pamphlet up to the scientific treatise. He has combated the infidel party, and has entered the lists with Schulte. At Cologne he has been entrusted with the theological training, in its last and most perfect stage, of those who are destined for the service of that great and historical Church. After twenty years of preparation, spent not only in study, but in teaching and in practical composition, he has now gathered up the results of his articles, monographs, and brochures into an organic whole, and has begun to commit to the public a system of theology in which every part has been separately and severely put to the proof. He is composing, therefore, not an essay, but an Opus Magnum, and he does not aim at the ephemeral but the lasting. This method he has learned from S. Thomas and the mediæval universities. "Why, then," it may be said, "does he not write in Latin?" We reply firstly, that he is intending to publish in due course a Latin version of the work before us. We reply in the second place, that, as regards any immediate effect in Germany, a Latin work would be almost useless. A standard work, for the nineteenth century and for Germans, though it be meant also for posterity, cannot be enshrined in Latin. Its shrine would very likely prove its tomb. A standard work need not refuse to be seasonable. If it is intended as a contribution towards the further establishment and propagation of Catholic truth in Germany, it must endeavour to speak in the speech of its readers. Now, the most pressing want over there is to know the Church. Non-Catholics have seen it only in caricature; hereditary Catholics are not so conversant with its nature and office as they ought to be. And generally, on the Continent, there are not two questions, one touching Revelation and the other the Church, but only one, and that in the concrete. It is the inquiry about the living Catholic Church. In England we are still proving that Catholicity is Christianity. But abroad, "Are we Christians ?" really means, "Can we be Catholics according to the Vatican Council?" Those who put this question, and those who, with or without the faith, are listening for an answer to it, do not, one in ten of them, enter into the spirit of a Latin treatise. They may know the words, yet not be able to construe the language. It is dead to them, a relic of the Middle Ages, and, like the German of their forefathers, to be classed as no longer intelligible. The Professor desires to speak well and to strike home. We think he has done wisely in adding this chance of success to his undertaking. Advantages of this kind, drawn from the state of the times, have combined with still higher causes in suggesting his method. It is the construction of his book which gives the best motive for admiration. He has sought examples in nature of that growth and progression, that organic and living development by which Theology reflects the mind of the Church, and, in its perfection, gains some of the persuasiveness of Holy Scripture itself. The Summa of S. Thomas goes on a plan, not of mechanical arrangement, but of internal fecundity; one truth leads to another, and these are to be viewed in conjunction, as parts of a spiritual system. Professor Scheeben has made an exhaustive survey of the age, and finds, in the Church and outside of it, a reason for once more exhibiting the The infidel attacks upon dogmas in a system where every part is alive. revealed truth in Germany, more than anywhere else, were directed by system. The refutation of them is more and more getting systematized, as their nature becomes apparent. An age of reflection like ours is sure to interest itself in intellectual structure, and the Church has never been averse to this. Indeed, the course of theology depends not a little on success in comparing one truth with another, and building up relations between them. Professor Scheeben, deliberately pursuing this method, has wrought out the treatise "De Locis" in an entirely new form, and with surprising originality. What Melchior Canus did but begin, he has almost completed. As might be anticipated, the good effect does not cease at the last pages of that treatise. Principles once made out and a commencement taken at the right point, all the other treatises assert their places for themselves; Theology sssumes a unity which aids the memory, whilst it contents the understanding; definitions become every where shorter, clearer, more suggestive and introductory of their subject-matter, and there is an order in their succession which hitherto has escaped attention. And since the main fault of any theory, to a German, is that it should be partial, or einseitig, we are constantly learning how heterodox difficulties were met by incautious exaggerations of the opposite, and how Catholic Theology was thereby hindered of its integrity. An insight is thus given into the history of dogmatic growth; we know hardly any so novel and interesting an addition to its sources. Again, the living errors which he has to meet, oblige him to restrain the abstract method of Scholasticism, and give it a practical, we might almost say, a devotional bias. He does not seem to us, on this account, to have failed in scholastic lucidity, or the inflexible grasp of argument, which made some of the masters so unrelenting. He would hold, we venture to suppose, that all human science, the most theoretic, is in some sense practical. Undeniably, it is so in the present age. But more than any other Dogmatic