to Mr. Gibbings's preface, unless he prefer to imitate him in his labour, and search into, not only obscure, but extended works, not to be found except in public libraries, or those of wealthy collectors; and then, to use a rather familiar illustration, he will have to catch his hare before he can dress and eat it. But although we feel ourselves necessitated to dismiss the commendatory portion of our remarks in a general way, there are some particular observations which we deem it important to make of a more critical description. And these may be the more useful, because, in a new edition of the preface, should it be called for, (and if the reading public knows their interest it will,) some advantage may be made of facts which we flatter ourselves we can communicate. In p. xvii. Mr. Gibbings corrects Marchand for citing, in his Dictionaire Hist., P. P. Vergerio as saying of John della Casa, Archbishop of Benevento, and Legate of Paul III.,—CONSCRIPSIT EJUS MANDATO PRIMUM CATALOGUM; and adds, that the words EJUS MANDATO are falsely attributed to Vergerio, referring for authority to his Annot. in Catal., fol. 249. Now this is the fact so far; and in the collected works of Vergerio, the first volume of which alone was published at Tubing, 1563, the words are omitted. But they stand in the first edition of the work by Vergerio himself EJUS MANDATU. The annotator, perhaps, found reason to exonerate his Holiness in this respect; and far be it from any honest Protestant to overload those who have so much to bear. At page li. commences the account of Brasichellen's Index, the body of the present work, in which the only fault to be found is that which we have already stated-its shortness. It certainly would have been both suitable and desirable that a minute and detailed account, both of the direct history of the work and of its contents, should have been given. That the preface would, by this course, have been much increased, there can be no doubt; and perhaps the learned author was deterred by this consideration: but the increase would have been so much benefit. We have heard a doubt thrown out respecting the cooperation of the eminent dominican, Thomas Malvenda, in the composition of the Index ascribed to him by Zobelius, who refers to the Bibl. Hispana of Antonio. And certainly, as far as his authority avails, the testimony is decisive; and the province of Malvenda seems to have been the Bibliotheca Patrum Bignæana. The words of Antonio, tom. iv. p. 308, are: "Cujusmet anni pensum bimestre fuit Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum commendata ei per Indicis (ut vocant) sacros purpuratos patres recognitio; unde qua scriptorum ea comprehensorum quisque auctoritate, aut loco censeri debeat, doctrinæque genus atque ætas, observatione Thomæ nostri in Romanum Indicem, qui Joannis Mariæ Brassichelensis [sic] S. Palatii magistri nomine prodiit anno MDCVII. conjecta sunt." Malvenda was afterwards engaged in the Spanish Index of Sandoval. In p. lvi. a censure is passed upon Zobelius for asserting that the Index of Brasichellen was not only suppressed, but inserted in some future Index, and a difference of opinion is expressed from Mr. Mendham, on the assumption of his agreement with Zobelius in this particular. If our recollection of the passage referred to in the Literary Policy does not deceive us, it should appear that sufficient credit has not been given to the author for the hesitation which he expresses on the subject. Although he has reported the opinion of Zobelius, he has professed himself doubtful whether it could be substantiated to the full extent. No Index is producible presenting the fact, at least in express terms; which, indeed, would be a grand blunder in papal policy. There was, however, a decree of March 16, 1621, which would operate as a condemnation of all reprints out of Rome, and without authority; and the first edition, in Rome, would be taken good care of by the proper authorities. The suppression, which was the main thing, would be sufficiently secured, or at least was thought to be so. But copies, fortunately, had already wandered. The suppression, amply provided for as it was, was equivalent to the most formal and absolute condemnation. We doubt whether the two supposed works of Poza in p. lxiii. be not one and the same, with a slightly varying title. In the decree which condemns them they are treated as two; but censors and inquisitors sometimes prefer making sure work, by not allowing a chance of escape. Certainly we know that the works, assumed to be different, agree in matter and pages. It is no uncommon thing in a printing-office for works to undergo an alteration even while the press is proceeding. At pp. lxiv. lxv. and elsewhere, are some