It may be painful, but it cannot be astonishing, to learn that in Wolverhampton, in the diocese of Birmingham, a man was found-it will excite no surprise to be told that he was "an influential member of the Town Council," about five years ago maintaining that it was possible to purchase indulgences and absolutions for money, and that they were even cheap, some as low as two shillings; he added also the very useful information, probably inaccessible to anybody lower in dignity than a town councillor, that a man or woman who had judiciously traded in the market might, in virtue of indulgences purchased, "commit any sin, from reading the Bible to murder, with impunity." Well, certainly, in that case, we should expect the "impunity" as a matter of course; for we see no advantage whatever in spending our money in the purchase of an indulgence, when intent on murder, if "impunity" could not be guaranteed; the money without it would be thrown away.

This admirable Town Councillor-we regret that Dr, Green has not given us his name, for he deserves to be handed over to posterity-does not tell us whether reading the Bible be a very great offence or only a small one; and we also are left in the dark as to the number and nature of the offences and their names which fill the gap between it and murder; that is probably a knowledge that will never be vouchsafed to us.

A great many people, like the illustrious Town Councillor, have maintained that an indulgence is leave to commit sin or sins, and a great many people also have been asked to prove that assertion. Hitherto we say, not with any special satisfaction-for we see none in it-the proof has been kept back. Dr. Green was very nearly being rewarded for his researches, for Mr. Collette offered to enlighten his ignorance, or, as Mr. Collette might naturally believe, his pretended ignorance, seeing that Dr. Green must have been by that time a prosperous trader in indulgences and absolutions.

Mr. Collette was very confident; he had by laborious study and immense learning discovered a very common book, in fact, a dictionary, nothing else but the "Prompta Bibliotheca" of Ferraris. It is, of course, a book kept very secret among us; for it has gone through many editions, and we believe has been twice reprinted within the last twenty years, notwithstanding its bulk, Mr. Collette's sagacity was too much for our secrecy, and he was also able to use the book, having apparently discovered that the key to its contents was a knowledge of the order in which the letters of the alphabet are arranged in Latin. Having got the book and mastered the principle on which it is methodized, Mr. Collette discovered the word "Indulgentia " in its proper place, and in large type; but he was well aware that the discovery was not an easy one, and so he told the world that the long-desired proof was to be found in a certain volume of the work in question, and on a certain page. That is the history of the great discovery. Now for the fact. Mr. Collette quotes a passage from the Dictionary of Ferraris, and to his mind it is a conclusive proof that Indulgences are, or were, sold, and that Indulgences are also permissions to commit sin. He is quite satisfied that he has found us out. "I maintain," he said, "if I hold a plenary indulgence, that it operates for the past and present, with a

clean sheet to commence again; but if I hold a present indulgence of the above form, 'to be valid for all future times,' I need not get the license renewed, for it operates as a forgiveness of all future punishments for future sins to be hereafter committed." (Introd., p. viii.)

Nothing can be plainer than this. Mr. Collette explains the effect of the "form," and is quite satisfied with his conclusions. Indeed, he has no doubts whatever, for he gives the form, and what is more to the purposeat least to his purpose-he translates it into English as follows; of course, it is the latter portion of a Papal Brief :

"We mercifully grant in the Lord a plenary Indulgence and remission of all their sins, by these presents, to be valid for all future times, with a power of applying the same plenary Indulgence to the souls in purgatory." (Introd., p. vii.)

That is highly satisfactory for the living sinner, but we do not see the use of it for the souls in purgatory, seeing that they cannot sin. That has probably escaped the researches of Mr. Collette, so we leave it.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Collette was sincere, and that he believed all this, for he quoted his document in Latin. The translation was for the service of his friends, to whom the knowledge of the Latin tongue is a science beyond their reach. Here are the words in Latin :—

"Plenariam omnium peccatorum suorum Indulgentiam et remissionem misericorditer in Domino concedimus, præsentibus, perpetuis, futuris, temporibus valituris, cum facultate etiam eandem plenariam indulgentiam applicandi animabus in purgatorio."

