Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/457

 1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 449 others carry back enfeoffments for a small fraction of a knight's service to the early years of Stephen's reign. Light is thrown upon the donum, here called the commune geldum regis, the murdrum, part of the burden of which, it appears, was the compulsory watch over the dead body, the meaning of the already archaic ad utwaram et ad inwaram, and the dis- tinction of servicia forinseca into those ' que pertinent ad corpus militis ' and those ' que currunt per carrucatas terre '. Students of municipal history will note that in the twelfth century the earjs of Leicester retained an interest in the revenue of the merchant gild there, of which Miss Bateson found no trace in the town archives (no. 347 and introduction, p. cxix). The indexes, for which we have to thank Canon Foster and his secretary Miss Thurlby, extend to more than 150 pages, and are worthy of a flawless piece of editorial work. James Tait. Kritische Studien zum Leben und zu den Schriften Alberts des Grossen. By Franz Pelster, S.J. (Freiburg im Breisgau : Herder, 1920.) The aim of this valuable study of Albert the Great is to determine ques- tions of chronology, not of interpretation, except in so far as a more exact knowledge of dates may throw some light on the development of Albert's philosophy. The book falls into three parts, of which the first deals with biographies and legends, the second with the main events in Albert's career, the third with the order of his writings. Besides the early chroniclers, of whom Henry of Herford (c. 1355) was the first to attempt a serious biography, there grew up certain ' legends ' of Albert suitable to his great reputation and preserved in the convents of the Dominican order at Cologne and elsewhere. By analysis of various writers, notably Peter of Prussia (1487), Father Pelster discovers evidence of a legend which, though it originated probably in Cologne, is not to be identified with the legenda Coloniensis of 1483. This earlier legend, he argues, was the founda- tion of Henry of Herford's biography, and may be said to carry us back to a time when much of Albert's life was still preserved in living memory. There is, in fact, nothing mythical about Albert ; he was a solid historical figure, and after reading Father Pelster's account of the sources already named, as well as of William of Tocco, Louis of Valladolid, Jacob of Soest, and others, we are almost surprised to find how much uncertainty remains. The date of Albert's birth, for instance, has long been disputed and cannot absolutely be fixed. Some place it as early as 1193, others as late as 1207. In the latter case we might be forced to conclude that Albert entered the order at the age of sixteen, which, despite his reputed precocity in holiness and learning, Js rather improbable. For various good reasons Father Pelster inclines towards the earlier date, and we may safely assume that Albert was well over eighty when he died (1280). If a Leipzig manuscript can be trusted, he entered the order at Padua in 1223 ; but again the evidence is conflicting, and it is quite possible that the event occurred at Cologne. Similar difficulties attend most of the stages in Albert's career as a teacher. At one point Father Pelster is driven into a dissertation upon the chronology of Thomas Aquinas, whose birth, we notice, he puts VOL. XXXVI. — NO. CXLIII. . G g