FOREIGN LITERARY NOTES.
Within the past six months the literary bulletins of France, England, and Germany are full of notices of new works on the subject of the Apostle St. Paul and his writings. One of the latest in England is by Dr. Arnold, who—Anglican as he is—takes direct issue with an opinion of the French rationalist Renan, which on its first appearance gave great gratification to the Protestant world. In his work on St. Paul, Renan said in his flippant way:
"After having been for three hundred years, thanks to Protestantism, the Christian doctor par excellence, Paul is now coming to the end of his reign."
On this remarkable opinion, Dr. Arnold thus comments:
"Precisely the contrary, I venture to think, is the judgment to which a true criticism of men and things leads us. The Protestantism which has so used and abused St. Paul is coming to an end; its organizations, strong and active as they look, are touched with the finger of death; its fundamental ideas, sounding forth still every week from thousands of pulpits, have in them no significance and no power for the progressive thought of humanity. But the reign of the real St. Paul is only beginning; his fundamental ideas, disengaged from the elaborate misconceptions with which Protestantism has overlaid them, will have an influence in the future greater than any which they have yet had—an influence proportioned to their correspondence with a number of the deepest and most permanent facts of human nature itself."—From St. Paul and Protestantism, by Matthew Arnold.
One of the most important events of the reign of Louis XIV., and, indeed, in the entire religious history of France, was the assembly of the clergy of France in the year 1682. Numerous works have been written and published concerning it, the best and most exhaustive of which are the two last. In 1868, M. Charles Gérin, a judge of the Civil Tribunal of the Seine, published his Recherches Historiques sur l'Assemblée du Clergé de France de 1682. The author brought to his task great learning, decided ability, and an industry that proved itself by the number of original documents from the public archives for the first time presented by him. The result of M. Gérin's labors was generally accepted in France as final. With this verdict, however, Monseigneur Maret, Bishop of Sura, did not agree, and protested against it in his work, Du Concile et de la Paix religieuse, intimating therein that the documents cited in M. Gérin's book needed fresh revision and interpretation, which they should receive. This announcement was naturally accepted as signifying that a new work on the assembly of 1682 might be looked for. That was indeed its signification, and early in 1870 appeared an announcement of the publishers, Didier & Co., Paris, of a book entitled, L'Assemblée du Clergé de France de 1682 d'après des documents dont un grand nombre inconnus jusqu'à ce jour. Par l'Abbé Jules-Théodose Loyson, Docteur et Professeur en Sorbonne. 8vo, 530 pages. To this, Judge Gérin soon replied in his Une Nouvelle Apologie du Gallicanisme, Réponse à M. l'Abbé Loyson. Outside of the historical statements concerning the events attending the assembly of 1682, these works are, in fact, a rather animated polemical discussion of the questions of the temporal power and the papal infallibility.
When St. Patrick entered upon his great apostolic work in Ireland, he was careful not to offend the attachment borne by his converts to their ancient national traditions, the songs of their bards, and the laws by which they were governed. On the contrary, he advised Lacighaise, king of the country, to have reduced to writing all the ancient judicial decisions, and, with the aid of two other bishops, commenced the work himself. To the body of laws thus collected was given the title of Senchus Mor, (collection of ancient knowledge.) Written A.D. 440, this book served as the Irish code before the departure of the Romans, and was in legal force up to the period of the accession of James I., traces of its influence being to this day plainly visible. The most authentic manuscripts containing the Senchus Mor formerly belonged to an English literary amateur, and through the efforts of Edmund Burke were acquired by the English government. Their publication was commenced in 1852, and has been resumed, as we perceive by the following announcement: Ancient Laws of Ireland. Senchus Mor. Part II. Edited by W. Neilson Hancock, LL.D., and the Rev. Thaddeus O'Mahony. Dublin: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1870. 8vo.
Some curious information and revolting details concerning the continuation of the slave-trade in Africa are furnished in a work lately published at Paris, La Traite Orientale. The Mussulman still needs slaves and concubines, and three great slave marts still exist to supply them. These are the Island of Zanzibar, the southern portion of Egypt, and Arabia. At Zanzibar a healthy man sells for $42, while the women bring $80, and more, if good-looking.
