with a fish at his feet; and Job: then above, Moses holding the tables of the law; Samuel, whose head only is seen; David kneeling with his harp; and Elijah with a raven: above these, the four greater Prophets,— Isaiah with a lamb and banner; Jeremiah in the middle; Ezekiel behind (hardly seen); and Daniel holding a staff, and with a lion at his feet.

In the next light is the figure of St. Agnes, the youthful virgin, who suffered martyrdom at Rome under Dioclesian in A.D. 304. She is represented with very long hair (in accordance with a tradition about her), and with a lamb in her arms, according to the usual custom in reference to her name. With her is St. Barbara, another virgin martyr, who was scourged, and in other ways cruelly tortured on account of her faith in Christ, and at last beheaded by her own father about the year 303. There is a legend about this holy virgin that, when she was scourged, the angels turned the rods into feathers; for which reason she is represented bearing a feather in one hand; in her other hand she is bearing a model of a tower, in accordance with the history that her conversion to the true faith was first discovered by her heathen father from her

See "Holy Men of Old," (Masters, 1849;) Eusebius, bk. viii.; "S. Aldhelmi Opera," pp. 60 and 188, (Parker, 1844 ;) "Calendar of Anglican Church," (Parker, 1851;) also an interesting account of St. Agnes, by the late Rev. E. Monro, in the "Monthly Packet” for January, 1867. Cornelius à Lapide (on Gen. xlix.) says of St. Agnes :-"Una hostia duplex martyrium subiit pudoris et religionis." He refers to the account given by St. Ambrose. See also Corn. à Lap. in Apoc. iv. 10, and xviii. 3; and in Malachiam, ii. p. 812; Webb's "Sketches of Continental Ecclesiology," p. 489; and St. Ambrose, Serm. 90. St. Gregory says of her, (in Evan. hom. xi. 3)-"Ante armatos reges et præsides ducta stetit, feriente robustior, judicante sublimior." See also Butler's "Lives of the Saints," vol. i. p. 88. It is said that in her tortures the Angels "veiled her whole person with her hair.” Butler dates her martyrdom “304 or 305.”

h See "Calendar of Anglican Church ;" and J. Taylor's "Life of Christ," part iii. sect. 15.

causing a tower to be built with three windows, on account of her belief in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Well does St. Bernard say concerning such as these:-" Terreantur licet Martyres, rident: feriuntur, et gaudent: occiduntur, et ecce triumphant." And again, St. Gregory says:-"Charitate quippe martyres sancti vivaciter ardebant, quia in Dei et proximi dilectione mirabiliter flagrabant. Along with these holy virgin martyrs is St. Oswald, "the most Christian King of Northumbria," who endeavoured to bring all his subjects to the Christian faith, and to this end procured St. Aidan to teach and convert them. He had "Britons, Picts, Scots, and English within his jurisdiction." He was godfather to Kingil or Cynegils, King of the West Saxons, whose daughter he married. These two kings founded the episcopal see at Dorchester. He was slain, in the 38th year of his age, fighting in the defence of the Christian faith against Penda, the pagan King of Mercia, near the place now called Oswestry, which was originally called Oswaldestree or Oswaldtry (according to tradition) after this martyred king. He reigned from about 634 to 6421.

iSt. Bern. ii. 444.

* St. Greg. ii. 52. See also Origiana, lib. i. cap. 4, sect. 10, where St. Barbara is described as,— "Nicomediensis Virgo, genere nobilis, eruditione clara ab Origine primum per epistolas, et Valentinum Presbyterum ad eam missum, ab Ethnicorum Superstitione revocata, et Christi mysteriis instituta, ac tandem in Maximini persecutione sævissime excruciata, et securi percussa.” In Butler's "Lives of the Saints," vol. ii. p. 978, there is a brief mention of her, which shews that there is a doubt as to the date and place of her martyrdom. Corn. à Lap. in Mat. x. p. 231, says,

“S. Barbara a proprio patre ob Christi fidem interfecta est."

Also Corn. à Lap. in Act. vii. p. 151.

1 See Collier's "Ecclesiastical History," bk. ii. Svo. ed., vol. i. p. 205; also "Calendar of the Anglican Church;" Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary," vol. iv. ; and Butler's "Lives of the Saints," vol. ii. p. 205.

