an

"Summa contra Gentiles," book iii. c. 144.) To Dr. Littledale the idea of this life being a "probation" is quite unacceptable. The reason he gives is rather wonderful. "It suggests," he says, untenable analogy, and one out of keeping with full recognition of divine wisdom. For what it in fact implies is that God does not know how he [man] will turn out, and has to watch our conduct in this world before being able to come to a decision as to our final destiny" (p. 209). This is somewhat puerile reasoning, we think. Life may surely be a time of "probation" in the obvious sense of man's will being tried in his choice of good or evil, God well knowing the while the final result. At p. 213 Dr. Littledale speaks in a characteristically coarse and irreverent way of St. Augustine's view of unbaptized infants. At p. 222 he alludes to the "view current in mediæval times," which he misrepresents in his usual masterly manner. No one can trust Dr. Littledale when he speaks of Catholic saints or Catholic doctrines.

The second advantage that may possibly come from the republication of these "papers" is that those who have eyes to see will discern the necessity of having an infallible authorized guide to interpret for men the meaning of the word of God. A number of non-Catholic theologians set to work to give their views about a most important question, and the result is chaos.

Bishop Weathers' article stands apart, clear, logical, coherent, and weighty, because it is the teaching of the Catholic Church.

The Legendary History of the Cross: a Series of Sixty-four Woodcuts from a Dutch book published by Veldener, A.D. 1483, with an Introduction. Written and illustrated by JOHN ASHTON. Preface by S. BARING GOULD, M.A. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1887.

THE

HE series of facsimiles of the old Dutch engravings specified in the title are preceded by a brief narrative of the finding of the true Cross, reproduced for the most part from Caxton's version of the Golden Legend, and of the veneration of the various relics of the holy wood, the account of which is chiefly borrowed from the fine work, "Les Instruments de la Passion," of M. Rohault de Fleury, who, after the most minute and indefatigable investigations, believes that the Cross was mainly, if not wholly, of pine-wood. The results of these interesting investigations are briefly summed up. They afford ample refutation of Calvin's assertion that the relics venerated as pieces of the true Cross would freight a ship. M. de Fleury has given descriptions and measurements of all the known relics of the Cross, and computes the total bulk at "3,941,975 cubic millimetres; thus, according to his showing, there is but a very small portion of the Holy Cross in existence." "We are credited in England with 30,516 cubit millimetres of the Holy Cross." The relics are at Isleworth, Downside College, Lord Petre's, St. Mary's, East Bergholt, Plowden Hall, St. Mary's, York, West Grinstead, St. George's, Southwark, St. Richard's, Slindon.

There is a brief account also included in the volume of the title and the nails, and the traditions connected with these relics. The author might have found space, we think, to mention the beautiful tradition or fancy expressed in St. Bonaventure's "Mirror of the Life of Christ," of how St. John carefully hid away the nails in his dress lest they should chance to meet her eyes and sight of them should cause fresh anguish to Our Lady.

The legendary history of the tree destined to be employed for the Cross is also briefly noticed in the volume before us. M. BaringGould considers this to be merely a Christian transformation of Northern mythological traditions referring to Yggdrasil, the world ash-tree, whose roots reached to hell and whose branches spread to heaven. However this may be, we agree that the Cross myth-i.e., the legend of the Cross previous to the Crucifixion, has been comparatively little explored and would probably repay study. Mr. Ashton's little book does not pretend to be a serious contribution to such investigation, but it may, perhaps, draw attention to the subject.

1. The First Century of Christianity. By HOMERSHAM COX, M.A., a Judge of County Courts, Author of "The Institutions of English Government," &c. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1886.

2. The Growth of the Church in its Organization and Institutions: being the Croall Lectures for 1886. By JOHN CUNNINGHAM, D.D. London: Macmillan & Co. 1886.

