Let us consider this excerpt: " One day the Saint, taking Pinianus aside, began tenderly and respectfully to question him. What she asked was whether carnal love had still any place in his heart, whether it ever occurred to him now to think of her as a wife. Pinianus, with a smiling face, and full of the joy of the Lord, answered her cheerily, Happy art thou to love thy husband after such sort. Be satisfied on my account, quite satisfied in our Lord, that ever since we made together our promise to God, I have had just the same feeling for thee as for Albina, thy saintly mother.' On hearing these words Melania kissed him upon the breast and upon the hands, and gave glory to God for this firm resolution. But a few days afterwards, anxious that he should always advance in perfection, she said to him again; 'Pinianus, my lord, listen to me as a mother, as thy spiritual sister; lay aside these costly Cilician robes, dress thyself in more sober fashion.' Like the boy that he was, Pinianus, on hearing this, was rather cast down, but in order that he might not see her look unhappy, and knowi ng that all was done for God and for his own eternal welfare, he assented with a good grace, and began to dress in the cheaper garments of Antioch. But Melania, like a busy bee, was eager to add flower to flower on his behalf. She pressed him to adopt an even coarser dress, and this in fact he did. Eventually his clothes cost no more than a gold piece, or two thirds of a gold piece, and Melania fashioned them for him herself out of the cheapest natural wool without dye of any sort." After sketching the condition of Rome at the end of the fourth century, during which time Saint Melania lived, we get into her personal story. "But this great solicitude of her parents, which, however affectionate it may have been, was yet purely human, was the cause of great torture to the innocent girl. Melania was not, like so many noble Roman ladies of the time, a convert to Christianity. She had never tasted the bitter fruit of Roman corruption. She came into the world with an instinctive hatred of those infamous customs which were the canker then eating out the heart of primitive Roman society. Her pure angelic soul revolted from the licentious manners which held sway around her. From her earliest years, the love of God completely filled her heart. She herself on her death-bed declared that in early childhood she had consecrated herself wholly to Christ. Providence, which had implanted these desires in the girl's heart, did not permit them to remain barren. ..." Saint Melania's life in this time is an inspiration to all of us who live these days of perversion. She rose to the heights of sanctity, inspiring her mother and husband to join with her.

The Life which is here presented to the reader is for the most part a translation of the French Vie de St. Hugues de Lincoln, which was published by a monk of the Grande Chartreuse in 1890. From one cause or another the production of the hook in its present form has entailed almost as much labour as the composition of an original work would have done, and the Editor has more than once been tempted to regret, when it was too late, that he had not cut himself entirely free from the trammels imposed by a rendering from another language. The English version, however, had already been made, and had become the property of the Manresa Press before the duties of editorship devolved upon him. If the name of the translator does not appear upon the title-page, the omission is not due to any wish to ignore the service so rendered, but only to the fact that in editing it for publication very many changes have been made in the version throughout, and parts of it even rewritten. It is possible that a number of these changes might not be regarded by the translator, or others, as changes for the better, and it seems fairer to leave the responsibility indeterminate than to assign any definite name to what is really the work of more than one hand. If any difference of style be detected between the earlier and later portion of the book, it is chiefly to be referred to the process of revision just spoken of. In the first few chapters the French as originally translated has been more closely adhered to, in the later the Editor has allowed himself considerably greater latitude. Although the Preface, the Appendices, and occasionally portions of the text, of the French Life have been omitted, the printed matter contained in the book has been increased by more than one-third, i.e., by the equivalent of more than two hundred pages of the present volume. This is due to the large number of additional topics which have been dealt with in the text or in the notes, a list of which, under the heading Additions, will be found in the Index. To the substantial facts of the history of St. Hugh's career, the Editor can claim to have contributed little that is new. Perhaps the most interesting of the points here touched upon for the first time is the connection between the subject of this biography and the revelations of the monk of Eynsham. The fact that St. Hugh must have been personally acquainted with many of those whose fate in the next world is there described, lends emphasis to the share taken by him in the publication of the vision. Again, a rather important chronological error, which has led Mr. Dimock, and with him all subsequent English writers, to antedate by five years the coming of St. Hugh to England, and hence to make the Saint five years older than he really was, has at last, I think, been finally disposed of.2 The author of the French Life had already rectified this mistake, but his correction is now. further justified by an extract from the Bruton Chartulary, and by the indisputable evidence of an entry in the Norman Exchequer Rolls, to which attention had not previously been directed. The Editor's principal aim, however, has been to supplement the. information given by the French biographer in those features of the Life which have a special bearing upon English history or English institutions, or which depend upon local knowledge not easily accessible to a monk writing at a distance, and with the restrictions imposed by the Rule of the Grande Chartreuse. That must be my excuse for dwelling, perhaps somewhat unduly, upon such questions as perpetual vicarages, St. Hugh's grants of churches, the right of sanctuary, the character of Henry II, &c., and particularly on the Cathedral, the Jewry, and the leper hospital of Lincoln, the site of the house where St. Hugh died in London, and of the tomb where his remains first reposed.

