gives us work of splendid merit. It is an immense field to cover, but his condensation is masterly and his objective attitude beyond reproach. There is not in the history of dogma a more interesting chapter than this which tells of the various formulations through which this doctrine has passed. Now it is stated in terms of realism, now of symbolism, in one Father monophysically in another diphysically, until the Lateran Council of 1215 canonized, so to speak, the term Transsubstantiation, and fixed the language of theology fast and firm. And few dogmatic terms ever brought peace to a more agitated or long-continued debate. We recommend Mgr. Batiffol's book cordially. Every student of theology or church history should have it and should study it.

STORIES ON THE CREED.
By Fogg.

Miss Fogg's little volume of stories and incidents illustrating the articles of the Apostles' Creed deserves a very cordial welcome. Our Catholic literature in this field is so scant that we do not now recall any similar work in English; although there is perhaps nothing that catechists feel a greater need for than attractive works which convey dogmatic truths under forms of the imagination. We remember to have once read the Anglican Archdeacon Neale's stories on the Creed, and we feel sure that his book, which had a widespread circulation, is inferior to this charming volume before us. These sketches are short and simple; they skilfully suggest the doctrine to be inculcated; they are vivid and compel attention; and, best of all, they are pervaded with a delicate and unobtrusive piety which gives to this book the unusual merit of allowing the heart its proper share in the understanding of Christian faith. The use of a work like this will provide older children with several happy illustrations of the main points of belief, will suggest arguments suited to their years for even defending their religion, and will move them to be more devout in practising it. In external appearance the book is so beautiful as to furnish a lesson in good taste to every child that reads it.

Credo; or, Stories Illustrative of the Apostles' Creed. By Mary Lape Fogg. Boston: The Angel Guardian Press.

JULIA.

By Katharine Tynan.

In this pleasant, entertaining story of contemporary Irish life* Mrs. Hinkson departs from conventional lines. In it we breathe an air of cheerfulness, unmarred by scenes of poverty, hunger, or strife. The malevolent influences that mar the smooth course of true love in it are provided by no more tragic factor than the slanderous gossip of a spiteful woman. There are, of course, the landlord, the agent, and the tenant. But the agent is an all-round good fellow; and we are almost as much interested in the love of his daughter for her big, generous English man, as we are in that of Julia, the heroine, for her distant kinsman, Sir Mortimer. Julia, a tenant-farmer's daughter, marries the titled young landlord, who is a heretic into the bargain. Yet the county families do not treat the match as a mésalliance ; and, more wonderful still, it has been promoted by the parish priest-an admirer of the late Father Dolling, by the wayalthough the young lady had already "entered" the convent in the hope of a black veil. "He had never," to be sure, "been one for urging girls into convents. Like most priests, he desired rather that they should marry and give children to the world, and souls to the Church."

Under the cunning hand of Mrs. Hinkson the story develops so easily and plausibly that these seeming improbabilities never tax the credulity of the reader. All the characters, too, are drawn with strong individuality, while everywhere one notices the deft touches which indicate that the writer, in her portrayal of her people and their manners and ways of thought, is not serving up second-hand experience.

REFORMATION AND
RENAISSANCE.
By Stone.

The very title of this volume† will suggest to even the casual reader of history questions, movements, causes, and effects almost without number. They are questions and movements that for almost the last four hundred years have been the bitterly debated ground, not only of history, but also in great measure of religion. Happily the ground is being cleared little by little. Claims once most obstinately advanced

*Julia. By Katharine Tynan.

Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.

Reformation and Renaissance. By J. M. Stone. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.

and defended, because they were thought to be essentially allied to fundamental truths, and hence à priori must be defended, are found untenable in the light of absolute historical truth. Proud boasts, long and loudly heralded as legitimate protests, by the advocates of certain religious tenets, because it was only on such protests their religion could rest, must now be hushed, for truth has shown that they have no place. Workers on every side are bringing the past before present eyes, and the past contains both rich and glorious treasures and worthless and merely earthen vessels.

Among such workers we may include, with a note of enthusiastic praise, the author of the present volume. Miss Stone is well known through her excellent Mary the First, Queen of England, and the present volume deserves an equally encouraging recognition. Covering such an extensive period of time-1377-1610-and dealing with so many world-wide movements, that have not yet by any means exhausted themselves, the volume must be deficient in many ways. It is necessarily limited in its treatment and innumerable volumes have been written on what here are chapters. Nevertheless, correct historical estimates are not necessarily a matter of pages. For the vast majority of human kind historical events and historical men must be presented definitely, in small compass, and Miss Stone's work is a book for the majority. This does not mean that it is carelessly done or incorrect. Rather it is accurate, it is scholarly, it evidences a most extensive reading in unquestionable authorities, and it presents a question or an individual in a fair, unprejudiced way.

