“Feb. 1.—The archbishop came to see us. We are in great need of public charity! M. Vincent places no limit to his ardent love for poor children.”
And when their resources are exhausted, the saint makes the following pathetic appeal to the patronesses: “Compassion has led you to adopt these little creatures as your own children. You are their mothers according to grace, as their mothers by nature have abandoned them. Will you also abandon them in your turn? Their life and death are in your hands. I am going to take your vote on the point. The charity you give or refuse is a terrible decision in your hands. It is time to pronounce their sentence, and learn if you will no longer have pity on them.”—Sermon of S. Vincent to the Ladies of Charity in 1648.
[6] The Earl of Castlehaven’s Review; or, His Memoirs of His Engagement and Carriage in the Irish Wars. Enlarged and corrected. With an Appendix and Postscript. London: Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun in St. Paul’s Churchyard. 1684.
[7] This was the title given at one time by the French courtiers to Frederick I.
[8] Their first condition for a suspension of arms was a payment to them of £25,000 per month. These were in large part the same forces who afterwards sold their fugitive king for so many pounds sterling to the Parliament, violating the rights of sanctuary and hospitality, held sacred by the most barbarous races. It is curious to observe the supreme boldness with which Macaulay and the popular writers of the radical school essay to gloss over the dishonorable transactions affecting the parliamentary side in this contest between the King and Commons. The veriest dastards become heroes; and the first canting cut-throat is safe to be made a martyr of in their pages for conscience’ sake and the rights of man.
[9] Apol. vii.
[10] Fundam. Phil. lib. vii. c. 7.
[11] Phil. Fundam. lib. vii. c. 7.
[12] Italian proverb: “If not true, it deserves to be true.”
[13] Written during the Pope’s exile, 1848