It is a great pity that this document was not accepted at once, and in the sense of Mr. Collette. Dr. Green thought otherwise; and he has in the most ruthless manner pointed out that the translation itself requires every possible indulgence, because it sins, as the saying is, against a rule of grammar which admits of no dispensation. It is true Mr. Collette might have revived an Oxford doctrine current there before the end of the thirteenth century, by which his translation might be supported; for the learned disputants in grammar there maintained that ego currit was perfectly good Latin when Kilwardby and Peckham were Archbishops of Canterbury. Dr. Green spoils the whole affair, and observes that Mr. Collette" has applied the term valituris—a participle in the ablative case— to the terms indulgentiam et remissionem,-substantives in the accusative,— an essential rule of grammar is against him." (p. x.) This is the mischief: grammar is against the discovery.

It does not appear that Mr. Collette has ever expressed an opinion on the interpretation which Dr. Green gives, and we are therefore unable to say whether he thinks it necessary to respect the rules of grammar in his exposition of Papal Letters.

But Dr. Green's book is not to be judged of by this discovery of Mr. Collette, and the further discovery of its worthlessness. The book is really a learned, calm, and clear discussion of the doctrine of Indulgences, written in a most sober style-exhibiting in every line the most careful conscientiousness. It is clearly a work done with great pains, and nobody

can read it without either learning something new, or having his learning already in possession made more his own by the singular minuteness with which the learned doctor has entered into his subject. He has exposed the blunders of Mr. Collette and men of that mint, that is true; but he has also done much more than that: for he has explained many points about which, ordinarily, men's knowledge is wont to be hazy. He has put forth most clearly, and yet most concisely, the doctrine of Indulgences, and explained it so that children might understand it. He has further taken pains to tell us what the Taxæ Cancellariæ, &c., really mean, so that even the most obstinate heretic is left without excuse, if he were to maintain that there is in Rome a tariff of sins. He has done a good service also by exposing the dishonest dealings of heretics with the book in question, which being nothing else but the table of fees to be paid for the parchments and the writing therein, was interpolated and altered for evil ends. It would be as true to say that the English judges sell justice, as it would be to say that the Pope does so; and nobody dreams of throwing dirt on the ermine, as men say. Well, the papers and writs necessary for a lawsuit in England have to be paid for, not to the lawyers only whom a client employs, but to the officers of the court also. But we pay more in England than they do in Rome, and there are in Rome many papers of great importance which can be had for nothing, for no payment whatever; and we have never heard that an English court of justice issues out any papers whatever without payment, unless it be blank forms, which in that state can be of no great service to anybody.

In one thing we are not able to agree with Dr. Green; he has not been just to Tetzel in our opinion.

"The principal delinquents, however, were the eleemosynary quæstors: and their offences were of various kinds. One of the most notorious

of their number was a Dominican friar, named Tetzel.” (p. 124.)

In another place (p. 127) he speaks of the "puffs of Tetzel." For our own part we disbelieve the stories told of Tetzel; they are on the face of them utterly incredible, and they come to us from a drunken friar and his friends. Of course if there be untainted testimony against him, let him be given him up to the censures he deserves; but if not, we should be inclined to believe, and we do believe, that he was a holy and learned friar, probably a man of great repute in his order, and most certainly of blameless life. Heretics and revolutionists do not usually attack bad men: they respect them and leave them alone, if it be dangerous to use them. It is against good men, against the servants of God, that they hurl their arrows. To us it seems certain that Tetzel would never have been spoken against as he has been if he had not been a much better man, more holy and more learned, than his adversaries, who were neither the one nor the other.

On this subject we beg our readers to read again what was written in this REVIEW for July, 1867; or, what is more to the purpose, the work of Dr. Gröne, on what the observations then made were grounded.

Thoughts on some Passages of Holy Scripture, by a Layman. Translated from the French. Edited by JOHN EDWARD BOWDEN, Priest of the Oratory of S. Philip Neri. London: Burns & Oates. 1872.

