The Virgin Mary herself, has also been said to have applied to corrections of the same kind as those here alluded to, in order to avenge the injustices done to those whom she protected; and she, for instance, caused a certain Bishop to be flagellated in her presence, who had taken his prebend from a Canon, who was indeed, but an indifferent person to fill his office, but who paid much devotion to her, and with his eyes cast down, sung every day before her Altar certain words contained in the _Angelic salutation_. The illustrious Cardinal Damian informs us of this fact, in his _Opusc._ xxxiii. _Cap._ iii. which is entitled, _The blessed Virgin directs that his prebend should be returned to a Clergyman who used to pay devotion to her_. ‘The same Stephanus (says Cardinal Damian) related to me another fact of much the same kind. I remember, he said, that there was a certain Clergyman, who was a dunce, an idle man, a dullard; to this add that he was endowed with no religious gift, and possessed no canonical gravity. Yet, amidst the dead ashes of his useless life, some small particles of pious fire continued to subsist, so that he would every day approach the altar of the holy Mother, and, inclining his head with reverence, sing the following both _angelic_ and _evangelic_ line, _Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among Women_. The new Bishop, however, who soon discovered the incapacity of the Man, thought it wrong that an useful office should be left to an useless person, and he took from him the prebend he had obtained from the preceding Bishop. But as the Canon was thereby reduced to great poverty, having no other means of supporting himself, the blessed Virgin interfered in his behalf. During the dead of night she appeared to the Bishop, preceded by a Man who carried a discipline in one of his hands, and a burning torch in the other, and ordered him to chastise the Bishop by some lashes of it; then addressing this latter,--Why, said she, did you take from a Man who used to pay daily homages to me, a clerical advantage it was not you who had conferred on him? The Bishop, filled with terror, and soon awaking from his sleep, presently returned the prebend to the Clergyman, and afterwards greatly honoured as a Man whom God loved, a person who, he thought, was unknown to him.’ FOOTNOTES: [108] _Corneliæ sodales ingentem aliquando audierunt strepitum ex ejus cubiculo, & contentionem Julianæ adversus dæmonem, quem manibus comprehensum quanti poterat cædebat; in terram deinde prostratum pedibus obterebat, lacerabat sarcasmis._ CHAP. XXI. _A remarkable instance of a flagellation performed in honour of the Virgin Mary._