ELIDEST MAR 23 1943 CONTENTS. 53031 0.6 Our Holy Father, Leo XIII. By the Rev. Joseph The Catholic's Library of Tales. No. VII. St. Thomas of Canterbury. By the Rev. Francis Goldie, Was Barlow a Bishop? By Mr. Serjeant Bellasis. UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT. Publications of the Society. Vols. I.-XVII. Many have expressed a wish to have the Society's Publications in a handy form. This Series will contain all the larger issues of the Society, as nearly as possible in the order of their appearance, and will be continued from time to time as sufficient material accumulates. The Church of Old England: Being a Collection of Papers bearing on the Continuity of the English. Church, and on the attempts to justify the Anglican position. Vols. I. and II. Historical Papers. Vols. I. and II. Catholic Biographies. Vols. I.-VIII. The Catholic's Library of Tales and Poems. Vols. I.-III. Stories of the Seven Sacraments. By Louisa E. Dobrée. A Sevenfold Treasure. By the same. Jesuit Biographies. The English Martyrs under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. Vols. I. and II. Lourdes and its Miracles. By the Rev. R. F. Clarke, S.J. Science and Scientists. By the Rev. John Gerard, S.J. Science or Romance? By the same. Instructions for Children. By Mgr. de Segur. The Life and Letters of Father Damien. (cloth gilt extra, 2s.; fancy boards, Is.) The Ministry of Jesus. By the Rev. R. F. Clarke, S.J. The Life of Jesus. By the same. Father Perry, the Jesuit Astronomer. By Aloysius L. Cortie, S.J. (cloth gilt, 2s.; boards, Is.) The Trial of Margaret Brereton: a Tale. By Pleydell North. IS. A Tug of War: a Tale for Children. By L. E. Dobrée. Mère Gilette. By the Author of "An Old Marquise." CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, 18 WEST SQUARE, LONDON, S.E. "I ANNOUNCE to, you tidings of great joy. We have for Pope His Eminence the Most Reverend Lord Joachim Pecci, who has taken to himself the name of Leo XIII." In these words the choice of the Cardinals in Conclave assembled was promulgated by the senior Cardinal Deacon from the balcony of St. Peter's at two o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th of February, 1878. X We have for Pope the two-hundred-and-sixty-third of his line; the Great High Priest, the First of Bishops, the Heir of the Apostles, the Universal Pastor, the Form of Justice, the Mirror of Holiness, the Pattern of Piety, the Defender of the Faith, the Guide of Christians, the Advocate of the Poor, the Terror of Evildoers, the Glory of the Good, the Father of Kings, the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World, the Priest of the Most High, the Vicar of Christ. These are titles of his office. He who then took them up had all the wisdom and dignity with but little of the feebleness of age. He had almost completed his sixty-eighth year. He had been Cardinal twenty-four years, Bishop for thirty-five; and it was full forty years since his hands were first anointed with the sacred unction of the priesthood. Time flew by. Leo XIII. surpassed all the high expectations that were entertained of him. On the first day of the year 1888 he solemnized, and the whole Catholic world with him, the Golden Jubilee of his priesthood, an account of which is appended to this short biography. a Vincent Joachim Pecci was born on the 2nd of March, 1810, at Carpineto in the diocese of Anagni in the Papal States. At eight years of age he was sent to the College of the Jesuits at Viferbo. There he made his first communion on the feast of St. Aloysius, June 21, 1821. In 1824 at. the age of fourteen he went to Rome. He followed the course of rhetoric in the Roman College, which Leo XII. had just restored to the Jesuits. In the same College he studied philosophy and mathematics for three years, and theology for four years more. Half a century later, when seated on the Chair of St. Peter, he reverted to his career at the Roman Coliege in the following terms, replying to. Father Cardelia. Provincial of the Roman Province, S.J.: "With joy do we remember the happy tranquillity of those days, the throngs of students, their disputations on philosophical and theological theses, and the profound scholars who presided at them; and we now gladly and publicly declare that our heart has ever since been so closely bound to those great men, and to your Institute, that it has never been, nor ever shall be, estranged." Thus far he had gone with the education of a private ecclesiastic, or even of a layman in a Catholic country, where the Church opens her theological schools to all her children. He was now to commence his training as a spiritual ruler of men. He was to qualify himself to enter what we may call the diplomatic service of Holy Church. Few people have any idea of the extent of this |