take its place in the Bible history, and alters it accordingly. The most remarkable instance, in the Old Testament history, is the substitution of Ishmael for Isaac, as the specially favoured son of Abraham, whom he was called upon to offer up in sacrifice. By a strange invention, Samuel is made to prophesy the circumstances of the night-journey of Mahomet. But it is not merely in single incidents such as these that the falsification appearsa colour is given to the histories of Abraham, of Joseph, of Moses, of Samuel, to make them as close a parallel as possible to that of Mahomet, not merely in the faith which the prophets preached, but in the kind of people whom they addressed, and the dangers and obstacles they had to surmount. The falsification is still more gross and revolting in the case of the Gospel history. We need not do more than allude to the blasphemous legend of our Lord's life, made up from the dregs of the apocryphal gospels. It is remarkable that the mightiest and most imposing of false religions should instinctively select, like the first heresies, as its object of attack and denial, the reality of the Crucifixion, though it does not refuse to believe the miraculous birth of the Son of Mary.

It is remarkable how the allegory which St. Paul saw in the history of the son of the bond-woman' is fulfilled with increased exactness in Mahometanism. It takes that place in literal fact which Judaism held typically; when Judaism was overthrown, it seems to have asked for, and obtained, the portion which the Jews coveted, and which, though they sold their birthright to obtain it, they were not allowed to have-the inheritance of the son of Abraham according to the flesh. The Jewish idea of a temporal Messiah has been allowed, in God's Providence, to be realized. Earthly conquest and greatness depending on religion, the cherished hope of the carnal-minded Jew, was assigned without stint to the children of the bondwoman Agarand with earthly conquest, a law based upon ancient truth, yet 'gendering to bondage.' Mahometanism seems more than of earth, yet not of heaven. It stands like a foil and contrast in continual parallel to the Church-the children born after the Spirit.' And the strange legends which we have been noticing hold the same place in relation to their Divine counterparts. They resemble their own wild hierarchy of genii and demonsbeings of a supernatural order; some, spirits of wickedness and deformity; some, of goodness, and beauty; with classes intermediate, in infinite variety, between the two-but not even the highest belonging to heaven.

ART. VII.-Ecclesiastical Records of England, Ireland, and Scotland, from the Fifth Century till the Reformation: being an epitome of British Councils, the Legatine and Provincial Constitutions, and other Memorials of the olden time, with Prolegomena and Notes. By the Rev. RICHARD HART, B.A., &c. Second Edition, much enlarged. Cambridge: Macmillan. Oxford: Parker. London: Bell. 1846. Pp. 1–xxxii. 1-408.

WE had prepared to read with some interest a work ushered in with this imposing title. We not only expected, upon a first reading, to find in it many important facts, but also a collection to which we might afterwards refer with some sort of reliance upon its accuracy and carefulness. Never were we more grievously disappointed. Not having seen, as we remember, the first edition, it is a matter of the greatest surprise to us, how the author of such a compilation could have ventured upon a second.' That it should even be supposed to be called for, proves this at least, viz.:-the great need which there is that some better sources of learning should be thrown open to the English clergy; and that they, on their parts, should not remain satisfied with the ignorant self-sufficient abridgments to which they commonly have recourse. But the Ecclesiastical Records' of Mr. Hart lays claim, loudly and boldly, to a place among books of a higher class than mere abridgments. It is dedicated, as such works should be, we suppose, to all the Archbishops and Bishops of the provinces of York and Canterbury: it is a second edition corrected' it is to 'bring within a narrow compass all that appears really valuable ' in the collections of Wilkins and Spelman :' to 'provide an enter'tainment sufficiently varied to gratify every palate;' (a curious aim in such an undertaking;) it is immediately to elucidate many of the rubrics which remain [sic] in our Book of Common Prayer:' and, to be brief, it is to be pre-eminently useful, by tearing off the mask from popery, and exhibiting her as she 'really is.'-Preface.

