after. The works announced above offer the same qualities of interest, authenticity and abundance of information that we have frequently noted in the earlier volumes of this series which must eventually be of prime importance for an equitable history of the Revolution. Each work has an excellent index, also an historical introduction that makes known the items of chief importance for the personal history of the author whose letters or memoirs are offered to the public.

Le Maître et L'Elève, Fra Angelico et Benozzo Gozzoli, par Gaston Sortais, Lille, Desclée, De Brouwer et Cie (Paris, 1906).

M. Sortais offers in this volume, illustrated richly and with much taste, an excellent introduction to the artistic history of the great Florentine mystic painter Fra Angelico and his delightful pupil Benozzo Gozzoli. The canvasses and frescoes of the Angelico are described with an insight and sympathy that extend to the work done by his pupil Benozzo in the convents of Montefalco, the Medici Chapel at Florence, at Gemignano (that wonderful Pompeii of the Middle Ages) and in the Campo Santo of Pisa. Good bibliographies of both painters and full catalogues of their works add value to this charming book.

Archivum Franciscanum Historicum. Fasc. I. Ad Claras Aqnas (Quaracchi, near Florence), 1908. Pp. 208.

The remarkable interest in things Franciscan that has been witnessed during recent years has resulted in the publishing of periodicals exclusively devoted to the discussion of questions of Franciscan History; while considerable space has been given to Franciscalia by existing weeklies and monthlies of high critical standing, both Catholic and Protestant. The Franciscan movement thus fostered by the active and impartial interest of scholars of every shade of religious opinion rendered necessary or, at least, very desirable the publication of a periodical such as the Archivum. Accordingly a committee composed of Friars specially qualified for the task, was appointed by the Minister General of the Friars Minor, the most Reverend Denis Schuler; and, in several meetings, the

title, scope, plan, and editorial management of the new periodical were thoroughly discussed, the result being the publication of the first number of the Archivum Franciscanum Historicum in January of this year.

The main scope of the Archivum is threefold: a) to afford an arena, so to say, for the scientific and exhaustive discussion of mooted questions that at present engage the attention of Franciscan students; b) to make public the results of modern research into the sources of Franciscan History; c) to record the progress, development, and achievements of the Franciscan movement as a whole. It may not be unprofitable to refer briefly to one or other of the principal articles of the present number that come under the first division of Discussiones.

Father Paschal Robinson in his usual facile and delightful English considers in detail some of the more important chronological difficulties that beset the student of the life of St. Francis. He calls attention to the fact that as a whole medieval biographers cared little enough whether the exact dates in a Saint's life were under the eyes of their readers, provided its vivifying spirit entered their souls. In other words their primary aim was to edify. This he considers the head and front of their offending in matters chronological. He reminds us in conclusion that despite the gratifying results of modern research "there are gaps to be filled in; discrepancies to be explained; questions to be answered." Needless to say we cherish the hope that Father Paschal may be able "to return to the subject in a later number of the Archivum."

The authenticity of the Portiuncula Indulgence is the subject of a very able paper in German by Father Heribert Holzapfel. In our present critical age we are too apt to rest the proof of an important historical fact solely upon documentary evidence; and to eschew tradition, especially of the popular sort. This method of procedure is an example of a well known fallacy extra dictionem. Hence other causes than ignorance may very easily be adduced to account for the remarkable silence of the early Legends in regard to the Portiuncula Indulgence. In the first place the Pope granted the Indulgence with extreme reluctance and St. Francis knew well that both the Cardinals and the Bishops of Umbria were opposed to a favor till then unheard of. Hence St. Francis confided the concession of the Indulgence only to a few of his intimate companions. After the death of the Saint, the religious began to come

to St. Mary of the Angels to gain the great "Perdono d'Assisi " which then gradually found its way into contemporary chronicles.

The fifth article which is in Latin from the pen of Father Michael Bihl is at once entertaining and instructive. Yet we cannot but deprecate the rather ungenial attitude which the writer assumes towards the well known Jesuit whose "Way of the Cross " he subjects to a critical examination. Father Thurston's book has been translated into French; and it would have been well had Father Bihl indicated more precisely whether he is critizing the English original or the French translation. For an author is very often at a disadvantage in a translation, and the smack of irony that Father Bihl complains of (note 1, p. 53) in regard to the use of the phrase "good Franciscans" does not appear at all in the English. Criticism to be of value in these days must have the two qualities of geniality and sincerity; nor must a critic censure an author for an unintentional or supposed mistake. The error should be pointed out for the author's benefit who will correct it in duc time, if he love truth. In view of these considerations the animadversion contained in note 3, p. 52, might be softened without loss of effect.

Under the second sub-division of Documenta the Prima Legenda chori de S. P. Francisco, edited for the first time by Father Theophilus Domenichelli and the Testimonia Minora saeculi XIII de S. P. Francisco deserve special mention. The remainder of the Archivum is divided into Codicographia, Bibliographia, Commentaria ex Periodicis, Opera Recensita, Chronica, and Libri accepti. In the course of time, however, it may be found advisable to simplify this slightly complex arrangement of headings.

For the rest the Archivum Franciscanum Historicum deserves the generous support of Franciscan students wherever they may be. It has that guarantee of usefulness and permanence which attaches in general to all undertakings inaugurated by the old religious orders. We heartily wish the new periodical prosperity and length of days.

