(Vol. iv., p. 188.)
_Peter Lombard, Gratian, and Comestor_ (Vol. iv., p. 188.).--Your
correspondent W. S. W. alludes to the above-mentioned worthies. I
extract from Bishop Jeremy Taylor a passage or two in support of the
story of their brotherhood:
"It is reported of the mother of Peter Lombard, Gratian, and
Comestor, that she having had three sons begotten in unhallowed
embraces, upon her death-bed did omit the recitation of those
crimes to her confessor; adding this for apology, that her three
sons proved persons so eminent in the church, that their
excellency was abundant recompense for her demerit; and therefore
she could not grieve, because God had glorified Himself so much by
three instruments so excellent: and that although her _sin_ had
_abounded_, yet God's grace did super_abound_. Her confessor
replied, '_At dole saltem, quod dolere non possis_ (Grieve that
thou canst not grieve).'"--Sermon "On the Invalidity of a late or
death-bed Repentance." _Sermons_, p. 234. Lond. 1678.
And again:
"To repent because we cannot repent, and to grieve because we
cannot grieve, was a device invented to serve the turn of the
mother of Peter Gratian."--_Holy Dying_, "Practice of
Repentance in Sickness," Sect. vi. Rule 5. Lond. 1808.