English military man, are nearly as outrageous as this. Take, for instance, certain pages which have been officially inserted in our "Army List" for the last few years, headed "Mobilization of the Forces at Home." Let no Englishman, on any account, who has a spark of patriotism in him, allow any foreign friend who understands English to see this extraordinary document, which reads like a bad joke, or an untimely squib on the army. In it will be found a very pretty distribution of no less than eight-purely imaginary" Army Corps;" but with this trifling shortcoming, namely, that these Corps have imaginary divisions, which have also imaginary-brigades; and the latter are chiefly composed of regiments stationed anywhere in the kingdom. One example of this will be enough. I have before me a list of "The First Army Corps," of which the head-quarters are at Colchester. In the first brigade of the First Division, the three battalions which compose the brigade are certainly stationed at Colchester. But as regards the second brigade of the same Division, the three battalions are stationed at Fermoy, Castlebar, and at Buttevant! Again, the first brigade of the Second Division of the same corps has its head-quarters at Chelmsford; but the three battalions composing that brigade are at the Curragh, at Tipperary, and at Birr. And this is called the "Mobilization of the Forces at Home." Let us hope that when the scheme of the new territorial army is matured it will be found free from such follies and absurdities as what I have here pointed out.

Want of space prevents me from even giving an outline of what has been, and what ought to be, done with regard to the reorganization of our Indian army. It was my lot, after an absence of twenty years from the East, to revisit that country in 1875-76, as one of the Special Correspondents with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. What I saw of our army there as it is, and as compared with what it was in former days, I will, with the permission of the Editor, give an account of in a future Number of this Review. For the present I can only hope to have made it pretty clear that the reorganization of our Home Forces, so far, and in the direction it has been carried out up to the present time, is, to say the least of it, in every way simply a series of military blunders.

M. LAING MEASON.

* See Hart's "Army List," January, 1881, p. 66

ART. IV. RECENT WORKS ON THE STATE OF

GERMANY

IN THE FIFTEENTH AND BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, BY GERMAN AUTHORS.

ISTORICAL literature in Germany has for some time past

been stamped with a certain hostile exasperation against the Catholic Church, which will remain for some years a blot on the profound erudition of a country we are accustomed to look upon as a centre of learning. The unity of Germany effected since the war of 1870-1871 cannot be considered the direct cause of certain erroneous exaggerations in matters of history: yet the two facts are really connected.

It is no secret that at the proclamation of the Empire on the victorious conclusion of the war, Pius IX. made the first advances towards friendly relations with the new Imperial throne; it is also known that these advances were received with coldness, not to say contempt, at the Court of Berlin, and that the German Government lent all its power to protect and foster a schism in the Catholic Church by at once granting a pension of several thousand thalers to Dr. Reinkens, elected bishop by a few hundred Catholics who protested against the dogma of the Infallibility.

Several writers, following in Dr. Reinken's footsteps, have devoted their energies to seeking proofs that a protestation against the Church, which might appropriately be styled "Old Catholicism," existed a hundred years ago, and continued through all the Middle Ages; and that, beginning at Claudius of Turin and Hincmar of Rheims, the line of "Old Catholic" bishops. has never been interrupted. Truly these historians see "Old Catholicism" everywhere in the antagonists of Gregory VII. as well as in those of Boniface VIII.

During the last three years we have been gaining ground. The troubled waters are settling into calm, and from the still deep have risen a series of writers who, lifting their voice, have proclaimed certain historical facts too long hidden, and certain details relating to the Church and to civilization never known till to-day.

Their works, far from being controversial, are but a simple exposition of facts, related with the truthfulness of a conscientious historian, and grouped with the eye and appreciation of an artist. They acknowledge frankly the faults of eminent men, regardless of their rank in history. They describe, they paint, they delineate with photographic minuteness even, but they do not

disguise. This straightforwardness, which commends itself specially to the English mind, can in the end, indeed, but prove favourable to the Church and to the civilized and duly instructed section of mankind.

The appreciation of the public is proved by the fact that Dr. Janssen's work, which we here place first, has run through five editions in three years. The title of his work is "History of the German People from the end of the Middle Ages."+ The second volume appeared in 1879, and continues the history of civilization down to the year 1525, including the great social disturbance occasioned by the "Reformation" and other causes.

Other works have been published quite lately containing certain biographical details which Dr. Janssen could only glance at, and they form an admirable amplification of his History of the German People and their Civilization. The Abbé Dacheux, rector of Neudorff-bei-Strassburg, has written the biography of John Geiler, the famous preacher who lived at the end of the fifteenth century. Herr Höfler, professor at the University of Prague, and the Abbé Lederer, have given us the biography of two men, renowned church-administrators in the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Professor Höfler, after devoting several years to the study of his subject, has published the biography of Hadrian VI., a native of Holland.§ The Abbé Lederer, in answer to a question given at an examination by the Würzbourg University, wrote the life of John, Cardinal Torquemada, the great upholder of the Papacy in its struggle against the decrees of the Councils of Constance, Basle, &c. &c.||

Lastly, Herr Pastor, Doctor of Historical Science, and "privat docent" at the University of Innsbruck, publishes a work in which he describes the efforts made by Charles V., in the first

*The Abbé Janssen, professor at Frankfort, has just been raised by Leo XIII. to the dignity of Apostolic Protonotary.

t "Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, seit dem Ausgange des Mittelalters." Erster Band: Deutschlands allgemeine Zustände beim ausgang des Mittelalters; 6 Auflage. Zweiter Band: vom Beginne der politischkirchlichen Revolution bis zum Ausgang der socialen Revolution von 1525. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, 1880 and 1879. 1st vol., price 6 mks. 60; 2nd vol., price 6 mks. 30.

