Arundel came to the council intending to arrest him ; and day after day his cool sagacity defeated them. Yet when occasion required he knew how to act with prompt and vigorous decision. He was always struggling against the queen s variability. Being eager that she should marry, he urged her again and again to decide at once ; and a paper is extant which he presented to the queen when the last marriage proposal was finally cast aside. In it he sketches a great and able policy. Preparations were to be made for war by land and sea ; honours and wealth were to be applied to attach the hearts of the foremost men of the uation, and no longer wasted on useless favourites ; Ireland was to be ruled with attentive care and in a conciliatory spirit ; and, lastly, there was to be a grand alliance of all Protestants of England, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, and the Protestants in Germany, France, and Flanders. With regard to the Queen of Scots he pressed for the most vigorous action. Undeterred by the auger which Elizabeth showed in striking his name from the list of lords- lieutenant, he appeared at Mary s trial to meet her denial of the charges made against her with a stern contradiction. When, at last, Elizabeth signed the warrant, he ventured to oppose her express wish by calling the council to his own house to discuss the matter ; and he dared to inter cede for Davison when, in a torrent of passion, she sent him to the Tower. The result was that he was fiercely ordered out of her presence, and for two months the queen
refused to see him.In the industry of the country Cecil took the greatest interest. He entertained the serious apprehensions which were commonly felt on account of the increase of importa tion, the exportation of gold, and the falling off of agricul ture ; and he protested against the growing use of wine, silk, and other foreign commodities. To make up for the loss to the shipping which the downfall of Catholicism had caused by diminishing the demand for fish, he obtained the passing of a curious law which made the eating of flesh on Friday and Saturday, and on Wednesday unless fish dishes were also placed on the table, a misdemeanour. In short, Cecil devoted himself to the service of his country with the most painstaking and disinterested laboriousness. From the peculiarity of his method of working we have more com plete information concerning the details of his career than is usually the case with statesmen ; for it was his practice not only to draw up papers of advice to the queen, but also before deciding on any question to set out on paper all the considerations on both sides ; and many of these documents, together with many of the letters which he either received or wrote, can still be consulted (see Scrinia Ceciliana, 1663, the state papers published in 1740 and 1759, and Tytler s Ancient Letters, 1839). Cecil died in office in August 1598.
Among his writings are characteristic Precepts for the well-order ing of a man s life (1637), and The Execution of Justice in England for the Maintenance of Public and^ Christian Peace (1581 and 1583 ; Latin version, 1584). The latter is a defence of the queen s commis sioners appointed to examine Papists, with special reference to the use of torture, and a declaration that purely religious belief was never the cause of punishment. An interesting paper of advice to the Queen (1583) is to be found in the Somers Tracts. A volumi- nous life by Nares appeared in 1828-31. See Froude s History.
CECILIA, Saint. A passing word in the very apoc ryphal legend of this saint has caused her name to be one of the best known in the calendar, and oftenest in the mouths of men. It is related, among other circum stances purely legendary, that Cecilia often united instru mental music to that of her voice in singing the praises of the Lord. On this all her fame has been founded, and she has become the special patroness of music and musicians all the world over. Half the musical societies in Europe are named after her, and her supposed musical acquire ments have led the votaries of a sister art to find subjects for their works in episodes of her life. The grand paint ing by Raphael, at Bologna, in which the saint is repre sented wrapped in an ecstasy of devotion, with a small " organ," as it was called, an instrument resembling a large kind of Pandean pipes, in her hand, is well known, as is also Dry den s beautiful ode.
Her legend relates that, about the year 230, which would be in the time of the Emperor Alexander Severus, Cecilia, a Roman lady, born of a noble and rich family, who in her early youth had been converted to Christianity, and had made a vow of perpetual virginity, was constrained by her parents to marry a certain Valerian, a pagan, whom she succeeded in converting to Christianity without infring ing the vow she had made. She also converted her brother- in-law Tiburtius, and a friend called Maximus, all of whom were martyred in consequence of their faith. This is stated to have happened at Rome when one Almacus was prefect ; but no such name is known to history. It is unfortunate also for Cecilia s claim to a footing on the solid soil of history, that the earliest writer who makes mention of her, Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, represents her to have died in Sicily between the years 176 and 180. It is absurdly stated in the Biographic Universelle that Cecilia s name is found in the most ancient martyrologies ; whereas, as may be seen from Baronius, the earliest of these documents was compiled by Pope Clement I. who died in the year 100. The French writer maintains that her body must have been transported from Sicily to Rome subsequently to the 4th century, because the saint s name is not found in the Roman calendar compiled in the time of Pope Liberius (ob. 3G3), from which fact no such con clusion can be drawn. The Roman tradition is that the church dedicated to St Cecilia was built on the site of the house inhabited by her. at her request, by Urban I. about the year 230. We do not reach any ground of certainty, till we come to the councils celebrated by Pope Symmachus in the year 499 (of which, however, some doubt the authenticity), in whose records this church is mentioned, two priests qualifying themselves in their subscription as priests of the church of St Cecilia.
century; and Pope Paschal I. (ob. 824) built it anew with much splendour. In the course of the work he was, wo are told, visited by the saint in a vision, who informed him where her body was to be found in the cemetery of Callistus. Following her indications he found not only her body but those of her husband Valerian, her brother-in-law Tiburtius, their friend Maximus, the Popes Urban I. and Lucius I., and 900 other martyrs ! All these Paschal transported with much solemnity and ceremonial to the new church of St Cecilia, which he dedicated to God, to the Virgin, to Saints Peter and Paul, and to Saints Cecilia and Agatha. Cardinal Sfondrati, nephew of Gregory XIV. (ob. 1591),, who had his title as cardinal from this church, almost entirely rebuilt it ; in the course of which operation the bodies of the saints were found, and were on the 22d of November, the day dedicated to St Cecilia, in the year 1599, deposited in a silver reliquary, and placed by Clement VIII., assisted by twenty-two cardinals, in a small crypt under the high altar. The silver urn was stolen by the French, as their custom was, at the period of their first occu pation. One of the best known and most admired modern statues in Rome is that executed by Stefano Maderno in the 17th century, which represents the saint recumbent in her grave-clothes, and in the attitude in which she is described to have been found when her tomb was opened. The church was subsequently " redecorated," that is to say destroyed as regards architectural beauty, in 1725 by
Cardinal Doria, who built heavy piers around the columns