"That these holy men, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough, that they, living at their ease, did no good to the public, resolved to do it hurt instead of good."

And the note writer, fearing to be outdone, adds

“The Reformation has not cooled the zeal of this class of men for their own interest. On this point things remain in statu quo."

"Our Saviour found the temple of Jerusalem converted into a market-place and den of thieves by the Jewish priesthood. The spirit of the clergy has ever been the same."-ibid.

In p. 49, the author having made a jester or fool say, that he gave no more alms than if he were a priest, the editor's remark is, that "the clergy have not deteriorated since the Reformation. They remain just as they were when Cardinal Morton's fool had the painting of them." And again, ibid., “One meets a tolerable sprinkling of priests, wherever there is sin or pleasure to be found, from the fox's tail to the Parisian salon."

I could, Mr. Editor, fill two of your numbers from the same source with remarks as piquant and as JUST as the above; but as these specimens may serve to convince your readers of Mr. St. John's ample qualifications for selecting and illustrating the "noblest efforts of the wise and good" of former ages, I forbear; content to leave him henceforth in the hands of your reviewer. AN ENGLISHMAN.

DOMINUS DEUS NOSTER PAPA.

SIR,-Your correspondent "A," by a reference to the Apologia of Bishop Jewell, has indicated the sources whence we may gather the existence of that blasphemous appellation which the papists adorn the Roman bishop with.

Having myself discovered it by other means than the above, I feel it a debt to make the fact more clear. We read thus in a gloss of the canonists upon the word "declaramus," at the end of the canon, and at the conclusion nearly of the gloss:"

"Credere Dominum Deum nostrum conditorem dictæ decret: et istius sic non potuisse statuere prout statuit, hæreticum censeretur.— Extrav. Joa. xxii. de verb. significatione Titul. xiv. cap iv. gloss. declaramus. SIWEL.

[The Editor forwarded this letter to Mr. Maitland, who originated the inquiry respecting this title of the pope. He says: "Your correspondent Siwel' is only referring to the same gloss as that which I at first mentioned; but I shall be glad to see his letter in the Magazine, partly because my object was to excite discussion, and still more because it does (as far as a single letter can) answer the remark of Mr. Mendham, in last month's number, page 37. He says 'I am not aware that any but such protestants as ought to learn before they teach, represent the more atrocious appellation in question as generally

Not the first declaramus, but the last. My edition is, Lugduni, 1584, folio.
VOL. XIV.-August, 1838.
2 A

given by papists to the pope.' Now, I know of no reason for placing your correspondent "Siwel" among the persons whom Mr. Mendham describes; but you observe that he speaks in the most general terms of what is done by the papists.' Would anybody, who only knew the subject from his letter, doubt that he referred to a general custom now in use? But Mr. Mendham speaks cautiously, and amuses me by his exception; for, as far as I know, there is no man in the kingdom more capable of judging and lamenting how deeply the protestant cause is injured by the very circumstance, that those who have not learned are the most forward to teach. He must be perfectly aware that those who are, or affect to be, the popular oracles on such subjects, are continually making blunders, which betray their deep ignorance, and make one stare at their impudence. And he must also be aware, that in fact they do whether they have learned or not learned-they do teach people abominable falsehood on this point. Let me offer to his attention what I suppose to be the newest edition of the story. It stands in a large volume, intitled, Variations of Popery, by Samuel Edgar, just published by Messrs. Seeley and Burnside, and dedicated to the Archbishop of Armagh. After mentioning three other varieties, as to titles given to the pope, the writer says-A fourth variety, on this subject, makes the pope superior to God. Equality with the Almighty, it might have been expected, would have satiated the ambition of the pontiff and satisfied the sycophancy of his minions. But this was not the giddiest step in the scale of blasphemy. The superiority of the pope over the Creator has been boldly and unblushingly maintained by PONTIFFS, THEOLOGIANS, CANONISTS, AND COUNCILS.'-p. 131. Will Mr. Mendham give anything that even looks like countenance to the rhodomontade of ignorant agitators?"]

CONTROVERSY WITH ROMAN CATHOLICS.

