ground becomes more debateable. Here the author of the "Natural History of Enthusiasm," whose study of that period is really profound, has mingled praise with blame. While proclaiming the insufficiency of modern writers "Mosheim and Milner, for example," -on the early ages of the Church and the writings of the Fathers, he says that "the first gives the mere husk of history, and the other nothing but some particles of pure farina," meaning the extracts from their works. "Nevertheless, with all its very great defects, Milner's Church History is incomparably the very best that has ever been compiled."-p. 244-5, 3rd edit. As the writer inclines in doctrinal sentiment to Milner, it is less surprising that he should have given him this praise, than that he should have seen any defects. We presume that the eulogy is to be taken as meaning that Milner's work comes nearer to Mr. Taylor's idea of what a church history ought to be than any other. The reader, however, will be more astonished at finding that Mr. Taylor's antagonist, Mr. Newman, concurs in praising Milner. In the preface to his translation from Fleury, when speaking of the deficient method of Mosheim, he says, that he "writes in a tone of piety and seriousness, and with an evident desire to do justice to the great Saints of Christendom, and to illustrate the power of Christian principles in their lives and writings." After specifying what he considers Milner's defects, which, however, mainly amount to an attachment to his own views, (and in which indictment every writer of the kind must be included,) he thus concludes, "Yet, in consideration of the love he bore to the Fathers, in an age when few voices were raised even in apology for them, he is ever to be mentioned with kindness and honour." -Advert. p. iv.

The medieval period is the one to which Milner has devoted least attention. From the sixth to the thirteenth century no longer space is allotted than to the third, fourth, and fifth. This period, however, is not the most inviting in ecclesiastical history. It is one of darkness, of ignorance, and of crime, relieved by lights which are peculiar to the times. It can only be treated of sufficiently by antiquaries,

and Milner was no antiquary. Even glossology contributes its aid, as will be seen by a case which we relate, because we are not aware that any of Milner's critics have adduced it. According to the traditionary account, John Scot, Bishop of Dunkeld (1202), procured the separation of the county of Argyle from his see, and its erection into a separate diocese, because the people spoke only Irish (Erse), and he did not wish to receive emoluments from a people whose souls he could not edify. Milner quotes Collier for this story, and valued the spirit it exhibits so highly as to remark, that "John Scot deserves to be regarded as a practical teacher of bishops and pastors in all ages."—Vol. iii. p. 169. But Keith, in his catalogue of Scottish bishops, has thrown a doubt on the alleged motive.

This is the common story; but if that was [the] real fact, it would seem to speak as much against John's retaining the parts even near to and about his cathedral of Dunkeld itself, where it is certain the Irish prevailed till of late years, and is not as yet quite worn out.* So that the large extent of the bounds of the bishopric would appear to have been Bishop John's true motive for the disjunction." (p. 285, ed. 1824.)

As we approach the time of the Reformation, the writer appears to feel himself more at home. Professor Smyth, in his Lectures on Modern History, says (vol. i. p. xiv.) "There is a very good account of Luther in Milner's Church History." In Lecture X. on the Reformation, he expresses himself more fully, though he appears not to distinguish exactly the continuator, Dean Milner, from his brother.

as a most entertaining and valuable accession to our general stock of information, and one that may be considered accessible to every student." (vol. i. p. 265)

And speaking further of the Dean, the continuator, he terms him "One whom I know to have been so able, and whom I conceive to have been so diligent." In confirmation of the opinion given above, we can say, that Luther's opposition to the indulgences is detailed so fully, and so well condensed, as to leave little to be gleaned from other quarters, as we have found in making use of it for other purposes. Not only is the reader informed, but the student is furnished with arguments; a remark which may also be applied to the account of John Huss and the Council of Constance at an earlier period.

Milner's work has been called superficial, which really means no more than that he did not construct it upon a larger scale. But by what standard is this defect to be estimated? There is an established height for military recruits, but none that we know of for literary candidates. No doubt, Ains worth's Dictionary is superficial, compared with Facciolati, and yet is not likely to be supplanted by it, except in a few extensive libraries. Besides, for a work to be read, it must lie with in a readable compass, and though by exceeding this it may become more useful for consulting, it loses in general value what it gains in that respect. Mr. Newman greatly prefers Fleury (to which indeed his peculiar tastes directed him); but Fleury, we suspect, is rarely read through,-including the continuation, of course. The Magdeburg Centuriators are more copious than either, but to read them is the labour almost of a life. Lessing has keenly pointed out the distinction in an epigram on Klopstock, thus translated by Mr. Taylor of Norwich, in his work on German Poetry: Great Klopstock's praises all express, Yet who has read him through? Be mine to give the critics less, The readers more to do.