any

Now it certainly is excusable, that, with so many ends in view, the author of such a comprehensive work has not been able to arrange his materials, viz.: Wilkins and Spelman,' even in shadow of order. Take for example the running titles of a few pages: Ignorance of the Clergy-Stipends-PardonersPreaching Friars-Taxation-Liberties of the Church.'-pp. 106, 107; again, Appeal from the Pope to the Council, is followed by Golden Rose sent to King Henry VI.' pp. 56, 57. Once more: upon p. 210, Concomitance and half Communion 'modern;' and on p. 211, The six Stages of Human Life.' Nor is the matter which Mr. Hart cites to elucidate these ever-varying subjects always to the purpose: p. 161, is headed

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Usurpations,' i. e. of the friars; and we have a set of canons showing how the monks of Canterbury were punished by dining for several days on one kind of fish; that no broken meat should be wasted: that no spitting is to be allowed in lavatories, &c.

Mr. Hart tells us more than once, how anxious he is to present to the reader a faithful picture of the state of religion in 'the middle ages,' p. 325; also, to make his work complete,' p. 400 which is very difficult from the narrow limits of his work,' p. 402. And yet a very large portion of the volume is filled with stuff having an appearance of learning, but commonplace to the last degree, and not bearing in any way upon his subject. Thus we have whole pages filled with accounts of practices and customs of the primitice Church, which any one may find at much greater length, and far better explained in Bingham; notices of rites and observances of foreign Churches in the West, which Du Cange has supplied, a book neither excessively rare, nor out of common reach; descriptions of some books and vestments of the Greek Church; many pages, six and seven together, of modern Roman customs and abuses; giving a flat contradiction to the title-page by which we have been ourselves so misled, Ecclesiastical Records of England, Ireland, and Scotland, from the Fifth Century till the Reformation.'

Nor must we omit to speak, before we pass on to other points, of the vulgarisms with which the book abounds. How the clergy were to shave their heads according to the true 'canonical cut.'-Introduction, p. ix. That there was no difference between the costume of a bishop and archbishop; (except the cross.)—p. 64. Again, Mr. Hart speaks of the fancy value of reliques.' p. 230; of books being outrageously dear, and the clergy ignorant, and much more to the same purpose; of delinquent monks being sent to Coventry,'-p. 325; of the Confirmation and Baptismal Services being parts of the Liturgy,-p. 204-209: of people before the Reformation in England, being Roman Catholics,'-p. 145, &c., and, to name no more, of the baptism of bells,' p. 246. Now we say all these are vulgarisms; because they could not be committed by any writer who with any just pretensions to learning set about such a work as Mr. Hart's. Take the last for example: he ought to have known that it is most improper to speak of the baptism of bells: it may be a common but it is a stupid error; and if Mr. Hart will condescend to read it, we will refer him for a plain account why it is so, to Angelo Rocca, tom i. pp. 163, 164, who has written a treatise upon bells, which will repay his perusal.

We shall now proceed to point out some few of the gross blunders with which this work, if we may so dignify it,

abounds. But first, we must notice the following wise remark, which meets us almost at the beginning; we are being informed of the regulations, &c. of ancient synods and councils; upon which Mr. Hart's observation is, that in England, as well as 'everywhere else, the decision of the council was frequently 'biassed by the opinion of one celebrated individual.'-P.6. Yet, clever and acute as this dictum is, it is but a diluted plagiarism from a really witty saying of Selden, we believe, about the Puritan divines at Westminster, that, whilst they talked much about the influence of the Holy Ghost, he had observed that their decrees were very often settled rather by the odd man.

We shall not attempt any classification of the errors which we are about to notice, but take them as we go on, here and there, a few from the many: they will be amply sufficient to decide the capabilities and qualifications of the author.