SIR,-The controversy with the church of Rome in this country appears to be about to take a course that I confess I cannot view without some apprehension. There can be no question that books of casuistic divinity, and directions for confessors in the communion of that church, do contain questions and discussions of a highly indecent and objectionable character; but is it wise or becoming to drag such indecencies from their obscurity, and publish them abroad in sixpenny pamphlets, in English, for the benefit, or the corruption, of every unlearned reader?

A bookseller in Dublin, for example, has printed extracts from Dens' Theology in Latin and English, containing the instructions to confessors on cases of conscience of the most indecent and disgusting character. This pamphlet has passed through several editions in the course of a few months, and has been read by numbers of young men, and perhaps young women too, who can hardly be supposed to have been influenced in the study of it by any interest in the theological part of the subject.

Again, in the late discussion which took place in Dublin between Messrs. Gregg and Maguire, it was proposed that on one day females should be excluded, in order that this subject of the confessional might be discussed with more freedom. Such an announcement naturally drew to the meeting a large number of young men, who I fear were anything but edified by what they heard: but this was not all; some days after, placards appeared in all parts of the city, advertising, for sixpence, a full and correct report of the speeches delivered by Messrs. Gregg and Maguire during the day that ladies were excluded;* thus considerately providing for the ladies the means of satisfying themselves as to the propriety of the regulation which prohibited their attendance during that day upon the discussion.

Now, Sir, I think it deserves serious consideration whether on the whole evil rather than good is not done by making these matters so very public and accessible to all classes of society. It is not often, I suppose, that confessors in the church of Rome are consulted on such subjects, or find it necessary to inquire into them; yet the queries that have been published from Dens are represented as questions to be put by every confessor to every penitent. Roman catholics know that this is not the case; they therefore will probably regard the whole as a protestant misrepresentation, and the effect of such publications upon them will be only to disgust them with a party that could resort to such weapons of controversy; while, with respect to protestants, although the effect may be to increase their abomination of popery, yet this is but a small good to counterbalance the monstrous evil of disseminating so largely, and in some degree under the name and sanction of religion, matter of such a grossly indecent and demoralizing character. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, HIBERNICUS.

POPERY AND THE SCRIPTURES.

MY DEAR SIR,-As the following morceau may not be uninteresting or useless in these days of general controversy, I make no apology for troubling you with the translation. It is extracted from a MS. entitled, "Advice upon the best means of sustaining the Roman Church, presented to Pope Julius III. by some Bishops assembled at Bologna." It is dated, "Bononiæ, 20th Oct. 1553," signed by "Vincentius de Durantius, Episc. Thermularum," "Brixiensis, Egidius Falceta, Episc. Caprulanus;" "Gerhardus Busdragus, Episc. Thessalonicensis." It forms part of a collection of MSS. in the Bibliothèque du

Of course the reader will not understand me to insinuate that this was done under the sanction of Messrs. Gregg and Maguire, who, I believe, knew nothing whatever of this publication, and would have interfered to prevent it if they had had the power. It was entirely the speculation of some low bookseller. But an authenticated report of the discussion, signed and authorized by the combatants, has now been advertized, and I suppose we shall have in it a full account of what was said on the day in question; at least, it is not stated in the advertisement that the speeches of that day are to be omitted.

Roi at Paris, folio B., no. 1038, vol. ii. pp. 641-650,-and contains the following most extraordinary truths, which may perhaps be known to you, but as I have never met with anything so much to the point, I venture to send it :

"In short, you must carefully watch and endeavour by all means in your power, that the smallest possible portion of the New Testament (especially in the vulgar tongue) be read in the countries submitted to your rule, and which recognise your authority; let the little that is read in the church be sufficient, and let none be permitted to read more. So long, indeed, as men were content with this small pittance of scripture, so long your affairs have prospered and your maxims prevailed; but, on the contrary, your temporal and spiritual authority have both declined from the moment that the people asserted the right of reading more. This is the book, after all, which more than any other has stirred up those troubles and tempests which have brought us to the very verge of destruction; and we must confess that if any one attentively examine it, and afterwards compares in detail its precepts with the practice of our churches, he will find vast discrepancies, and will see not only that our doctrine is altogether different from that which the Scriptures teach, but yet more, that it is entirely opposed to them; now from the moment that the people, excited by any of our learned opponents, shall acquire this knowledge, the outcry against us will not cease till everything has been thoroughly exposed to the public, and we become the objects of universal hatred. For these reasons, then, it is necessary to withhold these writings from the people; but this must be done prudently, and with circumspection, lest the very measure itself excite against us attacks and storms even more dangerous than those which have preceded."