But it is now time to examine how Mr. Grantham, the present editor, has performed his task. It has grown, as he says in the preface, out of the controversy respecting it which was

carried on a few years ago. "The editor, having had his attention drawn to the mistakes and inaccuracies interspersed throughout the former editions of this valuable work, by the letters of Messrs. Maitland and King on the subject, determined to set himself about revising the whole." (p. v.) The plan which he proposed to himself was, 1. To compare all translations with the original, and give it in a note, where it seemed desirable. 2. To verify references and increase their number. 3. To remove errors. His own corrections in the text, and additions in the notes, are included within brackets, and the appendix has been transferred to them both, as occasion required. A few repetitions have been removed, "and a translation of, the ancient Vaudois Poem The Noble Lesson,' has been substituted for the general account of it given by Milner." (p. vi.) As might have been expected, that portion of the work which was executed by the Dean, has required comparatively little correction, but we must remember that the harder part of it was his brother's.

The late controversy on the merits of Milner made such an edition of the work desirable, indeed necessary, and Mr. Grantham has devoted himself to it with the requisite industry. We give a few specimens of his editorship. At p. 112, vol. ii. he observes that in Milner's abridgment of Augustine's Confessions "The sense is given with sufficient accuracy, and sometimes the original is very closely as well as elegantly rendered, though at others greater latitude is taken, and much is compressed in few words." At p. 348, he vindicates Milner's account of the monks in Arabia, as not being too gloomy; while at p. 497, he agrees with Maitland, that Milner had misunderstood Pope Nicolas's praise of Theodora. At p. 44, vol. iii, he considers the charge of Manicheism, brought against the Albigenses, &c. as generally false, but allows that it may have existed to a certain degree. For our part, we do not attach much importance, in the way of evidence, to the acts of the Inquisition of Toulouse. It is not likely that its members were better qualified than the Italian inquisitors, and what they were we may

learn from Calderini, a jurist of the 14th century, who in his Treatise "De Hæreticis," gives them little credit for discernment between the guilty and the innocent. At p. 88, he differs from Milner, in saying, "I have not met with any satisfactory evidence, that Meginher does deserve a place in this history." At p. 244, a short but clear account of the scholastic divinity is given in a note, where the editor observes, that "Like Plato's school, it has had several ages or periods: the ancient, the middle, and the new." At p. 260, in opposition to Milner, he tersely remarks, that "Politics seem to have sought Wickliff, and not Wickliff politics." At p. 439, where it is mentioned, that the emperor Maximilian threatened to have Tetzel "flung into the river at Enoponte," it should have been translated Innspruck. At p. 445, he confirms Milner's statements that the Scriptures were "little known to the world" in Luther's youth. The fourth volume exhibits less of annotation, because there is less need of it in that portion of the work.

The correction of the numerous references is a great advantage, and perhaps it is only after some experience that Mr. Grantham's labour in this respect can be duly appreciated. He has observed the proper medium between a paucity and a superfluity of notes; and neither overlooks the strictures which have been made upon Milner, nor defers to them implicitly. His object was evidently Conservative, to rescue the work from attempts at suppression; and this he has attained, not by counter-assertions of perfection, but by a judicious course of editorship, such as he considers the Milners would themselves have undertaken if it had been in their power. The difference, then, between this and former editions may be summed up by saying, that they may suffice for the reader, but for the student this is particularly desirable.

A History of the Martin Marprelate Controversy in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. By the Rev. W. Maskell, M.A. Post 8vo. pp. 224.

THIS work is a reprint, with considerable additions, of an article entitled "Martin Marprelate," in the third quarterly number of the Chris

