and unbelieving fear of our outstripping the too scanty limits of our Maker's bounty. But we have not room to enlarge on a subject which may seem almost beyond the province of a mere review. Let the Church only fulfil her high office-let her stem boldly the downward current of the age-let her teach her sons and daughters, whether rich or poor, that marriage, far from being a mere matter of civil registration, to be really Christian, involves in it far more than even a solemn form and priestly benediction, and that its triple wreath is entwined of the holiness of Paradise, the love of Calvary, and the brightness of a glory yet unrevealed;-let the Church of God established in our borders fulfil this great office of love, and an antidote will be found for the diseases of the land, which all the maxims of a coarse and grovelling expediency must ever fail to supply.

ART. IV.-History of the Contest between Thomas à Becket and Henry II. Hurrell Froude's Works. Second part. Vol. 2. London: Rivingtons. 1840.

2. The Early English Church.

By EDWARD CHURTON, M.A., Rector of Crayke, Durham. London: Burns. 1840.

WHEN we first saw the goodly volume in which Mr. Froude's History of the Contest between Thomas à Becket and Henry II." is contained, we flattered ourselves, that although we might, perhaps, disagree with some of the conclusions to which that clever, but too hasty deductionist might have come, yet that there would be no chance of combating his premises or questioning his authorities; and that his work would prove to be a mine of facts, diligently and laboriously investigated, authorities carefully weighed, and much information collated from every cotemporary source, as to the motives and acts of the archbishop. We did not, however, expect that Mr. Froude's editors would have given to the world, under such an alluring_title, a mere re-translation and re-arrangement of some of the well known epistles, or that Mr. Froude himself would have been content with the epistles as he found them in the Brussels edition—an edition confessedly compiled by a party, and for a party purpose, and which, from comparison with extant MSS., it is not possible to look upon as other than designedly faulty. Besides the translations, Mr. Froude's portion of the history does not extend beyond the hundred and thirteenth pageabout one-fifth of the work-the remainder of the history being

VOL. IX.-Z

concocted by some unknown hand. The pith, however, of the book, as far as novelties go, is to be found in the extracts, in the form of appendices, given from the "British Magazine," in which we have a full and particular account of what the best authorities are which ought to be referred to, and the least possible reference to them where they ought to be cited. As elegant and correct translations of these letters, we feel grateful to his editors for their making them thus generally known. Valuable as are the epistles-and indispensable they are to forming a just view of the transactions of this period-yet they ought always to be compared with the cotemporary biographies and chronicles, and the party feelings of the writers taken into account, ere any deductions are arrived at. And although it may be much more easy to consult Lupus's printed edition of the epistles than a MS. copy, yet it should be borne in mind that nearly half a hundred letters, most of them of great importance, are to be found in the MS. copies of the letters, which are not to be seen in the edition of Lupus, from which, and from the biography of Fitzstephen, the avowed advocate of Becket, and almost the only cotemporary writer used by Mr. Froude in his history, he and his continuator have arrived at several novel conclusions, in our opinion unnecessary and unfounded. Whilst, then, we comment on these novelties, we will endeavour to give such an account of the leading incidents in the life of Becket as can be found in and proved by the now existing works of his cotemporaries, and other writings either composed or published previous to the compilation of that edition of the epistles from which Mr. Froude has so correctly and elegantly translated-writers of the primate's own party, many of them his own familiar friends, and fellow sufferers with him in the persecution.

The chief authority, then, is that mass of above four hundred and fifty letters called the "Divi Thomæ Epistolæ," written by the principal men of Europe between the years 1165 and 1172. By whom these letters were arranged is a matter of doubt, though the work is generally ascribed to John of Salisbury; their genuineness and authenticity is unquestionable, their value self-evident. These letters, or rather some of them, to the number of four hundred and thirty-five, were edited, under Papal authority, by Christianus Lupus, at Brussels, in the year 1682, professedly from the MSS. in the Vatican. Of them very many valuable MSS. still exist in this country, among which may be particularly mentioned the copy among the Cotton MSS., in the British Museum; that among the Parker MSS., at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; and that among the Lumley

MSS., at Lambeth Palace.* Prefixed to the Brussels edition is the "Quadrilogus," or quadripartite history of Becket, the work of four of that prelate's friends-Herbert de Boscham, John of Salisbury, William of Canterbury, and Alan, Abbot of Tewkesbury. A manuscript of part of this work exists at Oxford, but as we have not been able to collate it, we must be content to quote from the printed edition. In the library of Sion College, and in the Arundel collection in the British Museum, are MS. copies of that life of Becket which was composed by Grim or Grime (the monk of Canterbury who endeavoured to shield off the sword of the assassin by the interposition of his own arm). Of the latter MS. we have been enabled to consult a transcript, through the kindness of one of the librarians of the Museum. Among the MSS. at Lambeth are two cotemporary biographies of Becket-the one, which we will refer to as MS. Lamb. A, professedly compiled by an eye-witness of the greater part of the events recorded by him; the other, evidently the portion of a MS. of Fitzstephen's life of the primate, unfortunately brought to an abrupt conclusion at the moment of his flight from Northampton. Add to these the "Chronicle," of Gervase; the "History of England," by William of Newborough; the "Imagines Historiarum," of Radulphus de Diceto; the "Lives of the Abbots of St. Alban's," by Matthew Paris; and the "Vita et Processus," published in 1495, at Paris. There is also a little book in English, in the British Museum, called "The Life and Ecclesiastical History of St. Thomas of Canterbury," edited at Cologne in the year 1639, containing translations of many of the epistles, and bearing the imprimatur of the Pope; in many parts a close and accurate translation of Fitzstephen's biography.