I have made this extract from a brochure just published in reply to an attack of the Archbishop of Toulouse on the protestants.

I was witness to an interesting scene here on Easter Sunday,-the first communion of French protestants in this town since the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The natives are indebted to the English chaplain here, Mr. Hartley, for the re-establishment of their congregation in a place which was formerly a strong hold of the reformers. Their numbers are on the increase, though but slowly, for the French care for none of these things.

If at any time you should desire any details that can be picked up in this country, I shall be must happy to be employed in your service.* I remain, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,

La Chanterie, près Tours, June 28, 1838.

GEORGE TUFnell.

MS. OF GEORGIUS HAMARTOLUS.

SIR, The author of the "Brief Account of the Ecclesiastical Historians," which has appeared in your pages, inquires (vol. xiii. p. 363, note**) whether the MS. of Georgius Hamartolus, in the Bodleian Library, used by Chilmead, (Baroc. 194,) extends to the death of

The Editor takes this public method of thanking Mr. Tufnell, and saying, that any details from one for whose judgment he has so much respect, as to the actual proceedings of either Romanists or protestants, in a place where he has opportunities of observation, would be at all times most acceptable. At this time of the year it would be safer to address, "The Editor of the British Magazine, to the care of Messrs. Rivingtons, Waterloo Place."-ED.

Michael, son of Theophilus. I have looked at the MS., as also at the account of it in Longbaine's Adversaria. The MS. itself is but a fragment, consisting of five leaves. This part relates to many dif ferent periods, and has not the appearance of a history of the church, though it might be a chapter or two of such a work, in which different periods were brought together. Fabricius (Ed. Harles, v. 7) mentions libraries (as those of Paris and Vienna) where there are complete MS. copies. Longbaine says that the preface, which is in the Oxford copy, professes that the work is to extend to the time mentioned, but the conclusion of the work is not in this copy. The note in Hody's proleg. to Malalas gives a tolerable account of the conM. A., OXON.

tents.

NOTICES AND REVIEWS.

The Variations of Popery. By Samuel Edgar. (Second Edition, revised, corrected, and enlarged.) London: Seeley and Burnside. 8vo. pp. 551. THE writer does not remember to have seen the first edition of this work; but there seems to be very good reason for noticing this second. It is a close-printed volume of more than five hundred pages," revised, corrected, and enlarged." The text is full of names; the margin is crowded with authorities; and the whole, including four pages filled with a list of" fathers and popish authors, quoted in this work," is dedicated to the Archbishop of Armagh.

The very title assumes a degree of importance, and invites a comparison from which some cowardly writers would shrink; but so does not Mr. Edgar. On the contrary, considering, perhaps, that a great proportion of those who are likely to read his book have never heard of the Bishop of Meaux, or, at least, being determined that his own notion of his proceedings shall not be misunderstood, he says plainly in his preface-"The variations of popery are intended to retort Bossuet's argument." And it seems very plain that this is not only what he meant to do, but what he thinks he has done, in no common way; and that he is in the highest possible good humour with his book, and with the smiling public, who have got it on to a second edition. He says in his preface

"Grateful for the favourable reception given to the first edition of this work (which was published in 1831) the author again offers it to the candid acceptance of the public, carefully revised, enlarged, and corrected throughout. He feels some confidence, indeed, in the materials of which it is composed. He travelled a long, but delightful journey, through whole files of authorities in ancient and modern languages; in which, during his progress, he pillaged the pages, and rifled the annals of Romish and reformed controversy. These, he knows, have supplied a vast mass of matter, which he has endeavoured to condense. But the elements of information are valueless, and will be neglected, if void of order or beauty. A body without a soul wants attraction. The richest colours without symmetry and expression, offend the eye of taste. The fairest form, if destitute of animation, is unengaging. A book, in like manner, especially in modern days, will fail to interest