tian Remembrancer. (April, 1845.) The subject has been noticed, at less or greater length, in all the ecclesiastical histories of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Even Dr. Johnson, in his "Essay on the Origin and Importance of Small Tracts and Fugitive Pieces," written for the Introduction to the Harleian Miscellany (see his Works, ed. 1792, 8vo. p. 190), has given a slight outline of the subject. The principal notices are by Neal, in his History of the Puritans, of which it forms a brief but essential part; by Fuller, in his Church History; and by Mr. Soames, in his Elizabethan Religious History. Of these the most preferable is certainly Fuller's, for while it is as large as the nature of his work allowed, it is distinguished by a beautiful spirit of candour, which surveys the Iliacos muros not only infra but extra. Still a more regular history of the controversy was wanting, and Mr. Maskell has accordingly addressed himself to the task. His virtues, as Lord Byron said of an eminent historian of Greece, "are learning, labour, research, wrath, and partiality;" which last the noble poet called virtues in an author, because they make him write in earnest. For our part, however, we avail ourselves of this way of giving an opinion with a different object, in order to discharge a double duty,-of praise to the author, and of caution to the reader. Mr. Maskell has filled up a void in ecclesiastical history; but some of the materials he will probably be anxious himself to remove on a future occasion, and to supply their place with others. It would be useless, at this moment, to argue with his honest and ardent partialities, and therefore we leave them to the milder operation of time. To his wrath, we would just hint, that the sharper a sword is, the more likely its edge is to be turned in dealing a blow, than to inflict a wound. We would also observe, that in contending against opinions expressed in the latter part of the sixteenth century, he has fallen back on the principles of the earlier part of it. The best cure for this mode of viewing things is, a careful study of the writings of Erasmus; of course not his anti-Lutheran ones, where he assumes the partizan, but his general and practical ones. Mr.

nothing to do with it in their eyes. We suspect that this is merely an inversion of a trashy remark of Chateaubriand's, who, speaking of the wars of the League, the troubles of the Low Countries, &c. asks, "Why did all this take place ?" and tartly answers the question thus, "Because a monk chose to think it wrong that the pope had not granted to his order, rather than another, the commission to sell indulgences in Germany," (Essay on Revolutions, trans. 1815, pp. 381, 385,) the falsity of which may be excused on the ground of the noble writer's ignorance, augmented by his bigotry. Miss Corner does not adopt the latter fallacy, but says of the indulgences, "which many people thought was a pernicious privilege." This lady's view of one of the greatest profanations of religion merges into a matter of individual opinion.

We copy the following paragraph to shew what hardships the Austrian Protestants were subjected to, for we presume this would not have been said if it were not indisputable.

"The established religion of Vienna was the Catholic, and, as no Protestant churches were allowed there, the Protestants were obliged to go to Presburg, which

This statement which has just been quoted occurs at the end of the seventeenth century.

At p. 179, speaking of the Empress Maria Theresa, the authoress says, "It was in her reign that the Jesuits, who were much disliked by the Protestant princes, were suppressed in Germany." How the error in this paragraph arose we cannot tell. The word Protestant seems to have been violently forced in, and has nothing to do with the subject, for it was by Romanist princes that the good fathers, as the authoress afterwards calls them, were "much disliked," and this because they knew them well, while Protestant princes were unconcerned in the matter. Any protection that they obtained was from non-Romanist sovereigns, such as Frederic II. and the Empress Catharine of Russia.

Our readers are now enabled to judge of the nature of this work. It professes to be one of a series entitled "The Historical Library," but in what degree it should serve as a specimen we are unable to say.

Bastern Arts and Antiquities. Square 16mo. pp. 366.-It is justly observed, in the Introduction to this volume, that "in order to a correct understanding of various parts of Scripture, information is needed on many Eastern Arts and Antiquities." A particular reference is given to the transaction recorded in Luke v. 19, where a person unacquainted with the Oriental mode of building would be at a loss to know how it could be effected. As Oriental usages remain unchanged, for they depend, it may be observed, in a great measure on climate, there is no need of recondite research, but chiefly of accurate observation. This volume includes the peculiarities of religion, domestic life, warfare, music, money, &c. among the Eastern nations. We quote one particular, which will show the use of such a work. "Wells have been used by the Orientals both for hiding-places and prisons. To the former of these practices there is an allusion 2 Sam. xvii. 18, 19; and empty cisterns (made for the preservation of rain water), sometimes with mire at the bottom,

were used for the latter purpose by the Jews, as we see from Jer. xxx. viii. 6; Zech. ix. 11. Instances have been known of persons in the East being confined in wells for a considerable length of time. Waring, in his Tour to Sheeraz,' mentions a descendant of Nadir Shah, who was confined in a well for two, and then three years, and was indebted for his escape each time to disturbances which distracted Khorasan.'"' (Art. Wells, pp. 365-6.) Taken in its particular point of view, this volume may be regarded as a sort of Biblical Cyclopædia. It is embellished with several appropriate engravings.

Shells and their Inmates. Square 16mo. pp. 214.-Hitherto the science of conchology has, for the most part, been confined to Mr. Sowerby's and other expensive publications; though when we use that word, we do so in the sense of the late Mr. Talboys, the Oxford bookseller; for when we once objected to the price of some work or other, he remarked, that it