Of the labours and escapes of Percy, Bennett, Stevenson, Pearson, Weston, Hayward, and Worthington, he has not one syllable to say. In 1584, our historian enters at somewhat greater length on the subject, and prints some letters of the Archbishop of Glasgow, Seyton, and others, which might, interwoven in a history, be read with interest and profit; but standing as they do by themselves, they simply convey the impression that M. Theiner had no very clear idea of the state of affairs in England at that time. Even, however, from the account given by him, we see how miserably the exaggerated pretensions of the Papal See were mixed up with questions of faith in the sufferings of the Roman Catholic priests, and more especially of the Jesuits. To the following questions there is probably now no Roman Catholic who would not unhesitatingly answer in the negative; as indeed was done at the end of the last century, when the penal laws were relaxed or abrogated. Yet, hampered as they were, by confused ideas of the Pope's temporal supremacy over kings, it was for these, and not for their faith, that the priests in question-however unjustly and cruelly-were put to death. One cannot but feel, with respect to them, that which is also true with regard to the followers of the Stuarts, the Church of Scotland-that, in admiring their courage and self-devotion in the support of a dogma which they firmly held, they were not the less mistaken in embracing it as a part of the faith; and that their lives and sufferings, except so far as they themselves were concerned, were thrown away in vain.

'You have,' writes M. Theiner, 'the questions by which the Queen of England persuaded herself that she could tempt and prevail upon the conscience of Catholic priests.

'Questions or articles proposed by order of the Queen, to those presbyters who had lain under sentence of death for some months; to which had they replied according to the wish and intention of the said Queen, they would have been exempted from capital punishment, notwithstanding the profession of the Catholic faith in other respects.'

Notice the captious manner in which this statement is made, as if to have given a negative answer to the questions would have been to deny a part of the Catholic faith.

1. Whether the bull of Pius V., by which he excommunicated and deposed the Queen, is valid, and contains a legitimate sentence, and whether the subjects of the English kingdom are bound to obey it?

2. Whether the Queen, notwithstanding that sentence, or any other pronounced against her, or hereafter to be pronounced against her by the Pope, does not justly and legitimately reign; and whether her subjects do not owe her all obedience?

3. Whether the Pope has any power or authority to command or give licence to the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, or other Englishmen, to rebel and take arms against her Majesty; or of giving power to Dr. Saunders and others to invade the kingdom of Ireland and other

possessions of her Majesty; and whether Saunders and others did so rightly or not?

4. Whether the Pope has the power of absolving the subjects of her Majesty or of any other prince, from their oath of allegiance, or their duty of obedience and submission, for any cause whatever?

5. Whether Dr. Saunders, in his book on the Visible Monarchy of the Church, and Bristow, in his Motives, when they write in commendation and approval of the bull of Pius V., have taught, as regards the aforesaid matters, the truth, or not?

6. If it happens that the Pope, by any bull or sentence, should declare and pronounce that her Majesty was deprived of all right of reigning, and exercised her authority illegitimately, and that her subjects were absolved from all duty and obedience to her; and after that, by the command or authority of the Pope, the kingdom were attacked by a foreign army, which side would you then take, and to which would you exhort the people?'

This last question was most effectively and conclusively answered by Lord Howard of Effingham in his resistance to the Spanish Armada; a piece of history which it will be curious to see how our historian will treat. These questions, having been proposed to seven priests under sentence of death for high treason, Luke Chirby, Thomas Scottam, Laurence Richardson, Thomas Ford, John Short, Robert Johnson, and William Filby, seemed to have perplexed them as to the right reply. Some of them answered that they were Catholics, and held on these points with the Catholic Church; others, that they were ready to render to Cæsar the things that were Cæsar's, while they gave to God the things that were God's. These answers not proving satisfactory, sentence was executed on all. It is to be observed that M. Theiner expresses no direct opinion as to the hesitation of these priests in denying the temporal power of the Pope over sovereigns. Writing at Rome, he could not well blame it; dedicating his volume to the Emperor Napoleon, he could not well praise it; and therefore he prudently, so far, preserves silence on the subject. Nor, indeed, could he have justified the doubts of these priests without virtually condemning the ultimately successful party of French Catholics who acknowledged Henri IV. as their legitimate sovereign, notwithstanding his e xcommunication and deposition by the Pope; and who eventually forced that acknowledgment on the court of Rome itself.