HIS little book contains in the most unpretending form twenty-four

ments. They are not exactly either sermons, or meditations, or commentaries, but partake of the character of all three. The author's preface informs us that they are the private notes of a father of a family, never intended to be published. This accounts for the fact that he has followed no fixed order or system. We are glad that he was prevailed on to publish them. He has not aimed at anything very deep or very original, but he has expressed in a fresh and simple style the reflections of a devout and thoughtful Catholic reader of Holy Scripture.

His little book is a useful contribution towards a kind of spiritual reading much needed for devout people in the world, and we could have wished there were more of it.

Shall France perish? A Sermon delivered by His Lordship the BISHOP OF POITIERS, in the Cathedral Church of Tours, at the opening of the Solemn Triduum in honour of B. Jeanne Marie de Maillé, on Sunday, April 7, 1872. Translated from the French, with the permission of the Author, by a SECULAR PRIEST. Together with a Sketch of the Life of the Servant of God. London, Dublin, and Derby: Richardson & Son.

THE

HE Holy See has few more vigorous supporters, the Church of France few more eloquent Bishops than Mgr. Pie. We trust therefore that this striking sermon of his will obtain both for the Holy See and for France many heartfelt prayers from English and Irish readers. The medieval Saint whose cultus has recently been approved of by the Holy Father, gives the Bishop occasion in this sermon to contrast mediaval and modern times, and to point out that the great superiority of the former over the latter consists in this, that notwithstanding many undoubted evils, the Christian principle was then in a marked manner the principle of all, and on the foundation of this principle it was always possible for order when disturbed, to be re-established. In those days men kept their baptism; in other words, the principle of faith. We may add that the Bishop of Poitiers seems to us to form a far truer estimate of modern times than Père Gratry, in the work which we have already noticed. There are many eloquent passages in this sermon. Prefixed to it is a Sketch of the Life of B. J. M. de Maillé, whose name deserves to be held in reverence by all nations for the great services she rendered to the Church and the Holy See in the fourteenth century.

Those who are acquainted with the other publications of the "Secular Priest," will know how thoroughly they may trust the faithfulness of this translation, and at the same time how spirited and vernacular they will find its English.

Catholic Progress: The Journal of the Young Men's Catholic Association. London: Burns & Oates.

N April we expressed a hope, that we might give in our present number a

to do this however, it would be necessary to consider its May and June articles on the higher education of English Catholics; for this is a subject, which no other can exceed in importance. But it seems to us, that under existing circumstances we cannot with propriety comment on those articles; and we reserve therefore further notice of the periodical to some future occasion.

The Damnatory Clauses of the Athanasian Creed rationally Explained in a Letter to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. By the Rev. MALCOLM MACCOLL, M.A., Rector of St. George, Botolph-lane, with St. Botolphby-Billingsgate. Rivingtons: London, Oxford, and Cambridge.

MR.

R. MACCOLL has contributed what seems on the whole a forciblyargued and eloquently-written volume to the agitation now rising in the Church of England for the abolition of the Athanasian Creed, in the form of a letter to the Prime Minister. The subject is one with which we hope to deal at greater length in our next number; but meantime such of our readers as take an interest in the controversy, will doubtless acquaint themselves with Mr. MacColl's work, written as it is in defence of those diminishing Catholic verities which the Church of England still respects. A great part of the book was revised while in proof by Dr. Newman; and we observe in a note that Mr. MacColl also consulted Dr. Murray, of Maynooth, as to the exact authority attributed to the Athanasian Creed in the Church of Rome.

It is so rare to find such pains taken to be accurate in the representation of Roman Catholic doctrine by writers who are not Roman Catholics, that we cannot but be touched by the love of truth and the good feeling which it shows. There is one eminently amusing episode in the discussion, in which the writer deals with Mr. Ffoulkes's characteristically obtuse and grotesque supposition that the Athanasian Creed was a joint forgery of Charlemagne, Alcuin, and Paulinus. We elsewhere notice F. Jones's comment on this theory; and Mr. McColl, with great wit and equal point, shows its ludicrous absurdity. We have not had time to master the volume as a whole; but we hope to do it more ample justice when we are able to consider the question in general.