HE study of Christianity may be undertaken from very mixed motives. Some minds may be impelled through curiosity pure and simple to inquire into the most marvellous revolution which human society has ever passed through. Others may seek to discover in ecclesiastical annals a rational ground for the faith which is in them. There can, however, be little doubt that between these two widely divergent classes of Church History students, there exists many a class sharply marked off from its neighbours by the distinct peculiar views of those who compose it. These views need not necessarily be deserving of censure and even where they are unquestionably faulty, those who hold them may in many instances have contributed valuable stones for the building of the Great Temple of historical truth. These additions to our knowledge of times past must ever command our attention and gratitude. They are proofs of the wonderful providence with which an All-Wise God makes every creature serve to the extension of His Kingdom, and they help to remind many Catholics who waste their leisure and abilities on the frivolous ephemeral literature of the hour, that an inspection of their spiritual title-deeds, a looking over those ancient documents which prove their claim to be "the Children of the Kingdom" ought to possess as much interest for them as for the stranger at their gates.

A Catholic who would supply English readers with a sketch of the

first century somewhat on the lines followed by Mr. Cox, but avoiding his mistakes, would render a great service to his co-religionists. Mr. Cox's book is not without merits of its own; and those of no mean excellence. His style is pleasing, clear and unembarrassed. Order and proportion are generally observed. Authorities are quoted copiously and rendered into easy flowing English, so that the reader is able to judge for himself of the nature and value of their testimony, instead of having to rely upon the ipse dixit of the historian. The author has been at pains to verify every reference, and has had the very uncommon frankness to note the circumstance in the very few instances in which he has cited authorities at second hand. Mr. Cox's legal acquirements allow him to throw occasionally light upon some vexed point of ancient law procedure, although the space at his command does not permit him to marshal his arguments in full force. He has evidently weighed the pros and cons in the discussion over St. Peter's connection with Rome, and devotes a whole chapter to the support of the Catholic side in spite of "Plain Reasons" being against this view. We could wish we had nothing but praise for this interesting work, but two serious defects detract considerably from its value. In the first place, for a writer to draw up even a compendium of the history of early Christianity from which religious and doctrinal topics should be scrupulously excluded is to attempt an impossibility. As well give us the play of Hamlet without the part of the Prince of Denmark, or tell the story of England in the eighteenth century and leave out all mention of the Test Act. Even Mr. Cox could not succeed in a feat of this kind, and at page 68 we find him floundering in the vexed doctrinal question of the Primacy of St. Peter, and the relative positions of St. James and the Prince of the Apostles. A more serious defect, and one that accounts for Mr. Cox's erroneous views on the Primacy and cognate matters, is the omission of our Lord's life from his pages. Even the public ministry of our Divine Saviour is passed over, on what grounds it is hard to conceive. If Mr. Cox had only read Father Coleridge's volume on the Training of the Apostles, he might have acted differently. He would have seen that Christ's mission was not merely religious and doctrinal, but also disciplinary. And had he begun to study the position assigned to St. Peter by the Master, he would have better understood how St. Peter stood with relation to the first bishop of Jerusalem.

This same defect-viz., of supposing that Jesus had no hand in forming the Church, that he left his Apostles without any fixed principles touching the constitution of His Kingdom, and without accustoming them to any habits of discipline or deference to a recognized authority-vitiates the whole of Dr. Cunningham's book, which necessarily goes over the same field that Mr. Cox has explored. The Scottish divine would seem to hold that at our Lord's death all was chaos. Out of this chaos, by laws best understood by enthusiastic evolutionists,

A fabric huge

Rose like an exhalation . .

