prayers spiritual blessings, and yet addresses him as the person who is
to grant those blessings. It implores him to liberate us by the love of
Christ; but so should we implore the Father of mercies himself. Still,
as the more safe course, I would regard it as a prayer 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