A subject on which our author dwells with considerable length, and on which he has already published a separate work, is the attempted reconciliation, by John III., of the Swedish Communion with the Roman Church. It is thus that he enters on his account of a very interesting period of history.

'Among the Protestant princes of that age was John III., king of Sweden, who, abhorring the doctrine of the Protestants, had set his mind on reconciling the Swedish Church, purified from the errors of Luther, with the Catholic Church. To gain his end with the greater ease, he determined to

proceed cautiously and gradually, so that neither popular murmurs, nor open tumults, nor the disputations of the learned, might cause any impediments to his design. In the carrying out of that design, it occurred to him that the easiest method would be to change the liturgy of the Swedish Church, retaining as it did some vestiges of the ancient faith, into that form which the liturgy of the Catholic Church, especially in the Mass, exhibits. .. This labour was undertaken by the pious king as early as the year 1572. To forward the accomplishment of his design, he procured with great expense, from Germany and Belgium, and introduced into Sweden, correct editions of the works of the holy fathers, and of the writings of modern authors who had defended the venerable rites of the Catholic Church against the mad attacks of Luther, Calvin, and their followers. Cardinal Hosius, bishop of Varna, had presented several elegant copies of these works to the king, through Queen Catherine, his wife. With the assistance of these, John III. undertook a work of immense difficulty, with the assistance of the illustrious Fechten, his secretary, a man versed in every kind of literature, but especially that of the Church, and who, having long been dissatisfied with the impious doctrines of the innovators, had, a short time before, secretly joined the Catholic Church. That, however, which principally troubled the king's mind was, that the Swedish Church was in the same position with the Anglican and Danish Churches, which have retained, as all know, and to this day profess a certain form of episcopal government, but are without any true and legitimate priesthood. For Gustavus Vasa, who with incredible and savage fury had persecuted the faith of his forefathers among the Swedes (who, with wonderful constancy, held fast to it), and with the greatest wickedness endeavoured to uproot it by sword and fire, when the Catholic bishops were either slain or banished, had substituted in their place laymen, partizans of the new doctrine. To cajole his Swedes, in the Assembly of Arös, in 1527, he had caused them to be consecrated bishops, with the old rites and ceremonies of the Catholic Church. And for the rectification of the defect of the true and legitimate priesthood, King John considered that the right opportunity had arrived, when Laurentius Petri, of the school of Luther, who, under King Gustavus, in the year 1531, had been appointed Archbishop of Upsala and Primate of the Church of Sweden, died in 1573.'

John III. was the James II. of Sweden. At the same time, his Liturgy is a very curious and important, as well as rare, document, and M. Theiner has done well to reprint it in the mantissa to his volume.

We have thus touched on some of the principal topics which the present portion of the Annales Ecclesiastici embraces. Of M. Theiner's learning, no one can doubt: his great opportunities of research are equally unquestionable. He has everything on his side,-funds, time, libraries, associates, knowledge, -but all these will not make a historian. He, like a poet, nascitur, non fit. Energy of description, vivid apprehension of character, graphic colouring, M. Theiner cannot acquire. But he might, at all events, write, instead of compiling; fuse, instead of conglomerating; give us a history, instead of a pile of documents; he might be a not unworthy continuator of the Annales Ecclesiastici, instead of merely leaving behind him Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire particulière de l'Eglise Romaine.

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NOTICE S.

