wise Protestant readers may not accord this unique work its proper place among the standard histories of Maryland, but relegate it (too hastily) to that limbo of oblivion where lie so many narratives rightly or wrongly termed "sectarian." The story of early Catholic Maryland can henceforth rest upon its own merits. The author's preparatory statement that the treatment of his subject by a Catholic is beset by difficulties "which the non-Catholic historian can afford to ignore" does not therefore appeal to us. A fact is a fact, whoever tells it; in the end real facts must prevail over all prejudices. Still less does it seem necessary to array "bare facts in the form and color furnished by the comments of non-Catholic historians." The mere statement of such method is calculated to arouse the very suspicions which it is intended to allay. But these are blemishes only, and can be removed.

The merit of this composition is enhanced by the circumstances in which it was written. During its preparation the author was constantly occupied with parochial and administrative duties. Nevertheless he found time to execute the thorough and painstaking researches which, as said above, lend to his work a permanent value and give it a rightful place among all future works of reference on the matters of which it treats. We commend his example to all our young clergy, being convinced that where there is a will there is a way, and that in spite of their numerous cares not a few of them are both able and called to accomplish intellectual work at once high in character, scientific in form, and very serviceable to the Catholic Church in our beloved country.

We earnestly recommend the book-chiefly to American Catholics who will find it a full defence of their claims to be the pioneers and at all stages of our country's history the most consistent advocates of religious toleration. We have too long allowed this crown to be worn by others. It is to be hoped that our indifference shall one day yield to such convincing work as Father Russell sets before us, and that we shall eventually repair our neglect of the past and correct the unappreciative temper from which unselfish Catholic historians like John Gilmary Shea so notably suffered.

LUCIAN JOHNSTON,

English Monastic Life. By Abbot Gasquet, with numerous illustrations, maps and plans. 3d edition (New York, Benziger, 1905). 8vo. Pp. 326.

Parish Life in Medieval England. By Abbot Gasquet, with numerous illustrations (New York, Benziger, 1906). 8vo. Pp. xix, 279.

In these volumes, valuable if only for their well-chosen bibliographies and many, often rare and unique, illustrations, Abbot Gasquet has placed before us a fair and reliable account of certain sides of the public religious life of medieval England. The volume that deals with the monastic life describes in as many chapters, the material parts of the monastery, its rulers, its officers (obedientiaries), its daily life, and external relations. A chapter devoted to "The Nuns of Medieval England" (pp. 154-180) is of surpassing interest, and should be read in connection with Montalembert's classic account of the Anglo-Saxon nuns. The good nuns of the thirteenth century little suspected that their account books would once be investigated, not for proof of honest and intelligent administration, but for the revelations they offer concerning the social and religious life of the nunneries. A number of maps exhibit the distribution of monasteries throughout England according to the different branches of the great Benedictine brotherhood (Black Monks, Cistercians, Carthusians, also the Regular Canons, and the Premonstratensians); there is, moreover, a map of the distribution of the nunneries. A glance at the index exhibits the many uses of this little manual of the monastic life in Catholic England. Not less useful or interesting is the volume on the parochial life of medieval England. It treats successively of the nature of the parish, the parish church, the parish clergy, parish officials, parochial finances, church services, festivals, the administration of the sacraments, the pulpit, parish amusements, guilds and fraternities. To relate in detail the contents of such a work would carry us too far. Suffice it to say that in these two volumes Abbot Gasquet has produced a little encyclopedia of the ecclesiastical and religious life of the English people while yet they were united in the Catholic faith.

THOMAS J. SHAHAN.

Psallite Sapienter (Psallieret Weise). By Dom Maurus Wolter, O. S. B. Third edition, Vol. V. (Psalms 121-150). B. Herder, Freiburg, 1907. Pp. 565. $2.45.

The fifth and final volume of the third edition of the classic commentary on the psalms by Dom Maurus Wolter lies before us. It is unnecessary to repeat what has been already said in the Bulletin (XIII, 284) concerning this admirable work. Besides the "Liturgical Register" or index of feasts, masses, and ceremonial occasions, with reference to appropriate psalms and commentary, there is a General Index that enables the reader to profit easily by the great wealth of psalm-exegesis which is stored up in these five volumes.

The Christian view of human life, and the religious philosophy peculiar to a genuinely Christian society, have been drawn "plenis haustibus" from the Psalms. In the measure that they are familiar to us we put on Jesus Christ whom they so constantly announce and describe, and in the measure that we are ignorant of them we fall away from the Christian ideal and become of the world worldly. Dom Wolter's book is a delightful encyclopedia of the Psalms, at once pious and learned, mystical and practical, ascetic and historical in content. It ought to be in the library of every priest who knows the glorious tongue of Goethe and Schiller. and even in the family library of all who speak or read the same.