The author's treatment of the Reformation and the Renaissance are quite distinct. By the distinct treatment which she is necessarily compelled to give them, it is shown that one was not the outcome nor the result of the other; that Protestantism was not the outcome of, nor demanded by, the new learning; that Catholicism was not aided or necessarily depraved by it.

The beginnings of the unfortunate days of schism and heresy, for the Church, are placed from the time of the seizure of Rome by Louis of Bavaria and the residence of Clement V. at Avignon. That exile and captivity of the Papacy, and afterwards the schism of the West, threw its shadow over all Europe, and, practically, was never to be lifted. "Wyclifism," we are told, "is certainly coeval with the rise of Protestantism in Eu

rope." Yet England, in spite of her complaints against many of the actions of the Holy See, complaints oftentimes amply justifiable, was never illogical enough to confound two orders of truths. Here Miss Stone expresses very well a judgment similar to that given by Abbot Gasquet in his latest volume. Miss Stone writes:

But in the midst of much general confusion, ideas were nevertheless clearly defined on certain points, and no amount of discontent with the levying of taxes argued opposition to any doctrine of the Church or revolt from the spiritual authority of the Pope. Heresy was practically unknown in England until the middle of the fourteenth century, and appeals to Rome were frequent, as to the highest tribunal on earth. No greater mistake can be made than to suppose that England at any time previous to the Reformation, in the sixteenth century, was ever anti-Papal. The freedom and rights of the English Church had been guaranteed by Magna Charta, and remained uninfringed until they were taken away by Henry VIII. Often tried almost to the snapping-point, the dissatisfaction of Englishmen with the temporal administration of the papal government had nothing whatever to do with their belief in the Pope as supreme head of the Church on earth, and to them the temporal occupant of the Holy See, so often accused of treating England as a milch cow," was a distinct personage from the Successor of Peter, holding the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.

་་

The distinction, of course, must be handled delicately, for the man in the street is oftentimes ruled by feeling and not by reason and the bonds did snap.

Tendencies and movements are illustrated and made plain by their principal representatives. Wyclit's most well-merited title, according to Miss Stone, is that of "Morning Star of the Reformation," and this not only for England, but also for Europe. His doctrines were brought by Jerome of Prague into Bohemia and defended and propagated there by Hus. They spread to Germany also. The need of reform in the Church, both in England and throughout the Continent, is clearly shown by the author, both in general statement and in the detailed pictures presented, which oftentimes speak volumes. That the power of reformation was within the Church herself is shown by the saintly men and women, the eager reformers, who not

only lived, but who worked energetically, to achieve it and in part succeeded.

Riches do not necessarily imply corruption, but it must be confessed that with growing opulence the monks had acquired generally a taste for refinement and luxury altogether at variance with the spirit of their founder. A prince-abbot in armor, attended by armed retainers in camp and at court, was a distinct contradiction of the idea and intention of St. Benedict, no less than the sight so often presented to the public gaze of a monk dressed like a fine gentleman, and surrounded by pomp, splendor, and magnificence. less, if the picture is a black one, the purple patches are singularly brilliant in places, and a general survey of religious communities in Germany, before and at the time of the Reformation, reveals a condition of things, if not exemplary, yet not exceptionally bad. . . Physicians were not wanting to lay their fingers on the wounds and to say Thou ailest here, and here."

Neverthe

Among these physicians were, in Germany, such men as Geiler and Wimpheling. The former's sermons and instructions are of particular value in learning what was then popularly taught concerning faith and indulgences.

Such men as these would hardly be popular favorites in any age, but all the best and noblest among their contemporaries understood and valued them as they deserved. To themselves they seemed to fail, and it is true that all their efforts were unavailing to avert the catastrophe which overwhelmed their country a few years later. But it is impossible not to see in each Catholic reformer that principle of vitality. ever at work in the Church, producing men of the necessary fibre to testify to her divine mission in every crisis of the world's history.

Savonarola in Italy was another reformer, and

if the calm reasoning and stern appeals of a Geiler von Kaisenburg had been almost ineffectual to rouse the dormant sense of religion in the Teuton mind, Savonarola's eloquence worked wonders on the more sensitive Tuscan temperament.

The catastrophe came, caused by moral laxity in places high and low, social injustices that begot poverty and unrest and