curious extracts from the Tuba Magna mirum clangens sonum, and Raynaud, containing references to the condemnation of Cardinal Bellarmine, which may do to add to the voces ambigue which were scattered under the pontificate of Sixtus V. There is a sentence from Baronius in p. lxviii. which ought to be extensively known and circulated:-" Sanctissimos Patres... ... in interpretatione Scripturarum non semper ac in omnibus Catholica Ecclesia sequitur." We knew this well enough; but the acknowledgment from the quarter is the thing. We close reluctantly our notice of this valuable and interesting preface with what occurs last in it, and that is, a list of the articles directed to be cancelled in the Index of the works of Augustine, whom, of all the Fathers, the Roman Church pretends most to venerate. This method is pursued still more extravagantly in the Spanish Expurgatories. The public require to be more distinctly acquainted with it. The good sons of the church, that is, the papal,-in modern times, did not like to appear as those who contravened the judgment of the ancient Fathers, and were by consequence condemned by them, hit upon the expedient of nullifying what was unmanagable in them by condemning such propositions, though but a repetition of the words in the text, as were inserted in Indexes to the works of the Fathers edited by honest editors, whether papal, neutral, or protestant. By this contrivance they escaped the charge of invading the Fathers themselves, and could with sufficient show make the opposite boast; while the object which they designed was as effectually secured as if they had absolutely silenced Cyprian, or Chrysostom, or Jerome, where they spake offensively to their modern censors, or had made them affirm directly the contrary to their own doctrines. Now, to the commonest and lowest perception of moral honesty, there must appear, in a procedure like this, such a profligate defiance of truth and fidelity, as should produce absolute distrust, and indeed rejection, of the whole papal system-the entire peculiarity of its doctrine, both in religion and morals. It is hardly possible to imagine a conduct more decidedly depraved; and what that church must be, which requires, which feels benefited by, or which even admits, such support, ought to be seriously considered by all those who belong to it.* This being the ruling character of the proceedings of the Roman Church, and particularly conspicuous in her Indexes, or literary censures,-in that of the Spanish, indeed, most shame lessly, but only because more honest and extended than the Roman,-it is little to be wondered, that a protestant editor, reprinting the first two of Spain, should have entitled them, Indices Expurgatorii Duo, Testes Fraudum et Falsationum Pontificiarum, and that our countryman, William Crashaw,-far less known, but far better deserving to be known, than the elegant and perverted poet, his son,-should publish a work bearing the title Falsificationum Romanarum Liber, or, in English, Romish Forgeries and Falsifications, having for its subject the interested alterations of a popular author of the Roman community, John Ferus, a German Franciscan, in his Commentary upon the First Epistle of St. John, falsified in a long list of specified places, * Nothing is more regular than for papal writers, from Campion and his cotemporaries more especially, to their humble imitators in the present day, to endeavour to bear down their protestant opponents, and support their own crazy and tottering cause by such full-mouthed sentences as- -The Scriptures are all for us-the Fathers all for us- -Councils General all for us-. -Antiquity is all for us! "Their books," as Mr. Gibbings carries on his quotation from Crakanthorp, p. lxx., and in his expressive words, "their books do swell with this ventosity." And yet these men either know nothing on the subject, or know that the whole is false they have and hold " a lie in their right hand," which they deal out to all who, they assume, cannot detect and demolish it. affecting "the very points and questions now in difference between the Romish Church and us." This work of Crashaw, like all his works, is exceedingly scarce, and exceedingly valuable. The last article in the prefatory department is what the author entitles Prolegomena, and is addressed "To my beloved Countrymen, the seduced Papists of England." It is, throughout, grave, faithful, and affectionate. It begins thus:-" Brethren, (for in some sense I may, and in the best I wish I might, so call you,) be pleased to hear him a little who speaks to you out of the love of his heart and sincerity of his soul. Many of you are graced of God with good gifts, and for them are loved and honoured of us; some of you are adorned with learning, some with wisdom, some with valour, some with mildness and courtesy of nature, some with care to deal justly in the world, some with great devotion in your kind. For all these we love and pity you; and the soul of many a Protestant doth sigh and mourn, and, as the prophet saith, their eye doth weep in secret for your sins, for your error, and for your superstition, wherein you are kept blindfolded by the hypocrisy and fraud of your deceitful leaders," &c.