THOMAS J. SHAHAN.

A Day in the Cloister. Adapted from the German of Dom Sebastian von Oer, St. Martin's Abbey, Beuron, by Dom Bede Camm, St. Thomas' Abbey, Erdington. Second edition (Benziger, New York, 1906). 8o. Pp. 291.

"This simple and unvarnished description of life in a monastery," says the translator, "may not be without interest, especially as so much curiosity is often evinced as to the details of monastic life. . . . the author has simply recounted what he has seen, and known, and lived." The seventeen chapters are, therefore, a delightful and an accurate account of the ordinary routine of existence in a house of Benedictines. To mention the titles is to exhibit the substance of the book: The Monastery Door, The Cloister, Before the Statue of the Founder, Night, The Divine

Office, Morning Labour, The High Mass and the Monastery Church, The Abbot, The Frater or Refectory, Recreation, The Lay-Brothers, The Library, The Sacristy, The School of Art, The Novitiate, Departure. It is like a brief "précis" of the religious life of Europe during a thousand years, a summary of medieval civilization and spiritual refinement, even though, as the German author puts it, one day in the cloister is as much like another as the waves of the sea are to some lonely light-keeper. The translation is spirited and idiomatic, and the work deserves a place in convent and parochial school libraries as at once a little history of the Benedictine temper and works, and an impulse to the higher and purer and more godlike life of the spirit.

THOMAS J. SHAHAN.

A Synthetical Manual of Liturgy. By the Rev. Adrian Vigourel, S. S., professor of Liturgy in the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris. Translated from the French with the author's approbation by Rev. John A. Nainfa, S.S., St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, Md. (Baltimore, John Murphy Co., 1907). 80. Pp. 251.

Fr. Nainfa deserves much credit for presenting in an English dress this excellent little "précis," or summary of the science of Liturgy; with its help the student may easily follow, still better, may deeply interest himself in the fuller oral teaching of the professor, while it also enables him to correct and round out his class notes, not the least benefit of a good text-book. A good bibliography accompanies the little work and a very full index in bold type adds to its serviceableness. As to the content, it is scarcely necessary to add that the youthful student will find here. all the essentials of the venerable liturgical lore, while the busy priest may easily replenish from these pages his somewhat forgotten or uncertain ceremonial wisdom. The book is well-printed, portable and neat in size, and in every way worthy of a place among the "necessary books of the average ecclesiastical library."

THOMAS J. SHAHAN.

The Story of Ancient Irish Civilization. By P. W. Joyce (Longmans, London, 1907). Pp. vi, 175.

Boulogne-Sur-Mer, St. Patrick's Native Town. By Rev. Wil

liam Canon Fleming (London, R. and T. Washbourne, 1907). Pp. VI, 92.

St. Brigid, Patroness of Ireland. By Rev. J. A. Knowles, O.S.A. (New York, Benziger, 1907). Pp. 277.

Rambles in Eirinn. By William Bulfin (New York, Benziger, 1907). Pp. 456.

The Rhymed Life of St. Patrick. By Katharine Tynan (New York, Benziger, 1907). 4o. Pp. 31.

1. The distinguished author says of this little book that "it has been written and published with the main object of spreading as widely as possible among our people, young and old, a knowledge of the civilization and general social conditions of Ireland from the fifth or sixth to the twelfth century when it was wholly governed by native rulers." It is also written to teach many English and Anglo-Irish persons that "the old Irish, far from being barbarians, were bright, intellectual and cultured people; that they had professions, trades, and industries, pervading the whole population, with clearly defined ranks and grades of society, all working under an elaborate system of native laws; and that in the steadying and civilising arts and pursuits of every day they were as well advanced, as orderly, and as regular as any other European people of the same period." In reality it is a kind of catechism of medieval Irish civilization based on the author's admirable"Social History of Ireland" in two volumes described at length in the Bulletin (1904, X, 69-80), and previously reduced to a single volume of 598 pages. Dr. Joyce rightly says: "The ordinary history of our country has been written by many and the reader has a wide choice. But in the matter of our Social History he has no choice at all. For these three books of mine have, for the first and only time, brought within the reach of the general public a knowledge of the whole social life of Ancient Ireland." An exhaustive index adds greatly to the value of this book that is small in size but not in importance, reliability, or general interest.

2. In this little work Canon Fleming of London makes a learned and ingenious plea for Boulogne-sur-mer in Gaul as the true birth