Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/594

 586 REVIEWS OF BOOKS October miserable, yet many were able to buy ' national property ' in the Revolu- tion. On the other hand, in the provision of primary education Lorraine must have been one of the most advanced countries in Europe, as nearly every parish had a boys' school in 1769 and these were free to the poor, although the peasants took little advantage of them. M. Parisot says that the counter-reformation aided secondary education, and he praises the Jesuits as teachers. A university at Pont-a-Mousson was founded by papal bull in 1572 ; it was transferred to Nancy in 1768, where it ' vegetated ' till the Revolution put an end to its existence. There are excellent chapters on the art and trade of Lorraine. It is worthy of note that two English poems were imitated by Lorrainers, the Dunciad by Palissot and the Seasons by St. Lambert. In religious history it may be noted that Henry IV of France did not hesitate to give the bishopric of Metz to his bastard infant son, who never received orders, and that he confined membership of the three chapters to those who had received the approbation of the French king. In 1777 Pius VI made Metz and Toul ' noble ' chapters. The parish clergy showed notable improvement in education and morals after the university of Pont-a-Mousson was founded, and again in the eighteenth century. There was the same antagonism between them and the episcopate as in France on the eve of the Revolution. The famous abbey of St. Vanne was influential in the Benedictine reform of the sixteenth century, being head of a congregation, and sending its. prior Dom Didier to form the Maurist congregation in France. St. Pierre Fourier founded the congregation of reformed canons regular in 1625. He declined to take the oath of fidelity to Louis XIII and died in exile in 1640. He was beatified in 1730. In 1789 out of twenty-five abbeys seventeen were held in commendam. The Jesuits were particularly influential in Lorraine and were supporters of the independence of the duchies ; they declined as a body to take the oath of allegiance to the French king which Richelieu demanded from all officials and clergy in Lorraine, and Pere La Chaise expressed his surprise at their persistent patriotism ' si etrange a 1' esprit de 1'ordre '. M. Parisot, by what he omits, shows a leniency scarcely historical in dealing with the famous four chapters of ' noble ' canonesses in Lorraine, though he admits they were for centuries a li ving evidence of the powerlessness of the papacy to destroy a crying abuse. Protestantism was consistently forbidden in the duchies, but the society at Metz grew till it numbered 18,000 in 1661, and the revocation of the edict of Nantes led to a cruel persecution in that city. Whereas the main theme of the first volume was the rivalry between French and German influence, in this later period Germany has ceased almost entirely to be an active force on the people of Lorraine, though the empire still affects the dukes who are enemies of the Bourbons. M. Parisot, who resolutely refuses to allow any prejudice against Germany to influence his historical judgement, sums up the result of this period in these words : ' a la veille de la Revolution, les idees et les modes francaises dominaient dans la Lorraine, a qui I'Allemagne avait fini par devenir etrangere.' His third volume, dealing with Lorraine from 1789 to the present time, will be anticipated with interest and pleasure. WALFORD D. GXEEN.