Every fact contained in such works as these, that in any way makes against the archbishop, may be strictly depended on, and cited without deduction; whilst everything that at all partakes of panegyric must be received with caution, and only after careful comparison with other sources. This, indeed, would be the chief duty of any one who would now sit down to write a biography of Becket; he would have no necessity to search

Cottonian MSS., Claudius, b. ii., containing fifty-three letters not in the Brussels edition. Parker MSS., Corp. Chris. Coll., Cambridge, containing twenty-seven letters not printed. MSS. Lambeth, one hundred and twentysix, contains many not printed, but is sadly mutilated both in the beginning and end. There are also copies of the letters among the Arundel and the Royal MSS., and in the Bodleian, at Oxford. The Cotton, Lumley, and Royal MS. we have been enabled to refer to; and we did hope to have examined those at Oxford and Cambridge, but were unable to do so in time for the appearance of this number.

after new facts, but must confine his attention to a careful weighing of the authorities on which the host of already received incidents depends, and to the considering how far the authority of one historian, or writer of a letter, may be admitted, in opposition to the silence of the rest, or be preferred before the assertions of another. With respect in particular to the letters, wherever he has occasion to refer to one, not in the printed edition, but which is extant in any one of our MSS., he must not be content with the single authority of the Arundel, or the Parker, or any one solitary MS., but carefully trace its existence through as many as he can. And should he feel inclined to quote from the Cottonian collection, he must be doubly careful in his researches, not because it is of less authority than either the Vatican or any other MS., but because, on account of its containing some letters hardly so favourable as those in the Vatican to either Becket or the Pope, it is in great disfavour with the admirers of the one and the followers of the other. Our purpose is more confined; it is to show what was the view entertained by those, for the most part friendly authorities, already enumerated, of those points in the character of Becket which have been so differently represented by every biographer from old Fox to Mr. Froude.

Here let us pause for a moment to notice Mr. Churton's work, one of those earnest little books with which the "Englishman's Library" abounds, and which, from their deservedly large circulation; their vast and increasing influence; their good, honest, and unflinching principles; their general accuracy; pleasant, readable style, and usefully reasonable price; are daily extending their influence among the sensible middle class of this country. When we consider the high character of the contributors to this "Library," the learning and research which the majority of them have brought to bear on their different tasks, we do most sincerely regret to notice this contribution of Mr. Churton's with severity. But when we remember the class of readers for whom the work is professedly designed, we feel bound to retract, as far as this one volume is concerned, our previous commendations of accuracy. With his account of Becket alone we are now concerned, and therefore refrain from enquiring whether or not he has used his authorities in the remainder of his history discreetly and carefully. But besides his errors as to the facts of the contest-having worked himself into a crusade against Southey's "Book of the Church"-he has, in endeavouring to convict that very careful and very accurate author of a gross misstatement, proved his own carelessness, accidental we must hope, and added one more confirmatory

witness to the general accuracy of the doctor. That so gross an error, as Mr. Churton would wish his readers to believe he has discovered in the "Book of the Church," should have remained undiscovered so long, and passed over without a word of rebuke by all the many opponents of that able work, led us to doubt the correctness of Mr. Churton's assertion, previous to any investigation of the mooted point; little, however, did we suppose that the error, the misstatement, and the confusion of the Rector of Crayke was so palpable, so unwarrantable, as on enquiry we discovered, and as our readers will perceive it to be, when they arrive at that part of our sketch where the now for the first time disputed point naturally arises.

When, toward the end of the reign of William Rufus, Robert of Normandy exchanged his possessions in Europe for the laurels that might be reaped on the plains of Palestine, many of our countrymen were induced to follow his banner; among them, Gilbert Becket, a citizen of London, "who had lived quietly and contentedly among his fellows, and was not of the lowest among them." Thus tempted to embark for the Holy Land, after many perils he fell into captivity, and having during his imprisonment converted the daughter of his Saracen captor to the faith of Christ, escaped by her means to his native land. His liberatrix most probably was the companion of his flight; but be it as it may, she arrived in England, was baptized with great ceremony, and shortly after married to her fellow fugitive. Of this romantic pair came Thomas à Becket, attended at his birth, as his cotemporaries recount, with signs and wonders, miracles and prognostications. + The education of the future chancellor was commenced in the religious house of Merton, under the direction of his father's friend, the Prior Robert, and continued, until the death of his mother, in the schools of the metropolis. After that he went to Oxford, and eventually to Paris. On his return from the latter, his father, then ex-sheriff of London, obtained the situation of clerk in the office of his successor for his son. Archdeacon Baldwin, and his brother Eustace, who at that time resided in the house of Becket, pleased with the diligence and ability of the young clerk, pre

⚫ Epist. i. 108.

+ Born A.D. 1118, where Mercer's chapel was afterwards erected, according to Fuller.- Worthies of England, p. 203.

"Beatus Thomas, natus est in legitimo matrimonio, et honestis parentibus, patre Gileberto, qui et vice comes aliquando fuit."-Fitzstephen; MS. Lamb., fol. 1 a.