STEPHEN DONOVAN.

BOOK NOTICES.

The house of Victor Lecoffre (J. Gabalda et Cie, 90 Rue Bonaparte, Paris) continues the publication of its admirable series "Les Saints," the volumes of which have been regularly noticed in the BULLETIN. Among the latest issues is SAINT SEVERIN, APÔTRE DU NORIQUE (453-82), by M. Andrè Baudrillart, a little masterpiece of historico-critical description and politico-social analysis, certainly the most charming account yet written of the famous saintly "Innominato" of the latter part of the fifth century, at once the missionary of the barbarian hordes and the civil intermediary between them and the conquered Romans of Noricum (Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia). Another attractive life is SAINT BENOIT LABRE (1748-83) by J. Mantenay of the Univers, a delightful pen-picture of one who became as a fool for Christ, and who will always have a special interest for the faithful of the Church in the United States, since it was the study of his life that drew to the Catholic Church the first New England Puritan convert, Rev. John Thayer of Boston.

Dr. Giovanni Mercati, well known to the learned world as one of the most active savants among the Roman clergy, has rendered an important service by his edition of several hitherto unknown texts of a learned and saintly Theatine liturgist (OPUSCOLI INEDITI DEL BEATO GIUSEPPE CARDINALE TOMMASI, Rome, 1905, pp. 55). It is no. 15, in the valuable Roman collection of "Studi e Testi," devoted to original studies and documentary publications in hagiography, patrology, literature, etc. Cardinal Tommasi's suggested reforms or "Emendations" in future editions of the Roman Breviary, Missal, and Ceremonial, as made known in the most important of these new texts, are of great interest to-day in view of the new pontifical commission that deals with these long-pending questions. The most important suggestion of Tommasi is that the private recitation of the Breviary be largely reduced to the Psalms, though here the "pristina orandi regula" of the Roman Church ought to be carefully examined, and the recitation of the psalter brought back to the more spiritual and mystic form it once had in the ancient rite of the Roman Church, that he carefully distinguishes from the abbreviated rite of the Roman Curia to which we owe in no small measure our present Breviary. The most critical modern liturgists would not disavow the good method suggested by Tommasi (1649-1713) for the improvement of the liturgical books of the Roman Church, i. e. a careful study of the older liturgical books out of which Breviary, Missal, and Ceremonial were compiled, and a complete collection of all the oldest and best manuscripts in Rome and Italy (to which Dr. Mercati rightly adds: and in the rest of Europe).

Had the latter suggestion been acted on at the end of the sevententh century many valuable liturgical manuscripts would not have perished or disappeared, but would now be accessible in the great European civil or ecclesiastical repositories of documents.

The Historical Seminary of Dr. Kirsch, in the Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland, began in 1905 a series of important publications, to be based on original research and executed with all due critical skill. The first work of this important new series is the valuable contribution of the Cistercian student, P. Dr. Eberhard Hoffmann (DAS KONVERSENINSTITUT DES CISTENZIERORDENS IN SEINEM URSPRUNG UND SEINER ORGANISATION, Freiburg, 1905, pp. 104). Dr. Hoffmann presents us, he says, rather with an introduction to this important element of the medieval Cistercian influence (fratres conversi, barbati, laici) than with a thorough study; the latter can be attempted only when the materials in the archives of the Cistercian monasteries, also the "Acta et Statuta" of the General Chapters of the order, are more fully published than is yet the case. Nevertheless, from the earlier Benedictine materials, the great monastic documentary works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the valuable contributions of modern writers (Winter, Sackur, Vacandard, Lamprecht, G. Müller, Berlière, Janauschek, etc.) he has put together a most useful study that throws new light at once on the internal organization of the famous Benedictine reform of Citeaux in the twelfth century, the contemporaneous development of agriculture in France and Germany, and the social transformation of the period that was more largely affected than is generally known by the introduction into the Cistercian body of great numbers of laymen from the lower orders of feudal life.

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Among the late apologetic studies on the question of the condemnation of Galileo we call attention to the opusculum" of the learned Barnabite, Padre Giovanni Semeria, of Genoa (STORIA DI UN CONFLITTO TRA LA SCIENZA E LA FEDE, Rome, Pustet, 1905, pp. 80). Its calm, objective and equitable temper, and its good critical method make it a useful addition to the similarly important studies of Vacandard (ETUDES DE CRITIQUE HISTORIQUE, 2d. ed., Paris, 1906, 295-387) and of G. Sortais (LE PROCÉS DE GALILÉE, Paris, 1905).

The Sacrament of Extreme Unction, though treated in all manuals of dogmatic theology, has long been awaiting a sufficient monograph corresponding to its religious dignity and the historical and literary interest that centres about it. In his excellent study of this Sacrament (DE SACRAMENTO EXTREMAE UNCTIONIS TRACTATUS DOGMATICUS, New York, Pustet, 1907, pp. 396) Fr. Joseph Kern, S. J., professor of dogmatic theology at Innsbruck, has produced a doctrinal and historical treatise of much value. Its five books treat of Extreme Unction as a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ, of its purpose and nature, its effects, its minister and subject, and its qualities. His work is especially valuable for the large space devoted to the early history of the Sacrament; we hope in some