During the past ten years the history, geography, and topography of the biblical countries have been studied with immense activity, and the best travellers and scholars of Germany, France, Italy, and England have contributed their offerings to the common fund of our knowledge concerning these most interesting regions. Successful research on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, the Nile and the Jordan, not to speak of many other points, have all in turn confirmed the perfect veracity of the writers of the Old and of the New Testament. And to these, the broken walls, the palaces, the towers, and the sculptures of Babylon, of Nineveh, of Persepolis, of Jerusalem, and of Samaria, rising in testimony of the truth from the gathered ruins of ages, bear also their testimony. A learned German ecclesiastic, Dr. Gratz, uniting and fusing all the information on this subject, composed an admirable geographical history of oriental and occidental countries, with special reference to the biblical period. Dr. Allioli, the celebrated scriptural commentator, recommended the work of Dr. Gratz as marked by so much erudition and exactness that the readers of his commentary are recommended to it for information on all points touching biblical localities. An excellent French translation of Dr. Gratz's work has just been published: Théâtre des Evénements racontés dans les divines Ecritures, ou l'ancien et le nouvel Orient étudié au point de vue de la Bible et de L'Eglise. 2 vols. 8vo.
Here are two new works on the Council of Trent: Histoire du Concile de Trente, par M. Baguenault de Puchesse; 1 vol. 8vo. Journal du Concile de Trente, rédigé par un secrétaire Vénitien présant aux sessions de 1562 à 1563. This Venetian secretary was Antonio Milledonne, attached to the embassy sent to the Council of Trent by the republic of Venice. To the diary of the secretary, which forms the body of the latter publication, are added several original documents of the period heretofore unpublished, among them a summary of the dispatches of the Venetian ambassadors to the council. M. Baschet, the editor, suggests that the publication of the French diplomatic dispatches relative to the council would be of the highest interest. These dispatches would certainly form one of the most curious literary monuments of the sixteenth century, and, in point of fact, the history of the latter period of the council cannot well be written without them.
Baron Hübner, formerly Austrian Ambassador at Paris and at Rome, and well known in the diplomatic and literary world, has just presented the fruit of many years' labor among the state archives of Paris, Vienna, Florence, Venice, Simancas, and the Vatican, in the shape of a work entitled Sixte Quint; 3 vols. 8vo. Written on an epoch already well investigated, and upon a life which has been the subject of many pens, Baron Hübner's life of Pope Sixtus V. is by far the most remarkable and the most trustworthy we have had. And yet it is not perhaps exact to call his work a life of Sixtus V. The author does not so style it, and takes up Cardinal Montalto at the conclave where he is elected pope. He scarcely refers retrospectively to the early years of his life, and pays not the slightest attention to the semi-fabulous stories which tradition has interwoven with the name of the great Sixtus. If he finds documentary evidence for any part of them, he gives it. If not, silence falls upon them. At the outset of his work he merely mentions the three great names connected with histories of Sixtus—Leti, Tempesti, and Ranke. But he merely mentions them, and in no case quotes them. As to more modern historians of Sixtus—Segretain and Dumesnil, for instance—he does not appear to have the slightest idea of their existence. Baron Hübner has written his work exclusively from original materials, and appears to have used them conscientiously and with excellent judgment.
