remedying of them The best way they have â—is to wipe it up with Tow and Linnen Cloths which are afterwards cast into the Fire and burnt to wash the Vestments into which it is soaked in seven several Waters and to scrape the Stones and the Wood upon which any of it is fallen there be some Priests who out of Devotion lick them first of all clean with their Tongues True it is that according to the Faith of the Papists if it is the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ they cannot be too careful in endeavouring to gather up so great a Treasure but in good earnest can any Man believe that it is consistent with the Wisdom of God to have plac'd the Body and Blood of his Son under those accidents that are subject to a thousand Casualties and Profanations and this after his having glorified it in Heaven and seated it at his right Hand They shew us a frightful thing in Germany at a place called Maladurne which is a Corporal or a kind of Tablecloth of Arras whereupon the Host and Calice are placed when Mass is said upon which there is Imprinted the Figure as it were of the body of a Tree divided into Seven or Nine Branches at the end of each Bow is a Head like to those they make of our Saviour Crowned with Thorns upon the Napkin or Handkerchif of Veronica The whole is very ill Drawn and all the stroaks and Lineaments of the Heads are very bungling neither are all the Heads equally great or proportionable to one another But for all that the Tradition is that the Curate of that place as he was one day Celebrating Mass spilt the Consecrated Calice and that the Blessed Blood of our Saviour falling upon the Corporal did Form all these Heads which therefore they pretend to be Miraculous This is one of the great Pilgrimages of the Germans and you shall scarce meet with any Inhabitants of the Country towards the Upper Rhine who have not the Representation of this Miracle hanging in their Chambers at the bottom of which are these words Christi Sanguis Maladurni in Corporale est But we are not to believe that God works Miracles without any Reason or without some Order which may discover that such Operations proceed from his Hands But what do we meet with in this Figure that bears this Character Would God think we demonstrate to us that the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ is really present in the Sacrament after the Consecration by representing an hideous Picture to us of several Heads that are extreamly ill made and are not like one another Or would he by this means intimate to us that Jesus Christ is a Monster with many Heads This cannot be affirmed without the greatest Impiety For my part I am well assured that no reason can be excogitated that can either far or near give us to understand the design of this Figure The Devil also is too cunning and subtil to have had any hand in it for had it been his doing he would rather have made the Figure of some little pretty Child such as was that which they say appeared in an Host in the time of S. Lewis King of France It remains therefore that we attribute this Artifice to the good Curate who Celebrated Mass and who was willing at once to draw the Devotion and the Mony of People to his Church A Jew being come to vend some Commodities at Mentz in the House where I was Boarded having seen one of these Images hanging in the Stove demanded what it was Whereupon I immediately opened the Garden Door and left him leaving the Woman of the House to answer him for as for my part I knew not what to say to him The Germans have not many Devotions in their Country but those which they have are very gross ones they dress their Saints of both Sexes in such Antick Habits that one cannot forbear Laughing in seeing them In most of their Churches they have Crosses of a Prodigious bigness and they put upon the Head of the Figure that represents our Saviour great ugly Periwigs made of the grosser part of Hair and great Beards of Hemp. Forasmuch as I have made mention of the Figure of Maladurne I have a desire to give you here a description of some parts of a Pilgrimage undertaken to this Image where I was present my self upon occasion four years ago I was Travelling from Mentz to Francfort about some business the most commodious way to go thither is by Boat which sets out from Mentz every Morning at seven a Clock By ill luck or rather good luck because this stop procured me very diverting Company I came too late by half an hour and the ordinary Boat was already got out of sight but I found another there in the Haven which was ready to set Sail to go up the Main to Francfort This was a great long Boat or Vessel which could contain two hundred Persons and it was well nigh fill'd with Persons of both Sexes who went a Pilgrimaging to Maladurne As soon as I was entred the Boat they gave me a very good Place perceiving me to be a Clergy-man only I was obliged to be silent for the space of near two hours because I came just at the time of their Meditation which lasted an hour and which was followed by many Prayers and Ora pro nobis which lasted another hour Afterwards the Father Director of the Pilgrimage who was a Father Capucin having rung a little Bell gave them leave to go to break their Fast and silence together Here it was that all our Germans Men and Women began to rummage their Bags for Provision some produced Legs and Shoulders of Mutton ready Roasted others Gammons of Mentz and Pies and a hundred other cold Meats such as were commodious upon such an occasion not forgetting their great Pitchers and Bottels of Wine and they strenuously applied themselves to Eating and Drinking after such a manner as was able to procure an Appetite to the most difficult and distasted Spectators Indeed there were some amongst them upon whom it was not good to cast ones Eyes because their Viands were so sluttishly wrapt up and they thumb'd and devour'd it in so slovenly and beastly a manner that it was enough to turn ones Stomack to see them All the Meat that was in the Boat was not common to all the Company but they Eat in Troops or Knots according as aforehand they had associated themselves together of what they had brought along with them so that some of them fared much better than others However they exprest a great deal of respect to the Father Director of the Pilgrimage and his Companion by sending them of the best they had upon their Tables The Father had the Civility to invite me to come and Eat with him but having very well breakfasted at my
