ayer to St. Stephen
only to intercede for us. But it may be well to derive from it a lesson
on this point; how easily the transition glides from one false step to a
worse; how infinitely wiser and safer it is to avoid evil in its very
lowest and least noxious appearance:

"Martyr of God [or Unconquered Martyr], who, by following the only Son
of the Father, triumphest over thy conquered enemies, and, as conqueror,
enjoyest heavenly things; by the office of thy prayer wash out our
guilt; driving away the contagion of evil; removing the weariness of
life. The bands of thy hallowed body are already loosed; loose thou us
from the bands of the world, by the love of the Son of God [or by the
gift of God Most High]." [H. 237.]

In the above hymn the words included within brackets are the readings
adopted in the last English edition of the Roman Breviary; and in this
place, when we are about to refer to many hymns now in use, it may be
well to observe, that in the present day we find {260} various readings
in the hymns as they are still printed for the use of Roman Catholics in
different countries. In some instances the changes are curious and
striking. Grancolas, in his historical commentary on the Roman Breviary
(Venice, 1734, p. 84), furnishes us with interesting information as to
the chief cause of this diversity. He tells us that Pope Urban VIII.,
who filled the papal throne from 1623 to 1644, a man well versed in
literature, especially in Latin poetry, and himself one of the
distinguished poets of his time, took measures for the emendation of the
hymns in the Roman Breviary. He was offended by the many defects in
their metrical composition, and it is said that upwards of nine hundred
and fifty faults in metre were corrected, which gave to Urban occasion
to say that the Fathers had begun rather than completed the hymns.
These, as corrected, he caused to be inserted in the Breviary. Grancolas
proceeds to tell us that many complained of these changes, alleging that
the primitive simplicity and piety which breathed in the hymns had been
sacrificed to the niceties of poetry. "Accessit Latinitas, et recessit
pietas." The verse was neater, but the thought was chilled.

VI. But the Roman Church by no means limits herself to this kind of
invocation; prayers are addressed to saints, imploring them to hear,
and, as of themselves, to grant the prayers of the faithful on earth,
and to release them from the bands of sin, without any a