For nearly ten months an animated historico-ecclesiastical discussion has been going on in France, which, according to the reports of literary journals, has passed the stage of "vive polémique," and reached that described as "la controverse passionée." The subject matter of the discussion is Pope Honorius. Father Gratry (of the Oratory) led off with a pamphlet entitled, Mgr. l'Evêque d'Orléans et Mgr. l'Archevêque de Malines, and gave the texts of three councils which condemned Honorius, and the confirmation of their sentence by Pope St. Leo II. To this came a reply by M. Chantrel, Le Pape Honorius, Première Lettre à M. l'Abbé Gratry, in which he presented an abridged text of the letters of Honorius and testimony in his favor. Archbishop Dechamps also answered Father Gratry in La Question d'Honorius, citing an interesting passage from St. Alphonse de Liguori. Then, in its numbers of the 10th and 25th January, and 10th February, Le Correspondant gave an extract from the fourth volume (not yet published) of the Histoire des Conciles, by Bishop Héfelé, in which the prelate-author is severe on Honorius. Father Colombier, on the contrary, defends the orthodoxy of the incriminated letters of Honorius in a series of articles published in the Etudes Religieuses, Historiques, et Littéraires. Dom Guéranger also treated the question in his Défense de l'Eglise Romaine contre les Erreurs du R. P. Gratry, published in the Revue du Monde Catholique. Then comes L'Univers with a letter from M. Amédée de Margerie, Professor at Nancy, in defence of Honorius. We can merely enumerate other defenders of Honorius who have entered the lists. They are the Abbé Constantin, (Revue des Sciences Ecclesiastiques,) the editors of the Civilta Cattolica, Canon Lefebre, (Revue Catholique de Louvain,) Abbé Larroque, Abbé Bélet, Father Roque, and Father Ramière. The Avenir Catholique endeavors to demonstrate that Honorius wrote the letters in dispute not as pope, but as a simple doctor. M. Léon Gautier published a series of articles on the question of infallibility, the last of which is specially devoted to Honorius. These articles collected have lately been published by Palmé in a pamphlet, entitled L'Infaillibilité devant la Raison, la Foi et l'Histoire. Then comes a second letter from Bishop Dechamps, and, finally, the Bishop of Strasburg issues an energetic condemnation of the letters of Father Gratry.
The history of the city of Milan is, in Italian history, one of great importance; for it is the history of Lombardy, and of nearly all of the north of Italy. Of chronicles and histories of the great Lombard city there were many, but none so good in its day as the four large and beautiful volumes of the Chevalier Rosmini de Roveredo, which is now in its turn surpassed and superseded by the admirable work of Cusani, Storia di Milano, dall' origine ai nostri giorni. Vols. I. à V. à 8vo, Milano, 1861-1869.
Ricotti's great work on the history of the Piedmontese monarchy still approaches completion. The sixth volume, just out, brings the work down to the end of the seventeenth century. The Storia della Monarchia Piemontese is no mere dry record of dates; but presents an animated picture of the legal, intellectual, social, and artistic life of Piedmont at the different epochs of its existence.
Professor Ferdinando Ranalli's new work on the history of the fine arts, Storia delle Belle Arti in Italia, 3 vols., attracts much attention.
Professor Ciavarini, of Florence, has published an interesting work on the philosophy of Galileo, Della Filosofia del Galilei, and on his scientific method. The Italian press does not vomit forth the flood of yellow-covered literature with which some countries are afflicted; but the number of serious and meritorious works in history, literature, and science constantly published would surprise most persons who suppose that the Italian mind is at a stand-still.
Almost simultaneously in Germany and in England appear two works on the Epistles to the Corinthians by St. Clement of Rome. They are Clementis Romani ad Corinthios Epistola, by J. C. M. Laurent, published at Leipsic; and S. Clement of Rome: the Two Epistles to the Corinthians, a revised text with introduction and notes, by J. B. Lightfoot. They are mainly valuable for their discussion as to the merits of the texts of the various MSS.
The most interesting archæological discovery of our age, incomparable for its antiquity and its historic and philological interest, is unquestionably the one lately made by M. Clermont-Ganneau, dragoman of the consulate of France at Jerusalem. It is that of a Hebrew inscription of the year 896 before Christ, cut on a monolith by order of Mescha, King of Moab, a contemporary of the kings Joram and Josaphat. The stone on which the inscription is graven is in dimension three feet four inches by about two feet. The inscription itself is in thirty-four lines, each line containing from thirty-three to thirty-five letters. It is said that there is no known Hebrew monument comparable in antiquity with this. M. le Comte de Vogüé lately presented a memoir concerning it to the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, which is now published by Baudry, Paris: La Stèle de Mesa, Roi de Moab, 896 avant Jésus Christ.