No part of this learned and authoritative work has escaped revision. The new matter strengthens, illustrates more copiously, and enlivens with anecdote the original argument, and, by adducing modern instances, brings the work up to date.—N. Y. Nation, May 24, 1883.
The author is preëminently a scholar; he takes up every topic allied with the leading theme and traces it out to the minutest detail with a wealth of knowledge and impartiality of treatment that compel admiration. The amount of information compressed into the book is extraordinary, and the profuse citation of authorities and references makes the work particularly valuable to the student who desires an exhaustive review from original sources. In no other single volume is the development of the primitive church traced with so much clearness and with so definite a perception of complex or conflicting forces.—Boston Traveller, May 3, 1883.
Mr. Lea is facile princeps among American scholars in the history of the Middle Ages, and, indeed, we know of no European writer who has shown such research, accuracy, and grasp in investigating important and out-of-the-way topics connected with the history of Europe in the Middle Ages.—N. Y. Times, April 30, 1883.
It is some years since we read the first edition of this work by Mr. Lea, and the impression made by it on us at the time is confirmed by reperusal of it in this enlarged and improved form, namely, that it is a book of great research and accuracy, full of varied information on very interesting phases of church life and history. It discusses each subject with a rare fulness of dates and instances, and a curious conscientiousness of verification and citation of authorities.—Edinburgh Scotsman, June 2, 1883.
SUPERSTITION AND FORCE.
Essays on The Wager of Law, The Wager of Battle, The Ordeal, and Torture.
Third revised and enlarged edition. In one handsome royal 12mo. volume of 552 pages. Cloth $2.50.
This valuable work is in reality a history of civilization as interpreted by the progress of jurisprudence. In “Superstition and Force” we have a philosophic survey of the long period intervening between primitive barbarity and civilized enlightenment. There is not a chapter in the work that should not be most carefully studied; and, however well versed the reader may be in the science of jurisprudence, he will find much in Mr. Lea’s volume of which he was previously ignorant. The book is a valuable addition to the literature of social science.—Westminster Review, Jan. 1880.
This is a book of extraordinary research. Mr. Lea has entered into his subject con amore, and a more striking record of the cruel superstitions of our Middle Ages could not possibly have been compiled. As a work of curious enquiry into certain outlying points of obsolete law, “Superstition and Force” is one of the most remarkable works we have met with.—London Athenæum, November 3, 1866.
The appearance of a third edition of Mr. Henry C. Lea’s “Superstition and Force” is a sign that our highest scholarship is not without honor in its native country.—N. Y. Nation, August 1, 1878.