Excerpt from Celebrated Sanctuaries of the Madonna Early in the fifth century - probably A.D. 404 - the congregation of the faithful in a town on the coast of Africa were much disturbed by the rumour of a scandal in the episcopal palace. The details of the story were imperfectly known, and of course variously told; but the distress of the little flock was so great that at last the Bishop published a Pastoral on the subject. In this Pastoral he lamented that there should be any necessity for an episcopal exhortation on occasions like the present; he urged that the distinct prophecies of our Blessed Lord ought to have prepared men's minds for such exhibitions of human weakness and malice; nevertheless he confessed that they were trials dangerous to the weak, painful to all, and that therefore he would gladly have spared his flock the knowledge of what had happened, if this had been possible. Now, however, that false reports were afloat, it was better that they should know the facts, which were briefly these: - A priest of his household, named Boniface, had brought a grave charge of immorality against another inmate of the house, who was not yet a priest, but desirous of becoming one. The charge was denied, and met by a counter-charge; nevertheless, the Bishop had a strong impression that it was true. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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`Simply a great work of reference. Future scholars will wonder how anybody managed without the Wellesley Index. It will quietly change the whole nature of Victorian studies.' Christopher Ricks, New Statesman `It is now impossible to think of Victorian literary and historical studies without the benefit of it ... this is a very remarkable achievement indeed ... the complete set will be a monument to the Houghtons foresight, pertinacity and skill.' TLS