THE volume which is here presented to the reader does not, I think, require any lengthy introduction. Its chief purpose is to supply a popular account of those external observances by which the season of paschal preparation is marked off from the rest of the ecclesiastical year. Although a devotional conception has not been excluded, the writer's principal object has been to touch upon points of historical and liturgical interest, points which often bring us into immediate relation with the practice of the early Christian centuries. The discipline of fasting, the lenten liturgy, and in particular the ceremonies of Holy Week, have all been treated with some degree of fulness, while an attempt has also been made to trace the history of certain devotions of more recent date, such as the Quarant' Ore and the 'Three Hours.' The book is not in any way controversial. Although written from a Catholic standpoint, it does not pretend to do more than supply a plain statement of liturgical facts, such as would be accepted by the more scientific students of every communion. The volume is more bulky than I had intended, and it would of course have been easily possible to make it many times longer than it is; but it seemed necessary to keep within reasonable limits, and with the exception of an occasional reference, such as that, for instance, to Easter eggs and pancakes on p. 476, or the flowering of the graves on p. 209, I have thought it better to refrain from the tempting theme of Volksgebrauche. For a similar reason, ceremonies now obsolete have not as a rule been discussed at any great length. If the account given of the Easter Sepulchre might seem to be an exception, the intimate connexion of that rite with the existing Quarant' Ore, as well as its relation to the early history of the drama, (see page 457), may perhaps be deemed sufficient justification. "IF we would understand the full significance of the great Resurrection Feast, we must not merely study the liturgy of the eight days which follow Palm Sunday, but we must begin further back and pass in review the incidents of the long penitential season which serves as an introduction to the whole. What Holy Week is to Easter, that Lent is to Holy Week. Just as the meaning of Easter will only be fully comprehended by one who has tried to enter into the spirit of the days which precede, so the solemnities of Holy Week form both the climax and the justification of the change of ritual introduced nearly two months earlier." This work is an excellent preparation for Easter during Lent.

St. Alphonsus writes: "a single bad book will be sufficient to cause the destruction of a monastery." Pope Pius XII wrote in 1947 at the beatification of Blessed Maria Goretti: "There rises to Our lips the cry of the Saviour: 'Woe to the world because of scandals ' (Matthew 18:7). Woe to those who consciously and deliberately spread corruption-in novels, newspapers, magazines, theaters, films, in a world of immodesty " We at St. Pius X Press are calling for a crusade of good books. We want to restore 1,000 old Catholic books to the market. We ask for your assistance and prayers. This book is a photographic reprint of the original The original has been inspected and many imperfections in the existing copy have been corrected. At Saint Pius X Press our goal is to remain faithful to the original in both photographic reproductions and in textual reproductions that are reprinted. Photographic reproductions are given a page by page inspection, whereas textual reproductions are proofread to correct any errors in reproduction.