S. Bennet chose for his Retreat when he was as yet but a young Child In another Journy I made to Naples finding my self near this place some advantageous Accounts I had receiv'd concerning it inclined me to go and Visit it I first Arrived at the Burrough of Sublac where the Monks of S. Bennet have both Temporal and Spiritual Jurisdiction There is an Abby of Nuns of the same Order and a League further in the same Valley but in a part of it that is Narrower there is a very Fair Abby of Monks who are very Civil to Strangers especially to those who come with an intent of Visiting the Grotto of their Patriarch S. Bennet I met here with a Father who was a French Man by Nation and to whom my Relations in France were not unknown who was the cause of staying me here a whole Day and he himself led me to the Grotto of S. Bennet which is about a quarter of a League further in the Narrowest part of the said Valley The Mountains on both sides are very steep and the Brook that runs between them takes up well nigh the whole Space of the Valley However these Fathers have made a shift to find place enough to Build here a Monastery all in length which can contain Fifty or Threescore Monks and yet it serves but for a Lodging to Ten only whom they call Hermits tho' indeed they be only so by Name because they live in a Community and because they only stay there for the space of Two Months after which they send Ten others thither out of the Neighbouring Monastery to relieve them Thus they succeed by Turns to one another The only difference there is in their Observance is this That those of the Monastery where the Grotto of the Saint is do eat no Flesh-Meat and in the other as throughout all the Order in Italy they eat Meat Four times a Week notwithstanding that the use of it be forbid them by the Rules of their Institution which they have Vow'd to observe They say It is out of the Respect they have to these Rules that their Abbots have order'd That no Flesh should be eaten in this Little Monastery no more than in their Great One of Mâ—nt Cassin that it might be true at least That the Rule of S. Bennet was observ'd in Two of their Monasteries which as they believe is sufficient to quiet their Consciences as to this matter The Fathers pretend forsooth That the Bodies of Men are much changed in their Constitution since the time of their Legislator and that they are not so strong nor consequently so able to undergo such Rigid Observances and indeed they Treat all their other Rules much in the same manner and content themselves with the observing of them by Turns or by Halves In this Little Monastery they shewed me the Grotto of S. Bennet upon which they have built an Altar and we see there also a most curious Statue of white Marble representing this Saint very young and upon his Knees with a Countenance very humble and penitent The Habit wherewith he is represented serves to condemn that which the Benedictins of Italy do wear at present they have so amplified and pleated it for to make it shew fine and magnificent that it is no more to be known to be a Copy from this Original The Father Benedictins of the Congregation of S. Maurus in France have taken the form of their Habit from this Figure and retain the same to this Day as believing it with Reason to be the true Pattern After we had said our Prayers in this Little Chapel they led me to a little Garden and they bade me take notice of a huge Stone at the Top of the Rock they wished me to observe it very well as being no less than a perpetual Miracle which demonstrated the visible Protection God afforded to that Holy Place and to those that dwelt there This Stone according to their Talk was quit loosned from the Rock and suspended in the Air by the alone Divine Power God not suffering it to fall down because if it should it could not fail of utterly destroying the Grotto and the whole Monastery I told them after that I had viewed it very narrowly that I saw it so well fastned to the Rock that in my thoughts it would be a Miracle indeed if it should fall and that they ought not to pretend the contrary to those that had good Eyes I saw well enough that my Answer did not please them but I was so weary to hear them talk of such kind of Miracles which they will force upon Men contrary to all Reason that I could not by times hinder my self from expressing my resentment of it The French Father that was my Guide wish'd me to cast my Eye upon certain Rose-Trees which were in a Corner of the Garden and told me that as soon as we were got out of the Hermitage he would tell me the mystery of them And in the mean time he shewed me the rest of the Buildings I did not find the place so frightful as was the Impression they had given me of it tho' it must be owned That in S. Bennet's Time it was a very Desert place Having therefore taken a View of all we return'd to the Great Monastery from whence we came where being arrived the Father told me as to those Rose-Trees which he had wished me to take notice of that the Monks had not thought sitting to tell me of the great Miracle wherewith they commonly entertain Strangers for fear I should reflect upon them for it as I did upon occasion of the Stone It is Related said he in the Life of our Blessed Father S. Bennet That he had one day a furious Temptation of the Flesh in this place and that in order to quell it he went and rowled himself stark naked upon Thistles and Thorns that were near unto his Cell and made all his Body on a gore-Gore-blood until he found that the Temptation was quite dissipated Now the History tells us that these Thistles and Thorns ting'd with the Blood of S. Bennet were miraculously changed into Roses Wherefore special Care has been taken always to preserve these Rose-Trees the Roses whereof we dry and being pulverized do exhibit them to those that are Sick for it is an universal Remedy against all manner of Diseases to those who take them in Faith I told this French Father That the Monks his Confraters had done very well not to mention this Miracle to me for I should presently have put them in mind of the Fable of Pyramis and Thisbe whose Blood changed the colour of Mulberries from white to red Could they have shewn me Thistles Nettles or some Blackberry-Bushes and Brambles that brought forth Roses this would have been something rare indeed I will not say miraculous for I know not whether they have found out the Art of grafting Rose-Trees upon these kind of Wild Plants but to shew a