By the Rev. ETHELRED L. TAUNTON.

Contents.

VOLUME THE FIRST.
CHAP.
I.The Coming of the Monks.
II.The Norman Lanfranc.
III.The Benedictine Constitution.
IV.The Monk in the World.
V.The Monk in his Monastery.
VI.Women under the Rule.
VII.Chronicles of the Congregation. I.
VIII.The Downfall.
IX.John Fecknam, Abbot.
X.The State of English Catholics, 1559-1601.
Appendix: The Consuetudinary of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury.
VOLUME THE SECOND.
CHAP.
XI.The Benedictine Mission.
XII.Douai and Dieuleward.
XIII.The Renewal of the English Congregation.
XIV.Dom Leander and his Mission.
XV.Chronicles of the Congregation. II.
XVI.St. Gregory’s Monastery.
XVII.St. Lawrence’s Monastery.
XVIII.St. Edmund’s Monastery.
XIX.St. Malo, Lambspring, and Cambrai.
XX.Other Benedictine Houses. Denizen and Alien.

Some Press Notices.

Saturday Review.—“On the whole, it would be difficult within the limits that the author has set for himself to write a more interesting book. We recommend, more especially to the general reader, the three chapters on the life of a monk in the world and in his monastery, and that describing the life of women under the rule.”

Literature.—“We are struck with the skill with which he has mastered the details of a somewhat complicated story, and the clear way he has set it down for the benefit of his readers.”

English Historical Review.—“Here, for the first time, the story of the Benedictine mission of 1603 is fully told in English; in this story the central figure is Dom Augustine Baker, the true author of the ‘Apostolatus,’ who, being professed by the aged Buckley, the last survivor of Westminster, claimed the inheritance of the rights and privileges of the original congregation, and the power, by professing others, to hand on the inheritance to posterity. The story of the English Benedictine congregation in its settlements abroad, and finally in its settlements at home, is very skilfully told, in a pleasant, popular style.”

Literary World.—“The story of the English Benedictines is one that will be read with sympathy and even admiration by the instructed Protestant. Curiously enough the history of the Order—not the exact word, but no better offers—has a striking affinity with the principles of Congregationalism. The strength of the Order was that it consisted of independent homes, and was not like most fraternities, a great whole subdivided into communities. Upon this Father Taunton again and again insists, and his view is indisputable. Of the two volumes before us the first will be more generally interesting to Englishmen, but it may be well to prepare our readers for its perusal by saying that the almost patronising style of the beginning is not long continued. We feared at first that the author was going to talk down to us in pity for our ignorance, and were accordingly prepared to resent his impertinence. A very few pages onward and we yielded ourselves willingly to his pleasant instruction.… A good book, which we can heartily recommend to the open-minded reader.”

Liverpool Post.—“Two large and well-printed volumes contain what the writer modestly describes as a ‘sketch’ of the Benedictine Order in England from the coming of Augustine in the sixth century up to the present time. The work is something more than a theological history. It is in one aspect a history of English society during fifteen hundred years, for the Benedictines were ever closely in touch with the people among whom they laboured. Mr. Taunton is not an ecclesiastical zealot, and he writes with admirable impartiality, as witness his outspoken condemnation of the intrigues of Rome and the machinations of the Jesuits in England during the reigns of Elizabeth and James. Hence his opinions on such a question as the social consequences to England of the closing of the monasteries is deserving of greater weight.”

Glasgow Herald.—“In these two portly volumes Mr. Taunton furnishes us with a very full history of the English Benedictines, describing it as ‘a tribute of the affection and esteem which I, an outsider, have for the English monks.’ There is doubtless room for such a work, and it must be said that Mr. Taunton has brought to his task abundant enthusiasm and much painstaking research. … We cordially welcome it for its accumulation of valuable historical materials, and for the author’s industry we have nothing but praise.”