writer, they tried to see in them "some confirmation of the view according to which the soul receives in that crucial hour a final choice based on the collective experience of its mortal life. We would hope that as there is a baptism of blood, or of charity, so there may perhaps be some unconventional absolution for one who so earnestly loved mankind at large, and especially the poor and oppressed; who in his old age and misery was found by their sick beds; who willed to be with them in his death and burial."

A very few words will suffice for a general commentary on Lamennais and his work. It would be quite a mistake to condemn wholesale even the doctrines of his later life; for though he strayed far and wrote wildly, he was still a man of exceptional ability and genius, and when prejudice and indignation were not blinding him, knew how to make use of his gifts. But apart from whatever effect his democratic theories may have had upon modern social problems, it is incontestable that he rendered most valuable services to the Church in France and to sacred studies in general. Though he himself went too far, it was under his leadership that the Roman movement began its victorious march against Gallicanism; and it was under the stimulus of his ceaseless activity that the seminaries of France awoke from their lethargy and began to realize that theology in a fossil state is neither ornamental nor useful. If proof be needed of the genius of Féli de Lamennais and of the real value of much of his work, the names of his intimate friends-Lacordaire, Montalembert, Rohrbacher, de Chateaubriand, de Maistre-who admired, praised and appreciated him, will guarantee it.

What hindered him from doing more, and spoilt so much of what he did, was the incomplete, or rather ill-designed nature of his education. M. Bellamy, in his work, "Catholic Theology in the Nineteenth Century," says of him: "De Lamennais had scarcely any theological formation. Obliged by circumstances to study largely by himself and in a somewhat haphazard fashion, he never properly assimilated theological principles, and on more than one occasion he allowed this deficiency to appear with very bad result. His aversion to scholasticism and his contempt for it tended to accentuate the evil. Hence there is nothing astounding in the words with which he commended his famous theory of the sensus communis to his friend, the Abbé Carron: 'If my theses are rejected,' he wrote, 'I see no other means of effectually defending religion.' By this phrase we may judge the apologist and the theologian."

R. H. J. STEUART, S. J.

M

THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE MAGI.

OST of those writers who wrote about the Magi before modern research had helped to throw light upon their history held that they were natives of Persia. The Gospels make no mention of their fatherland, and St. Matthew merely says that when Jesus was born at Bethlehem of Juda in the days of King Herod there came wise men from the East saying: "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?"

The "East" may mean either Parthia, Persia, Mesopotamia or Arabia; but both the profane and the sacred writers speak of Arabia as the Eastern land. Tacitus in his history (B. V.) when describing Palestine states that it was bounded on the east by Arabia, Egypt lying to the south, Phoenicia and the sea being to the west, whilst the northern frontier extended towards Syria. "Terra, finesque qua ad Orientem vergunt Arabia terminantur."

The land of Moab, Amalec and Maclian, where the Nabrathoean Arabs dwelt in tents and roamed over the trackless wilds between the Jordan and the Euphrates, whilst their kinsmen dwelt amidst the fertile valleys and plains of Oman, Hadramant and Yemen, is called the "East" in the Books of Genesis and of Judges.

When the Patriarch Abraham gave his possessions to his son Isaac and bestowed gifts upon the children of his concubines he bade them go into the land of Madian and Moab "into the East country." (Genesis xxv.) When the Madianites had become a great people they grievously oppressed the people of Israel so that they made themselves dens and caves in the mountains and strongholds; and when Israel had sown, Madian and Amalec "and the other Eastern nations came up" (Judges vi.).

The southern peninsula of Arabia also is called "the East" in the sacred writings of the Old Testament. The Prophet Jeremias calls the inhabitants of Cedar "the children of the East." "Against Cedar and against the kingdoms of Azor, which Nabuchodonosor destroyed, thus saith the Lord. Arise and go up to Cedar, and waste the children of the East" (lxix.). Arabia was called Cedar in ancient times. Isaias writes: "The burthen in Arabia-within a year according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Cedar shall be taken away" (xxi.). Ezechiel also writes: "Arabia and all the Princes of Cedar, they were the merchants of thy hand" (xxvii.).1

St. Jerome writes that Arabia was the land of the Saracens, and that the word Saracen was derived from the Arabic word Sharki, which has the meaning of "Eastern," and the Dead Sea or Salt Sea,

1 Cedar, the second son of Ismael, gave his name to Arabia.

which lies between Palestine and Arabia Petroa, is called in Holy Writ the "Eastern Sea."

The inspired writers of the Old Testament, who foretold the coming of the Magi to Judea to worship the new-born King of the Jews, and to lay their treasures at His feet, make known in unmistakable words the country whence they came.

"In his days justice shall spring up and abundance of peace; and he shall rule from sea to sea; before him the Ethiopians shall fail down, and his foes shall lick the ground. The Kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer gifts; the Kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts." (Ps. lxxi.) The Prophet Isaias, whilst declaring how the light of true faith should shine out in the Church of Christ, and be spread throughout the world, beheld in vision the Kings of the earth bowed down in adoration before the Child-God, and he burst forth into these gladsome praises at the sight of the great glory of Israel: "Then shalt thou see and abound, and thy heart shalt wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee, the multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha, all they from Saba shall come bringing gold, and frankincense, and showing forth praise to the Lord" (lx).

2

Southern Arabia is called Saba by both Greek and Roman writers, and the St. Jerome translates the Hebrew Septuagint and word Saba by Arabia. "The Greeks and Romans," writes the celebrated German historian Mommsen, "call these Arabians Sabæans after the people most prominent at the time." These wonderful outpourings of the sacred writers are used in the magnificent liturgy of the Catholic Church at the feast of the Epiphany, and their prophetic utterances are applied to the wise men who hastened to Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus Christ."

