Our readers will be pleased to learn, that the portraits of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York are to be continued. They will at once detect the hand of a Master in these Sketches. THE JESUITS. We have in our possession (through the kindness of the "Historiographer of the Early Church") authentic and rare documents pertaining to the origin, history, and character of the "Society of Jesus," so called, which we shall arrange for the Review, as soon as the pressure of other engagements will permit. Their recent expulsion from Rome, and the number of them who are finding refuge in our own country, render reliable information respecting them desirable. The Review of "Bishop Chase's Reminiscences," is necessarily deferred. Several Books, just received, will receive attention in due time. All Articles for publication should be sent to us at least three months previous to the issuing of the number, in which they are designed to appear. It is due to the Rev. Francis Vinton, to say, that he is not responsible for the grammatical inaccuracy noticed in our last Number, by the Reviewer of "Updike's History of the Church in Narragansett." We beg leave to call attention to the terms of the Review on the third page of the cover. THE Nall. CHURCH REVIEW. No. III. OCTOBER, 1848. "KENRICK ON THE PRIMACY." ART. I.-The Primacy of the Apostolical See Vindicated. By FRANCIS PATRICK KENRICK, Bishop of Philadelphia. Ipsa est petra quam non vincunt superbæ inferorum porta. Augustinus in Ps. contra partem Donati. Third edition. New York: Edward Dunigan and Brother, 1848. pp. 527. 8vo. IN our preceding number we placed at the head of our first Article, the title of this book as it appeared in 1845. The third edition was then only announced. It has since appeared, and has again been advertised by the publishers in the Churchman, even in a bolder tone. We have already disclaimed any belief that the Editor or the proprietors of the Churchman had any agency in this matter. The fact is, that our religious newspapers, as they are called, have been too careless on this point, and have too generally admitted advertisements of sectarian works. Our own booksellers, as a mere matter of trade, have bought and sold such works; and for the purpose of patronizing our newspapers, have inserted and paid for advertisements in them which, in our estimation, are hardly consistent with the obligation "to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word." With these remarks, we proceed, as we promised, to consider the testimony of the Church with regard to the Roman Primacy down to the fourth General Council, or the middle of the fifth century. We shall show, as we trust, that the idea of any primacy at all grew out of political considerations, and the Union of Church and State. The rise and fall of Empires is the most awful and portentous sign of God's sovereignty. The fate of Rome in particular, the fourth great empire of the world, is more especially interesting to the thoughtful Christian, because its elevation and decline is so intimately connected with the fulfillment of prophecy, and the prosperous and calamitous condition of the Church. Not quite seven centuries and a half before the incarnation of the world's REDEEMER, two brothers of a royal race, but associated with outlaws of abandoned and ferocious character, began to lay the foundation of Rome. Its whole territory was less than eighteen miles square, inferior even to the insignificant Duchy of Modena : nor, with the exception of the Sabine coalition, were its limits extended for more than two and a half centuries. The war with the Tarquins and their allies, after it became a Republic, increased its dominions in Italy; but it was not until the first Punic war that it stepped over the straits of Messina, and by means of a rudely constructed and inconsiderable navy, first landed on the shores of Africa. After the final conquest of Carthage, which did not take place until six centuries of its existence had rolled away, its power began to increase, like the wealth of the Usurer, with almost incredible rapidity. As the time approached for the incarnation of CHRIST, it seemed as if the whole civilized world, panic struck by its terrible power, or fascinated by its dreadful brilliancy, rushed into its open and voracious jaws, and by rapid deglutition, was converted into its unwieldy and enormous members. Rome, in her proud language of" Urbis et Orbis," became a synonyme for the habitable world; and in the ordinary course of human events, her hundred and twenty provinces were consolidated into one universal Empire, under the unlimited sway of a single man in the person of Augustus Cæsar. Such was the rise of Rome. Augustus affected, during the whole of his long reign, to hold his sovereignty by decennial periods, at the will of the Senate and Roman people. Pretending