Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/124

 116 REVIEWS OF BOOKS January to be the very state itself '. On p. 121 we are told that Tiberius Gracchus ' revived the long dormant provision of the constitution of 287 which permitted a referendum to the plebeian assembly of legislative proposals ', where again the modern analogy is far from exact. On p. 129 Dr. Frank accepts without question the view that Gaius Gracchus introduced ' a bill giving citizenship to all possessors of Latin rights and Latinitas to all Italians ', a very questionable supposition. H. STUART JONES. The English Dominicans. By BEDE JARKETT, O.P. (London : Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1921.) THE appearance of a history of the Dominican province of England by the provincial is an event of some importance. The interest taken in their own history by the Dominicans has been somewhat spasmodic and generally confined to individuals. Father Jarrett appears to have insti- tuted a more systematic study of the history of the Dominicans in Eng- land, and the firstfruits of this movement were seen in Father Gumbley's ' Provincial Priors and Vicars of the English Dominicans ' in this Review. 1 The English Dominicans is, so far as I know, the first consecutive history of a Dominican province which has ever been written. It is very good reading ; and it is written with a gaiety of spirit and sense of humour which would be impossible or at any rate out of place in the history of any other province of the Order. The reason is given by Father Jarrett : ' The English Dominicans have no record of cruelty or inquisitorial tortures against them.' The attempt of the prior of York in 1236 to imprison on his own responsibility persons who held ' bad opinions on the articles of faith ' was promptly nipped in the bud by the secular power. And the part which the friars took in the process against the Templars does not seem to have been a prominent one. The book is not only entertaining but instructive. It contains a great deal of new matter, and facts already known are presented from a new point of view and brought into fresh combinations. The chapters on ' The Priory ', ' The Preachers ', and ' Observance ' are specially valuable. The first chapter on ' The Foundations ' is less satisfactory. One would have expected a more detailed account of the early foundations and an explanation of the comparative slowness of the Dominican advance in the first few years. Why, for instance, was no provincial chapter held till 1230 ? A more thorough study of founders and benefactors would perhaps have led the author to modify his opinion that ' the greater and lesser baronage seem to have held aloof from the Friars Preachers ' (p. 150). And either here or elsewhere we should expect to get some account of the sites and landed property actually held by the friars. The history of Langley and Dartford is not ' typical ' (p. 12), but exceptional. Father Jarrett does not make clear the use of the nunnery of Dartford as a medium for the endowment of the novitiate house of Langley, a point long ago brought out by Father Palmer. Father Jarrett generally makes good use of Palmer's valuable articles, but it must be admitted that he is not so much at home in the public records as his predecessor. We are surprised 1 Ante, xxxiii. 243 ; see also ibid. p. 496.