St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. Epiphanius, when treating in their writings of the coming of the Magi, say only that they came "from the East"-"from afar;" and some of the ecclesiastical writers of the early Church are wholly silent about their birthplace, but nearly all the first Fathers of the Church held that they were Arabians.

St. Justin, who lived during the first half of the second century (A. D. 114-165), writes in his "Dialogue with Trypho:" "Now this King Herod at the time when the Magi came to him from Arabia and said that they knew from a star which appeared in the

2 "In medio ejus (Arabia) fere sunt Atramitae pagus Sabæorum in monteexcelso a quo octo mansionibus distat regio eorum thurifera Saba appellata."-Pliny (H. N.). Saba, son of Chus, settled in Arabia, according to St. Jerome.

heavens that a King had been born. Accordingly the Magi from Arabia came to Bethlehem and worshiped the Child, and offered. Him gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh. While they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed Him in a manger; and there the Magi, who came from Arabia, found Him. So Herod, when the Magi from Arabia did not go back to him, as he had asked them to do, ordered all the children then in Bethlehem to be killed.” Tertullian, who lived during the second half of the second century (A. D. 160-230), writes: "Let those Eastern Magi wait on the newborn Christ, offering to Him in His infancy their gifts of gold and frankincense, and surely an Infant will have received the riches of Damascus without a fight." Moreover, with regard to the gift of gold David also says: "And there shall be given to Him of the gold of Arabia." And again: "The Kings of Arabia and Saba shall offer gifts to Him."

St. Cyprian (A. D. 200-58) writes: "When the Redeemer was born at Bethlehem His presence on earth was heard in Effata, and the fame of this new birth spread unto the woodlands and meadows of the Gentiles. Those glad tidings were celebrated first of all in Judea by the shepherds and the angels, and not long afterwards the knowledge of this thing penetrated beyond the boundary of the Arabians; and the star of the wonderful light of the heavenly Deity made it known by its unwonted brightness to the people of Saba. There were in those regions men given to the watching of the stars, who knew by the art of mathematics the power and the courses of the planets. They had heard before from the prophecies of Balaam that a star should arise from Jacob and a man in Israel.”

St. Ephrem (A. D. 306-373) alone of the Fathers and Clement of Alexandria and Juvencus alone of the ecclesiastical writers of the early Church held that the Magi were natives of Persia. St. Ephrem writes: "A star lit up Persia; the rising of Christ allured her, and announced to her that the Victim was come. The heavens sent one of the stars to the Persians, that they might hasten to meet the King and worship Him."

Clement of Alexandria, writing towards the end of the second century, says: "The Persian Magi, who indeed also made known the birth of the Redeemer, coming to Judea preceded by the star,"

etc.

The Christian poet Juvencus, who lived in the age of Constantine, writes:

Gens est ulterior, surgenti conscia soli,
Astrorum solers, ortusque notare.
Hujus primores nomen tenuere Magorum;
Hinc lecti proceres Solymos per longa viarum

De stella et Magis.

Deveniunt, regemque adeunt, orantque do ceri
Quae regio imperio puerum Judæa teneret
Progenitum.

Tunc jubet Herodes, Per sas pertendere gressum
Inventumque sibi puerum monstare colendum.

St. John Chrysostom, who lived during the latter half of the fourth century, calls the Magi Persians in many places of his writings: "When the foreign and barbarian Magi arrived in order to behold Him lying in a manger." "He caused barbarians to come from a far-off land to inquire about the King who was born amongst them; and they learned first in the Persian tongue what they were unwilling to learn from the prophets." He, however, seems not to have had a settled opinion about their birthplace, for at the beginning of his "Homily on St. Matthew" he says: "We need much carefulness and many prayers in order that we may be enabled to unravel this difficult passage and find out who the Magi were and whence they came."

St. Augustine (A. D. 354-430) and St. Leo (A. D. 418-460) call the Magi Chaldeans: "For those Chaldean Magi followed the tradition of Balaam, who said: 'A star shall arise in the East.'" "The Chaldeans, as we read, therefore came from the East; they follow the first star." Chaldea, however, was not a country, according to Herodotus, and all philosophers in the East were called Chaldeans, as Clement of Alexandria writes in his "Stromata:" "The chiefs of philosophy were called Chaldeans by the Assyrians, Druids by the Gauls and Magi by the Persians."

The great Jesuit theologian Suarez, having made an exhaustive study of the question in the writings of the Fathers of the Church, concludes from their testimony that it is most likely that the Magi came from Arabia Felix; and he holds that the prophecies of the Old Testament about them conclusively prove that they were Arabians. "Recte intelligitur Magos Arabes fuisse" (xix. 236, art. 8).

Southern Arabia, as St. Cyril Alexandria writes, was sometimes called Persia; and St. Isidore of Seville, in his "Book on the Passion of Christ," asserts that "the Magi came from the Persian people, from Arabia and Saba," because Arabia is so near to Persia that it was called sometimes by that name.

The tradition that the Magi were Persians, however, having once begun, speedily spread throughout the Eastern and Western Churches, so that St. Cyril of Alexandria, in the fifth century, and many ecclesiastical writers in after ages have declared that Persia was their birthplace, although most of the earliest writers of the Church had held that these royal pilgrims were natives of Arabia.

The learned writers who hold the opinion that the wise men who