In the group next above, in the same light, are the figures of St. John the Baptist with a lamb: St. George, the Patron Saint of England, "one of the most illustrious martyrs of Christ," who suffered under Dioclesian in 290; he is represented with a shield and flag": St. Alban, the "glorious Proto-Martyr" of England", who was converted to Christianity by the Priest Amphibalus, and then was martyred by the Pagans in 303, in the place upon which the Benedictine Abbey, called by his name, was afterwards erected; he bears a cross in his left hand and on the left St. Stephen, the first actual martyr in the cause of Christ. Above these, St. Katharine P, the virgin of royal birth, whom, according to tradition, Maximian ordered to be tortured by sharp wheels, and afterwards to be scourged and beheaded in 307: St. Margaret, the holy Virgin, who is said to have died for her dear Lord's sake at Antioch in Pisidia about the year 278, during the tenth general persecution; she has a cross leaning against her: St. Cecilia, or Cecily, regarded as the patroness of music, and the inventor of the organ, who was martyred in 230; and the famous St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, usually called St. Thomas à Becket, who in the reign of

• See Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. ii. p. 218; Collier, bk. i. vol. i. pp. 48–54. Butler's "Lives of the Saints," vol. ii. p. 933. He considers her to be the female mentioned by Eusebius (viii. 14) as èñonμotátŋ kal Xaμπpotát, who disdained the threats of Maximinus, 8vo. ed. p. 278.

Butler's "Lives of the Saints," vol. ii. p. 108. Wheatly "On the Common Prayer," 8vo. ed., p. 66.

66

See Butler, vol. ii. p. 916; St. Aldhelm, pp. 54 and 182; also Cornelius à Lapide in Apoc. iv. 10; Ibid. in Act. vi. p. 137 :—“O Beata Cæcilia quæ duos fratres convertisti Amachium Judicem superasti, Urbanum Episcopum in vulti angelico demonstrasti.”

King Henry II., in the year 1169, was murdered in his own cathedral; only a small portion of his mitre is seen, with a sword above him".

In the compartment of this window which is on the right hand of a person looking at it, there is, in the lowest group, a representation of the great Christian Poet himself, to whose memory, and that of his dear wife, the whole window was erected; he is represented in a white robe, holding a book, and being in an attitude of devotion: the likeness was taken from his portrait by Mr. Richmond, engraved by Mr. Chance. In the same group is represented St. Cuthbert, "a person of great elocution, of a graceful presence, and a most exemplary life," excelling "all others by a most persuasive and moving eloquence," who was Bishop of Lindisfarne, and, following the example of the Apostles, became an ornament to the Episcopal dignity. He was one of the most celebrated of the Anglo-Saxon Bishops, and was regarded as the tutelar Saint of the diocese of Durham; his life is said to have been "almost a continual prayer." He died about the year 687; only his mitre, nimbus, and outstretched hand are seen in the window. In this same group is St. Aidan (or Ædan), who has been called the "Apostle of the North of England," from the work of conversion of the heathen in Northumbria, which he carried on at the request of St. Oswald. Collier says of him :— "His practice and behaviour was admirable: he lived up to his doctrine, and made his example wonderfully significant: he minded nothing of secular interest, and was as it were dead to the common satisfactions."

• See Collier, bk. iv. vol. ii. p. 300. See also Milner's "History of Winchester," 3rd edition, vol. i. p. 170; Butler, vol. ii. p. 1094, where a long account of him is given.

See Collier, bk. ii. vol. i. p. 255; Butler, vol. i. p. 371.

He died in 651, receiving "the reward of his pious labours in heaven.” He is represented with a book in his hand ". We have here also, in company with these three, St. Edward II., King and Martyr, who came to the throne in 975, and was murdered at Corfe Castle by his step-mother, Elfrida, in 978, or (as Butler says) in 979. He is represented with a cup in one hand, and a dagger in the other, in reference to his having been stabbed whilst partaking of the grace-cup. Then come the four most celebrated of the Latin Fathers, namely, St. Jerome, (represented with a cap, like that of a Cardinal, on his head,) one of the most learned of them, who made that translation of the Bible into Latin which is called the Vulgate, and who died in 420, at an advanced age. The famous St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who was born in 354, and died in 430, whom St. Bernard calls "Maximus post Apostolos ecclesiarum instructor;" he is represented in the middle behind St. Jerome. On the left, St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who is said to have composed the Te Deum to be used at the Baptism of St. Augustine, whom he was the means of converting. He was the author also of several other hymns, and he is said to be the first who introduced antiphonal singing. He flourished towards the end of the fourth century. St. Gregory the Great, the celebrated reformer of Church music, who was born at Rome in 540, and sent missionaries to convert our Saxon forefathers; he is

"Collier, bk. ii. vol. i. p. 204-214; Butler, vol. ii. p. 383.

* See Collier, bk. iii. vol. i. p. 469; Milner, vol. i. p. 127; the "Chronology of History," 2nd edition, p. 356; and Butler, vol. i. p. 366.

y A long account of him is given by Butler, vol. ii. p. 523.

a St. Bern. i. 218, ed. Paris. MDCCXIX.

2 Ibid., p. 326.

Butler, vol. ii. p. 994.