and, if we are to take Dr. Cunningham's view, as unsubstantial as changing in form as any cloud. All the parts of this miraculous construction do not present kindred features of style, but the disparity is due solely to environment. Well may the Croall lecturer boast that he has "reversed old-fashioned Church history." His style, we regret to have to say, might with advantage have been purged of “old-fashioned" expressions, which savour more of the "Reformers'" gutter vocabulary than nineteenth-century scholarship. Dr. Cunningham doubtless meant what he said when, in his preface, he promised to speak even of his opponents "without asperity." Nevertheless, the amenities of modern controversy, even as displayed in the columns of the Church Times, had hardly prepared us for the survival of the old-fashioned nickname "Massmumbling priests." That St. Augustine should with “savage consistency" preach the "inhuman doctrine" of baptismal regeneration has been too much for the worthy professor's resolution, and with all the consistency of an admirer of the amiable John Knox, he speaks to us of "Romish ecclesiastics," sees in exorcisms only magic and incantations," and cannot withhold his indignation at the way in which neophytes were befooled in the primitive Church. Without asperity and in wailing accents, he depicts the heartless disillusioning that attended baptism. "For years the catechumen had been looking forward to this natal day, and the unveiling of the great mystery, and now, when it was unveiled, he must have felt he was subjected to a disappointment, if not to a cheat. There was nothing but a cold bath, with a ceremonial mainly borrowed from the heathen temples." The severe warning contained in Matt. vii. 6 and the disciplina arcani are justified abundantly by language like this. Yet, distressing as it is to read Dr. Cunningham on Baptism, the pain is slight compared with the horror and repugnance with which his pages on the Sacrament of Love must inspire every believer in It.

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Books of Devotion and Spiritual Reading.

1. The Great Means of Saivation and of Perfection. The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ; or, the Mysteries of Faith. (Centenary Edition of ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI.) Edited by Rev. EUGENE GRIMM, C.SS. R. New York: Benziger Brothers. 1887. 2. A Memoir of Father Felix Joseph Barbelin, S.J. By ELEANOR C. DONNELLY. With Introduction by Rev. IGNATIUS F. HORSTMAN, D.D. Published for the benefit of St. Joseph's Church, Philadelphia. 1886.

3. Five Minute Sermons for Low Masses. By Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul. Vol. II. New York: The Catholic Publication Society Co. London: Burns & Oates. 1886.

4. Life of Father J. B. M. Champagnat, Priest and Founder of the Society of the Little Brothers of Mary. By one of his First Disciples. Translated from the French. London: Burns & Oates. 1887.

5. Sermons at Mass.

By Rev. PATRICK O'KEEFFE, C.C., Author of "Moral Discourses." Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 1887. 6. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. By ALBANY JAMES CHRISTIE, S.J. London: Burns & Oates. 1886.

7. The Life of Brother Paul J. O'Connor. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 1887.

8. Quadragesima; or, Short Meditations for Lent and Holy Week. By a Brother of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons. 1887.

9 The End of Man. In Four Books. By ALBANY JAMES CHRISTIE, S.J. Third Edition. London: Burns & Oates. 1886.

10. Meditations on St. Mary Magdalen. London: R. Washbourne. 1887. 11. The Love and Service of Christ in His Poor. By the BISHOP OF

SALFORD. Salford: J. Roberts & Sons. London: J. Donovan, 27 Wellington Street, W.C. 1887.

12. The Martyrs of England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth beatified by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. Taken chiefly from BISHOP CHALLONER. London: Thomas Richardson & Son.

13. Accessus et recessus Altaris. Ed. Altera. Friburgi Brisgoviæ : Herder. 1886.

14. Server's Missal. Compiled by a Sacristan. London: Burns & Oates.

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1. Two more volumes must be noticed of the English translation of the works of St. Alphonsus now being brought out as a centenary homage to the holy Doctor by his children in the United States. The "Great means of Salvation" is the well-known treatise on Prayer, a standard book of ascetical teaching for preachers, for directors, and for the faithful at large. The meditations and devotions on the Incarnation, which make up the other volume, are also familiar to English readers, thanks to the versions edited some thirty years ago by the late Bishop Coffin--whose translation, we observe, is followed word for word in this new issue. All things are common amongst brethren; but, as literary information, it might have been as well to mention this. One note, as far as we have observed, has been added; but, on the other hand, several of the references are omitted. The indices, however, in both volumes are new.

2. From an artistic point of view Miss Donnelly's memoir of a devoted priest leaves something to desire. It is, if the word may be used, noisy, and it is discursive-the production, evidently, of an enthusiastic but an unskilled hand. But it will be liked and read, especially in the circle where Father Barbelin laboured and died. He was a native of Lorraine, and left his native land in 1830 for the United States, where he entered the Society of Jesus. He spent most of his life at the "old church" of St. Joseph, in Philadelphia, and is still affectionately remembered. He died in June, 1864.