to relieve them from trouble, he placed all the nearer and more quiet provinces, nominally under their sway, reserving to himself exclusively, the more distant and more turbulent. In the latter, he quartered the flower of the Roman legions, and thus reduced the army under his sole, and irresponsible dominion. According to this division, the Roman officers who governed the several provinces were known by various Latin titles. The provinces dependent on the Senate were called Proconsulares, Consulares and Prætoriæ, according as they were ruled by Proconsuls, Consuls or Prætors. Of those governed by Augustus, the smaller had over them Præsides, and were termed Præsidiales, while the larger were subjected to the Legati Cæsaris, Præfecti Augustales, or Legati Proprætores; whence they were called Proprætoriæ, Legatoria, Augustales, Consulares. At times, extraordinary officers were appointed under the names of Proconsules extraordinarii, Tutores, Quæstores and Procuratores. Sometimes, however, the Procurator was the same as Præses. These we have said were Latin titles; but in Greek, as there was but one principal generic title for the provinces, (rapxía,) so was there but that of Eparch applied indiscriminately to all governors of provinces. Such appears to have been the state of the provinces till the time of Hadrian the successor of Trajan. There were other divisions into Kingdoms, Provinces and Free Cities, concerning which it is unnecessary here to speak, unless it be to remark that the free cities were those which, by the consent of the Roman people, continued to be governed by their own magistrates and laws; some by the terms of their original submission, others by grant, and others by purchase. Those colonies which bore the wolf as their emblem, were governed by Roman laws and had the privileges of Latin citizens. To many of these was granted the honor of being Metropolitan, or of having equal rank with the chief cities of the several provinces, and of being Autocephala or independent of their jurisdiction. Hence there were often several metropolitan cities in the same province, distinguished as first, second, third, &c., the dignity of Primate being applied to the first. (Frid. Spanhemii Geog. Sac. et Ecclesiast. Distrib. Rom. Imp. ante temp. Constant. M.) In the time of Hadrian some changes appear to have taken place, but what they were is doubtful. Spanheim supposes that the Captains of the Guards, called Præfecti-prætorio, at that time two in number, were advanced to be next in dignity to the Emperor. (Spanhemii Geog. Sacr. et Eccles. ut sup.) Certain it is, that these military chieftains acquired, by means of their soldiery, a power which was often fatal to their masters. This power, weakened by Diocletian, was finally subdued and regulated by Constantine. The division of the Empire into the Eastern and Western, first proposed under Antoninus and Geta, did not take place till the time of Diocletian. But under Constantine, it was again united; and in the new arrangement which then took place, he appointed four instead of two, Præfecti-prætorio, to whom he submitted the administration of the Provinces. Zosimus, to whom we are indebted for this information, enumerates those of each division. (Zosim. Hist. Lib. ii. cc. 32, 33.) As it coincides exactly with the most ancient Notitia Imperii now extant, of which we shall presently give an account, it is unnecessary to transcribe it here. The coincidence shows that no great change took place from the renewed union under Constantine till the final division of the Empire under Arcadius and Honorius. For although the transfer of the seat of dominion to Constantinople took place in A. D. 330, and after the death of Constantine his power was divided among his sons, yet the form of the four præfectures was constantly retained. The Notitia to which we allude is that which goes by the name of the Synecdemus of Hierocles the Grammarian. It is defective, and we have attempted from other sources to supply the deficiency. It must have been written between the final division of the empire under Arcadius and Honorius, A. D. 395, and the promulgation of the Theodosian Code, A. D. 438; probably as Gibbon thinks, before A. D. 407. It enumerates one hundred and eighteen Provinces, divided into thirteen Dioceses, under the four Præfecti-prætorio. It also states the names, number and order of the cities in each province; but as the enumeration of these would far exceed our limits, we shall give only what we think important to be known by our readers, by inserting the name of the first, or Metropolitan city. This, be it carefully observed, is the civil arrangement of the Empire introduced by Constantine the Great. The arrangement of the several provinces existed substantially in the time of Augustus, though some few were subdivided afterwards. I. PRÆFECTUS-PRÆTORIO ORIENTALIS, |