Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/124

 1 1 ^ Reviews of Books The discussions of the morals and the liturgy of the Cathari are in- teresting, especially the careful comparison of the ceremony of the Consolamentum with the sacraments of penance and baptism in the Christian Church. In this essay the author comes nearest to construc- tive critical work on a question d'histoire chretienne. Unfortunately the first essay in the book, " La Repression de I'Heresie au Moyen Age ", is not free from slight misrepresentation of the thir- teenth-century heresies, for the larger vindication of the confessed " dra- conienne " severity of the Inquisition. While rightly calling our atten- tion to the fact that the Church was called upon to exercise that protection of society which to-day falls to the care of the state, the author attempts to strengthen his plea for the necessity of Rome's cruelty by confounding all the heresies under the worst type (" la plupart [des heresies] se sent inspirees plus ou moins directement du manicheisme," p. 15). Surely it is an unpardonable exaggeration to say that the Waldenses spread " des doctrines aussi dangereuses pour I'organisme sociale " (p. 24), in the face of what we know of the Waldensian principles and of the distinct testimony of their adversary Capocci that they were " longe minus per- versi comparatione aliorum haereticorum ". But it is only in rare instances that M. Guiraud's book offers any opportunity for " reviewing " in the sense of the examination of theses and conclusions. It is rather edifying than critical in purpose — and its title is ludicrously misleading. D. S. MUZZEY. BOOKS OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY The Political History of England. Edited by William Hunt, D.Litt., and Reginald L. Poole, M.A. In twelve volumes. Volume I. The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman. Conqnest. By Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L., Litt.D. (London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Company. 1906. Pp. xxii, 528.) The first volume of Tlic Political History of England, now in the process of publication, deals with early Britain, the Britain of the Celt, the Roman, the Saxon, and the Dane. It is peculiarly fitting that the learned historian who has written so entertainingly of Italy and Her Invaders should be chosen to write the story of the many invasions of Old England. Furthermore, Dr. Hodgkin's extensive knowledge of the earlier Middle Ages and his sympathetic attitude toward the Germanic race as a whole enable him to look at English history from a point of view somewhat different from that of Lappenberg or Freeman. We have, therefore, in this volume a shifting of emphasis and a slight change of historical content. Particularly does the author emphasize the fact that Saxon England, instead of passing through a peculiar development almost undisturbed, was profoundly affected by movements originating elsewhere in Europe.