Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/588

 580 REVIEWS OF BOOKS October admitted a household clerk of King John of Bohemia, the archbishop's nephew, and took part in the joint mission of the king and his uncle to John XXII on the subject, of the disputed succession to the archbishopric of Mentz. This subject dominates the whole book, nor is it surprising that it should seem so important to the clerk of the archbishop of Treves as to overshadow the quarrel between the empire and the papacy and between France and England. It was to him the momentous question in which he was personally interested. On the death of Archbishop Matthias in 1328, the chapter of Mentz offered the administration of the see to Archbishop Baldwin, who had been the ally of the late archbishop in a war with the landgrave of Hesse which was still not concluded. At the same time John XXII provided to the see Henry of Virneburg, whom the chapter declined to recognize. A series of appeals by the chapter resulted in final judgement being given against them, and consequently against Archbishop Baldwin, in 1336, but Archbishop Henry only got possession of his see in the next year, and had to compensate Baldwin for expenses incurred in defence of the see. A lengthy document (no. 422), containing a full presentation of Arch- bishop Baldwin's case, was prepared by Losse himself. It does not show diplomatic adroitness, since it represents the people of Mentz as likely to say ' Quanto plura homicidia, incendia, sacrilegia et alia nephanda quis perpetraverit, tanto plus per sedem apostolicam promo vetur '. Another very interesting document (no. 408), purporting to be a memorial of Philip VI of France to Benedict XII on the same subject, was obviously drawn up at Avignon with the help of Losse and his colleague, Boemond, archdeacon of Treves, for presentation to the pope by the French envoys. The most interesting documents, however, are the private letters, pre- served mainly as originals in the Darmstadt volume, which passed between Losse and his fellow clerks. They are full of political information, all the better for its informal character. There we read of the difficulties of a clerk who had to transfer himself from the service of Baldwin to that of his hated adversary, Henry of Mentz, in consequence of the compromise between the two. One letter gives a thumb-nail sketch of a military expedition against the rebellious town of Erfurt. In these familiar letters Lewis of Bavaria most usually appears under the title ' Diphthongus ', obviously because nobody trusted him. It would be possible to enlarge upon the variety and interest of the contents of this volume, were it not necessary to say something about the method of their presentation. Herr Stengel has laid down for himself the principles that no document already accessible in print shall be reprinted, unless the text is capable of improvement, or a new version occurs differing materially from the old. As a rule he is content with giving a collation of his manuscripts. Minor documents are analysed in German, the more important words being given in the original language. No analysis is given of documents previously printed. Finally, the abstracts or texts, as the case may be, are arranged in chronological order. The reviewer has suffered somewhat from the faithful adherence of the editor to all these excellent principles, more especially the last.