PROPHECIES OF ST. MALACHI.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Your correspondent, " Quousque Tandem?" in the letter that appeared in the Spectator of August 5th ignores the fact that, whether the prophecies ascribed to the famous Irish Archbishop, St. Malachi, were, or were not, written before 1590, many were published with them in 1595 which have come to pass long after the departure of every one of "the partisans of Cardinal Simonelli," and all the members of "the Conclave of 1590." Take, for example, peregrinus apostolicus, Pius VT., whose exile and wanderings are well remembered, and who reigned from 1775 till 1800; his suc- cessor, aquila rapax Pins VII., whose heraldic bearing was a black eagle; crux de cruce, truly and nobly borne by Pio Nono from 1846 till 1878; and now lumen de czlo, Leo XIII., who personifies the heraldic bearing of the Pecci, his ancestors ! His slender figure, as imposing as the pine-tree standing out against the azure sky, with the star- light in his eyes, like that precursor of the Aurora that gleams above the great heraldic tree. This is surely "more than a coincidence," and the written word is not the less a prophecy because we know not by whom it was spoken! Sir Thomas Browne said, "Who knows whether there may not be more remarkable men forgotten than any that are remem- bered ? " Among them may be he to whom it was revealed that ignis ardens shall succeed lumen de emlo.—I am Sir, &AL,
SIC FIDEM TENEO.
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