"A Catholic Reformer at the end of the Fifteenth Century: John Geiler, of Kaisersberg, Preacher at the Cathedral of Strassburg, 14781510. A Study of his Life and Times.” Paris : Ch. Delagrove; Strassburg: Derivaux, 1876. Price, 7 mks. 50.

S "Pabst Adrian VI., 1522-1523," von Constantin Ritter von Höfler. Wien Wilhelm Braumüller, 1850.

"Der Spanische Cardinal Johann von Torquemada sein Leben und sein Schriften," gekrönte Preisschrift von Dr. Stephan Lederer, Katholischer Pfarrer. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder'sche Verlaghandlung, 1878. 3 mks. 40.

place, to reunite within the pale of the Church the Princes and States threatened with schism from the time of Luther's preaching. The work of this promising young author is the chronological complement of Dr. Janssen's history; it does not, however, in the least forestall the promised continuation in four volumes of the former work. The title of Herr Pastor's work is, "Efforts for Reunion."*

Other Catholic authors have by their several writings completed the study of this particular period; as, for instance, the Abbé Gams in the third volume of his " History of the Church in Spain;" the first volume of which appeared in 1862, and the last in 1879.

We will now take a hasty glance at the advance made in historical research as represented by the works mentioned above. We will first point out how each is the complement of the others.

Dr. Janssen's aim in his first volume is to exhibit the grand qualities of the fifteenth century, and to prove that, in spite of abuses and errors prevalent in various classes of society, art and science flourished, the piety of the middle class was very intense, preaching of the Word of God was frequent and general, schools and education were prosperous. This is the bright side of the period. In the second volume he proves that the religious and social disturbance caused by the so-called "Reformation" put a sudden stop to the advance of civilization.

The Abbé Dacheux's aim is different. His hero, John Geiler, was born at Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, in 1445, and died at Strassburg in 1510, after having officiated as preacher at the Cathedral from 1478. He did not live to see the effects of the Lutheran "Reformation," but he devoted his whole life to the real reform of abuses which had crept into church administration, as well as into the liberties and privileges of the great secular princes. John Geiler was a living protest against all the irregularities of his time. In his works, preaching and life we have presented to us the dark side of the latter half of the fifteenth century.

In the same way Herr Pastor fills up the sketch contained in Dr. Janssen's second volume (1523-1525). Dr. Janssen describes, with fearful truth, the consequences of the revolution in the beginning of the sixteenth century, while Herr Pastor unfolds a more consoling and refreshing canvas depicting the

"Die Kirchlichen Reunionsbestrebungen, während der Regierung Karls V. aus der quellen dargestellt." Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, 1879. Mks. 7.

66

† Die Kirchengeschichte von Spanien." Dritter Band : 1o Abtheilung (1055-1492) 1876; 2e Abtheilung (1492-1879) 1879. Regensburg: Joseph Manz. 460 & 570 pp.; each vol. 9s.

efforts made by the Emperor and the Sovereign Pontiffs to pacify the Empire and the Church, and to restore peace and prosperity to States "on which the sun never set." These efforts, nevertheless, were often quite barren. In the midst of this turmoil and agitation, surrounded by the intrigues of the French Court, by the fearful boldness and cynicism of Luther, the aspirationstoo often ambitious-of the Court at Madrid, rises up the grand figure of Hadrian VI., as painted by Herr Höfler. Hadrian, who was the victim of political complications engendered by the Reformation, and who in a reign of two years was crushed under the weight of cares imposed upon him by men who, detesting heresy, would yet not forego their own cupidity and worldly ambition; was borne down by his labours for the restoration of peace, which he sought with a disinterestedness very different from that of the Emperor.

We will now give some details in explanation of these generalities, and taking Dr. Janssen's work as a centre we will group around it the works of the other writers.

In the first book (pp. 1-132) our author describes the state of learning in Germany at the period of the invention of printing, and takes Cardinal Nicholas Krebs, a native of Cues on the Moselle, near Treves, and known under the name of Cusanus, as the typical representative of the time. This famous man was, as a Church reformer, the counterpart of John Geiler; but as a man of science he was his superior, for at one and the same time he gave a fresh impetus to the study of theology and philosophy, to physics and mathematics, being himself, meanwhile, engaged with politics. His method, propagated in the name of the Holy See, was a reform inaugurated by the reorganization and restoration of existing institutions, and not by their destruction; by warring against the passions by faith and science.

Nicholas took part in the Council of Basle, of disastrous renown, in the reign of Eugenius IV (1431). He was then Dean of St. Florian's at Coblentz, and was called to the Council by the president, Julian Cesarini. On his side was John of Torquemada, who distinguished himself by his eloquence in the defence of the rights and prerogatives of the Papacy.* These three men soon abandoned all idea of effecting a reform in the Church by means of this Council; but making one more effort to prevent the schism, Cusanus and Torquemada went to Mayence, 1439, and later, in 1446, to the Diet at Frankfort, in order to make terms with the Opposition. Thanks to these efforts, which were seconded by Æneas Silvius Piccolomini (formerly a defender of the Council of Basle), by Sarhano, Bishop of Bologna, and by Carvajal (who later on

* See Lederer, "Torquemada," pp. 25 seq., 123 seq..