Theology has its human and social aspect. The author has a beautiful description of the necessary qualities of a theologian. He includes amongst them earnest loyalty of heart, childlike simplicity, simple faith, and holy living. Theology he calls "Scientia Sancta." His text is not only, "Crede, ut intelligas," but " Si vis intelligere, ama." He does not believe that idle curiosity or mere scientific interest can lead to a profound or satisfying knowledge of the divine truths. Catholic Theology is no human invention, nor must it be treated as such. It is the science of living faith. All these considerations weigh with him in the placing and proposing of his arguments. He desires to win over the reader, he begins, therefore, at once to persuade, explain, forecast, elucidate; and uses proof or testimony where it is capable of doing the greatest service. But his manner is not rhetorical, except so far as clear selected statements are wont to make an impression on the imagination as well as on the mind. He keeps, in the portions we have read, the "auream mediocritatem" which leaves the absolutely ideal to contemplatives, but does not fall into the other extreme of too artistic or, still less, of sophistical presentation. VOL. XXVII.-NO. LIV. [New Series.] 2 N His learning seems universal in extent; by which we mean to say, not that he has read everything,—if ever that was possible, it must have been very early in the history of the world,-but that he has had access to all the acknowledged authors, and has used them as they were needed, copiously and to the point. If we may "hint a doubt" as to his entire success here, we would ask whether he is acquainted with the English writers since the Reformation. He knows Stapleton certainly, and reference is made to Bull; but we remember scarcely any other he has named. At the head of each section he indicates the "literature" of the subject, not meagerly, but so as to give real and frequent help to students who desire (his students certainly will) to continue their reading in after-years. The many pages devoted to Middle Age theologians and philosophers are a welcome gift, and an encouragement to the reviving cultus of them. As we have no room for details, we forbear to quote examples of his masterly execution. But it would be unjust to pass by the theory of tradition, revelation, and the teaching authority of the Church in relation to the hierarchy and its jurisdiction.* Many, on reading it, will gain such new light that their previous knowledge may suffer disparagement in the brilliancy of it. The accretion to science promises to be very great and of unquestionable value. Professor Scheeben's information here is large, but it is the disposition of it all which leaves the impression. Every word, whether meant so or not, is argument; misconceptions fade away of themselves, difficulties turn into explanations. But we can give no picture in a few strokes which will describe the original. It is our hope to make use of the wealth here placed at our disposal on many future occasions. If the remaining two volumes prove equal to the first, we shall feel bound to envy our German brethren the possession of so learned, loyal, and untiring an author. Nor can there be any doubt that the end will answer to the beginning. In reference to matters of still recent interest, we would lay especial stress on the seventy pages (from p. 190 to p. 260) which treat of the juridical forms of ex-cathedrâ judgments, the infallibility of minor censures, the kind of assent due to the latter, and the authority of the Roman Congregations. Our readers will find in them much that has not been arranged or methodically collected before now. But we do not suppose they will come upon any statements differing from those which we have had occasion to put forward in this REVIEW. Quite the contrary; Professor Scheeben has written clearly and precisely in that sense, which appears to us the only one warranted by the facts. He lays down, for instance, that there are no solemnities or formalities fixed and determined, by which to separate decisions which are ex cathedrâ from those which are not. Bulls, briefs, encyclicals, documents like S. Leo's letter to Flavian, and the Syllabus, the capitula of Trent and of the Vatican,all these are infallible,† though their form varies indefinitely. In the sub*We should also instance the carefully written and instructive section on the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son. + Not of course that every brief or encyclical is such, but that infallible decisions may be issued in this form. ject of minor censures, and the tendency to diminish the force of authoritative declarations, he enlarges upon historical details which aid us to understand the nature, by showing us the origin, of the dispute and the tendency. But we must content ourselves with briefly mentioning these points. A full appreciation of the author's merit could be gained only by going into details. Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters ("History of the German People since the Close of the Middle Ages"). By J. JANSSEN, Professor of History at Frankfurt-on-the-Maine. Vol. I., Part I." The Intellectual Condition of Germany at the Close of the Middle Ages." Friburg: 1876. WITH ITH no small amazement and surprise has the republic of letters in Germany given ear to the prologue of the history upon which Professor Janssen is now engaged. The tradition has so long endured,it is almost at the end of its fourth century,-that the Reformation was, if not in religious, at all events in intellectual and scientific ideas, the starting-point of a progressive era, and a protest against the reign of ignorance. And especially, men are wont to say, was this the case in Germany. The Church had laid an anathema upon science; the Empire, following in her footsteps, had proscribed and put to the ban all attempts at enlightenment; scholastic teaching, exemplified in Aristotle and Scotus, was the sworn foe of classic literature, of Cicero, and Thucydides, and Plutarch; out of the Renaissance came the Reformation, and what was the former but a translation from darkness to light? from the absolute monarchy of the Popes to the democratic freedom of conscience and opinion? If it is not established beyond contradiction that culture in Germany has been always Protestant,-that Luther is to High German what Dante is to Italian,-that civilization worth the name could never be perfect till the rise of modern science had furnished it with apt conditions,-if these things have to be given up, where is there an apology for the theses of Wittemberg and the Augsburg Confession? If, before Luther was heard of, there existed a world of art and learning and freedom in which all classes and professions found their congenial place, how can the indispensable necessity of a change be made out? How, finally, can Joseph de Maistre be silenced when he declares that history for three hundred years past has been a conspiracy against the truth? No wonder that Germany has taken the alarm at assertions so fraught as these are with danger to the received text of her history. Our distinguished author has achieved a success of the first consequence. His undertaking is scarcely in its opening stage, and already he has struck one of the heaviest blows at "the great Protestant tradition," yet without assuming an aggressive style, or departing from the line which is naturally traced out for him. It is the very height of his triumph that authenticated and documentary evidence has made the history, almost without his intending it, into an apology for the medieval church and the Christianity of the Roman See. Well nigh three hundred pages allow us to pass in review the chronicles, diplomas, and biographies, the poetry of the people, the sculpture and painting, which describe to the eye how men lived, and looked, and wrought, in a word, the whole inner and outer of German society when it was just on the eve of the Reformation. We may examine the particulars and gather up the innumerable references; we may listen to details which cannot be questioned, because they are open to our inspection in the churches and cities of Germany at this day. The book has been called a mosaic; certainly it is as real, minute, and solid, as the shining fragments from which mosaics are formed, and it has something of their finished lustre. This, however, is a natural result of combining into one view so many facts truthfully narrated. Embellishment, the special pleading of the historian, there is hardly any. Where the truth itself has charms, it may be left to make its own impression. Professor Janssen, who has a practised hand in composition, does not require to be taught this, and moreover, the story is too full to permit of lengthened reflections. But, in their absence, every line seems to call for a Protestant answer, and that becomes the more impossible as the evidence steadily accumulates. It must not be thought that any polemic is to be met here. Pleasanter reading, of the sort, we do not remember since the beautiful prose of Kenelm Digby in the "Broad Stone of Honour" and the " Ages of Faith." Though the fifteenth century beheld, not the growing, but the diminished and lessening glory of Catholic religious life, it had, still, a fair vision before its eyes. No man can read of all that the war of the peasants and the thirty years' war swept away, without a regretful sense of loss. In this respect, but in this alone, there is a certain affinity between the spirit of Professor Janssen and that of Mr. Froude. But, perhaps, historians are awakening generally to the greatness of medieval art and culture. If so, we may look for important results from the circumstance hereafter. We had intended to summarize the information conveyed in this volume. But our catalogue, even if brought down to its least dimensions, would still be too large. The Professor's authorities extend over ten pages, and they are used abundantly. In the first section German education in all ranks and classes, and the consequent spread of books and printing-presses are treated as they have never been treated before. This part is simply a new book. The other chapters are on "Art and Manners"; they give us an account of painting, architecture, music, poetry, the religious drama, and the life of the people as it is made visible to us out of all these. Under the head of "Painting" are also included the subordinate arts of working in glass, miniature, and tapestry, and this is followed by an interesting chapter about engraving on steel and wood. A noticeable feature is the recurrence of historical portraits; we are introduced to the lives and fortunes of such men as Nicholas of Cusa, Trithemius, Wimpheling, the Van Eycks, Albert Dürer, Holbein, Lucas Cranach, Sebastian Brant, and a host of others. The purpose here, undeniably, is to show how religion exalts and fosters the rarest natural gifts, and how it is possible to |