'Holy Communion,' (Lumley,) is a well conceived and thoroughly sound addition to our books of private Eucharistic devotion, as supplementing, in loco, the points in which our Office is less expressive and full than could be desired: giving, e. g. the old Psalm Judica,' with its antiphon, at the beginning; suitable prayers at the Oblation, Consecration, and Reception; and also a Collect,'' Introit,'' Secreta' (i. e. oblationary prayer), Communion,' and Post-Communion,' varying with the Sunday or Festival. These supplementary features are drawn from the Revised Gallican Office of the seventeenth century, which has been often and justly commended in this Review for its adaptation of Scripture to ritual uses. And though the Sarum and other English uses have a prior claim on the attention of English Churchmen for this purpose, thay have this disadvantage, that they cannot be adapted exactly as they stand; whereas, as the editor of this work observes, 'the peculiar doctrines of the Church ' of Rome, respecting the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Real Presence, never ' appear in these devotions; but, on the contrary, the doctrines taught by 'the English Church appear brought out in almost every page. And it 'will be no small source of satisfaction to the members of our communion, 'to find that the language of another branch of Christ's Church agrees so 'well with the doctrines which have been preserved to us.' The editor ought to explain, in a future edition, the manner of using the book. Ordinary readers would never guess that the varying antiphon is to be used (as we presume it is) with the Psalm Judica;' or that prayer' means a supplementary collect; or 'secret' a prayer at oblation. We must not omit to point out one weak point in this resort to our Gallican sister. On all the Sundays after Trinity, Rome and her affiliated Churches have thrown the entire system of Epistles and Gospels into confusion, while the English Church alone has retained the ancient order and combination of them. The Gallican Collects, Introits, &c. therefore do not apply to our Eucharistic Scriptures.

The Path of the Just,' (Masters,) is the title of a pretty collection of hagiological narratives, or legendary tales, generally relating to youthful martyrs of the faith. When, as in this case, it is rather the practical than the historical object which is in view, we need not be over-scrupulous as to the exact authority of these narratives. The author, Mr. Baring Gould, of Hurstpierpoint, exhibits a good deal of reading and considerable powers of description.

Mr. Trench, late of Reading, and now of Islip, has published, in an extremely handsome form, three volumes of his Works.' (Wertheim & Mackintosh.) We can commend the printing much more than the theology. There are evident traces of a life of study and great earnestness of character, as well as considerable taste, in this writer; but his gifts, natural

and acquired, have been crippled and his energies paralysed by the narrowest and dullest views of doctrine.

In a small volume of 'Sermons,' by Mr. Burrows, of Christ Church, S. Pancras, (J. H. Parker,) we recognise a very refined and careful style, but, what is far more important, a depth of practical application, which makes them very nearly models of written sermons.

Mr. Fox, of Morley, has added to his previous services to the younger members of the Church, a pretty sketch of The Early Church.' (Masters.) 'Quiet Hours,' by the Rev. John Pulsford. (Edinburgh: Jack.) We have here an imitation of Elizabethan thought and manner: there is in it originality, not seldom, however, forced and unnatural. But there are many striking and many extraordinary thoughts in it. In doctrine, Mr. Pulsford is occasionally high, and occasionally heretical, because original. We are utterly at a loss to conjecture to what Christian body this author belongs. He is evidently in a transitional, developing state; but he has in him what may come to great good, if he is not wrecked on affectation. A book so curious in many ways, so suggestive, and so perplexing, we have not often seen.

Mr. Sadler's tract, The Second Adam and the New Birth,' (Bell & Daldy,) is in some respects a continuation and in some an expansion of a tract well known and valued, 'The Sacrament of Responsibility,' published a few years ago. Taken together, these tracts may almost be considered a treatise, so full are they both on the Scripture evidence of the Baptismal Regeneration of Infants, and on what may be called the philosophy of the subject. In his recent work, Mr. Mozley contends that the Church's notion of regeneration must be hypothetical, because Holy Scripture addressed all in the Church as 'holy;' and that as apostles and prophets evidently spoke in this particular hypothetically, therefore the Church must do the same. The present tract meets this view, by proving that the prophets did treat the Jews as really and substantially in favour and covenant with God-pro tanto, therefore, as really, and not hypothetically, holy; and that therefore, admitting Mr. Mozley's analogy, the Church takes up the prophetic method of speech, and as did the prophets, argues the duty of responsibility from the fact of a real, not assumed, state of grace, just as the Old Testament writers exaggerated the sinfulness of Israel from the fact of their favour and adoption by God. We can recommend these tracts very heartily.

'Caste and Christianity,' by Temple Christian Faber, (Hardwicke,) is by no means what its title indicates, but a coarse and ill-written, as well as ignorant, attack on the Church. In vulgarity of language, Mr. Faber nearly equals the Morning Advertiser, and in general stupidity, he is not far behind the Record.

Lord Lyttelton has printed two highly creditable Essays, one on 'Infant Baptism,' and one on the Athanasian Creed.' (Rivingtons.) The former exhibits not only sound theology, but is evidently the result of much thought; its conclusions have been fairly reasoned out, not taken at second-hand.