particular miracles proceeded in exactly the same way and in the same order as that of the virtues. If the decisions were favourable, the general meeting of the Congregation was followed by a decree, confirmed by the Pope, in which it was announced that there was proof of miracles. In the positio for the ante-preparatory congregation there were required and were printed opinions of two physicians, one of whom had been chosen by the Postulator and the other by the Congregation of Rites. Of the three reports (positiones) above mentioned, and which were now also required, the first was prepared in the usual way; the second consisted of an exposition of the heroic virtues of the servant of God, an information, and a reply to later observations of the Promotor of the Faith; the last consisted only of an answer to his final observations. When the miracles had been proved, another meeting of the Congregation of Rites was held in which it was debated once, and only once, whether or not, given the approbation of the virtues and miracles, it was safe to proceed with the solemnities of beatification. If a majority of the Consultors was favourable, the Pope issued a decree to this effect and at the time appointed by him the solemn beatification of the servant of God occurred in St. Peter's Basilica, on which occasion a Papal brief was issued permitting the public cultus and veneration of the beatified person, now known as "Blessed" ("Beatus"). Of Martyrs The causes of martyrs were conducted in the same way as those of confessors as far as the informative processes and those de non cultu and ad introductionem causae were concerned. But when once the commission of introduction had been appointed they advance much more rapidly. No remissorial letters were granted for Apostolic processes concerning the general reputation for martyrdom and miracles; the letters sent called for an immediate investigation into the fact of martyrdom, its motive, and the particular miracles alleged. There was no longer a discussion of the general reputation for martyrdom or miracles. The miracles were not discussed, as formerly, in separate meetings, but in the same meetings that dealt with the fact and the motive of the martyrdom. The miracles (signa) required were not those of the first class; those of the second class sufficed, nor was their number determined. On some occasions the decision as