At p. 157 we are told, in a note, which is aptly attached to some Canons about the punishment of delinquent monks, that, ' according to Ingulphus, De Priv. Eccl. Croylandiæ,' (?) every 'monk of fifty years old was called a sempecta, and had a 'private apartment assigned to him, with a clerk or servant 'to wait upon him; and they had their meals privately,' &c. Ingulphus says nothing of the kind: if he had, much difficulty as there now is about the 'sempecta,' he would have made his account utterly incomprehensible. Half, at least, of the monks of Croyland would have been fifty years old, so that all the rest would have been employed in waiting upon them, or as their guests. What Ingulphus says, is:Quinquagenarius autem in ordine sempecta vocandus.'-Hist. Croylandensis, p. 49, every monk of fifty years' standing. And if Mr. Hart had read the entire chapter, he could not possibly have made so ridiculous a blunder. It was an opportunity, however, not to be lost, of displaying some acquaintance with Ingulphus, and this is the result. To mislead readers as ignorant as himself, is of trifling consequence.

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P. 176, we find, (although the work professes to be about England before the 16th century,) The eucharist is not ad'ministered to the people in the Church of Rome during the 'celebration of the Mass, when the priest alone communicates, 'but at a separate time.' Now, strictly, this is a mere and absurd truism. Of course, if the priest alone communicates, the people do not receive, and Mr. Hart might really have given his reader credit for sufficient acuteness to find out this for himself. But we presume that the learned author means us to understand, that the Eucharist is never administered during Mass to the people; which is untrue; as a reference to the Ritus celebr. Missam, prefixed to the Roman Missal, will assure him, Tit. x. 6, beginning, si qui sint communicandi in Missâ.' We

recommend, by the way, before Mr. Hart publishes a third edition, that he should purchase or borrow a copy of the Roman Missal: he will find it useful.

P. 177. The celebration of Mass barely occupies half an 'hour, yet in Picart's Religious Ceremonies there are thirty-five engravings, each representing some distinct gesture of the priest during its continuance." Picart's engravings represent High Mass, which occupies nearly two hours.

P. 178, we are favoured with explanations of certain varieties of the Missa. Missa Præsanctificatorum, celebrated on Good Friday, with elements previously consecrated and reserved.' The consecrated Host only is reserved; the chalice, never. Any instance to the contrary, if it can be found, is an abuse. The 'Missa Sicca, or Navalis, celebrated on shipboard, in which all the 'usual ceremonies were retained, with the exception of the con'secration and communion.' Much more was omitted; and this is an untrue account of the Missa Sicca. The Missa Pricata, offered up by a priest for the repose of the soul, in the 'presence only of the assisting acolyth.' The repose of the soul,' as a distinction, has nothing to do with the Missa Privata. The Missa Bifaciata, or Trifaciata, in which, that 'he might gain several stipends for one sacrifice, the priest 'recited the service over and over again as far as the offertory, and concluded with one Canon.' This is sufficiently correct: but the Church of Rome, for there is no evidence of any introduction of this Missa into England, has always protested against, and reprobated, so great an abuse; vailed in a few places for a short period. 'celebrated in consequence of a vow.' nothing to do with the Missa Votiva. 'offered up upon a portable altar near a dying bed, were the 'principal varieties, independently of High and Low Mass.' That is, the Missa Pricata above is not Low Mass, which it unquestionably is. And as to the 'Viaticum,' it is really too absurd an account of it for us to criticise. There are numerous canons which forbid the Eucharist to be consecrated in a sick-room, which may be seen in Wilkins' Concilia, (another work which we recommend Mr. Hart to read, if he can,) and the Viaticum' was the reserved Host, administered to the dying. Now we will venture to say, that it will be difficult to match, in so small a space, so many blunders as there are in the above few lines, from any book of the like pretensions. Always, however, excepting the learned author himself; none but himself can be his parallel:' and this parallel we are frequently enabled to find in the Records.'

and it only preThe Missa Votica, Never: vows have And the Viaticum,

P. 194, is a good specimen of Mr. Hart's logic. Some quotations are given from Egbert's Penitential,' directing what is to be