Stimulus Divini Amoris

"The Goad of Divine Love" has ever been held in high esteem by Saints and devout persons. There is a note, in an antique hand, on the margin of one of the MSS., which says: "In my opinion this book may be called the book of life, and a compendium of the compendiums of the whole doctrine of beatitude." Louis of Granada compared it to the Meditations of St. Augustine, and St. Francis de Sales called it "most excellent." Some portions of the work-e.g., the "Meditation upon the Great Sorrow the Blessed Virgin Mary had on Good Friday "-are as beautiful as anything to be found in the whole range of mediaeval ascetical writings. It is impossible not to be struck by the devotion to the Sacred Passion that breathes in almost every page, as well as by the evidence of the most tender love of the writer for the glorious Mother of God. Lastly, the name of St. Bonaventure, with whom the treatise is associated, gives it a special interest for English-speaking Catholics when we remember that Pope Clement IV. offered the Archbishopric of York to the Seraphic Doctor. Through profound humility the great disciple of the lowly St. Francis could not be prevailed upon to accept the honour. Had he come to our shores, and shed the radiance of his seraphic love of God over our beloved country, the aftercourse of her history might have been widely different, and the England of to-day be still united to the See of Peter, an Island of Saints, and an example of faith to the world