-But the closing part is that which most suits the present object. The author, to avoid offence to the individuals whom he addresses, professes that he will content himself with one example of the fraud of their leaders. "Out of Ferus in primam Epistolam Johannis, cap. iv. these words are razed out—Quomodo timere et trepidare posset is qui credit Christum suam esse vitam propitiationem, et certissimam, salutem? How can he fear, or have a frighted conscience, which believes Christ to be his life, his propitiation, and most assured salvation? "Would you believe that a church, a christian church, pretending to be the holy and only catholic church and spouse of Christ, should offer this heinous injury to Christ and his holy truth, as to blot out this golden sentence? O heinous impiety and horrible sacrilege! May not faith nor Christ himself have his due commendation, but it goeth to the heart of the Church of Rome? O synagogue malignant, say thy worst, what hurt hath Christ, God's glorious Son, or faith, his gracious gift, done to the Church, that thou shouldest do them this disgrace? Or what hellish presumption possesseth thee, that thou tremblest not to do this wrong to the God of heaven, the Lord of life, and Saviour of mankind? Dost thou think there is a God, that darest wage war even with the Deity itself? But, leaving them to repentance, did you think, dear countrymen, this had been so? Nay, I that am not, as you are, devoted to them, would not have believed it, had I not seen it; and the rather because I can shew where almost as much, if not more, is ascribed to faith and confidence in the Virgin Mary, nay in a dead creature, and is let stand as good catholic doctrine. "I have given you one example, and could give you a hundred more, but to that end is the labour ensuing taken in hand, whereunto I refer you, and hope you will give it the reading. I deal plainly: I produce the books I shew the ancient records as the authors left them, and the new ones as Rome has corrupted them. When you see it, beloved, not in one place, but in thousands; not in one author, but in hundreds; not in one point of controversy, but in all; can you do less than look better to those men whom formerly you have trusted even with your souls? Or can you do less than suspect that cause which entertains so bad means for its own defence? And can you do any other than doubt that religion which must be propped with such pillars, and defended by such damnable courses as these? Now the God of all grace give them repentance, and that Jesus Christ, whose name and praise they so often raze out of their books, raze not their names out of the book of life. The same God open your eyes to see the truth, and guide your feet into the way of peace. Amen.-Temple, Aug. 26. By him that tendereth your salvation, and daily prayeth for your The University Press in Oxford is engaged in a work highly creditable to that body, as well as highly meritorious in itself— the republication of a series of writings in defence of proper Christianity, particularly as assailed and deteriorated by the corrupt admixtures of the Church of Rome, under the title of Enchiridion Anti-Romanum. No undertaking, under present circumstances, could be more seasonable. It has commenced with the acute, elaborate, and convincing treatise of Bishop Taylor, A Dissuasive from Popery. In that work—and it is one principal reason for our referring to it in this marked mannerthere is a section, the 6th in the 1st book of the 2d part, Of the Expurgatory Indices in the Roman Church, a discussion eminently distinguished by the peculiar talent of the writer, and, for the time, and the scantiness of the materials then accessible to Englishmen on the subject, replete with valuable information. This is the second, or rather the third time that the Dissuasive has been published in a form almost necessary to attract readers to any other than works of popularity and amusement; and we may hope that new and important intelligence will thus find its way into a portion of society to which it has in some degree been a stranger. We have seemed to discover some effects of this kind already, and we may hope they will increase, till ignorance on subjects of real importance shall become discreditable. |