the primitive religion must have been monotheism; next, that de facto it was; that the true religion preceded false religions. The proposed rationalistic explanation of progress, he also shows, is contradicted by the manner in which the Gospel was propagated among the nations of Europe. Considering the excellent aim of the Controverse, the good quality of the articles so far contributed, and their combination of learning with a very readable style; and, lastly, the fact that the average length of an article is only twelve pages, it ought to find a large circle of readers among intelligent English Catholics: even, and with very good results, among educated women, who may not care to attack technical treatises, and whose position obliges them to listen to a large amount of anti-Catholic doubt and objection, not always by any means put forward in malice, and to which they might, with a little more knowledge, efficaciously reply. "La Vision des Chérubins du Prophète Ezéchiel" is the title of two articles that appear in the two numbers of the Controverse, placed at the head of this notice. They are from the pen of the Abbé Vigouroux, so favourably known to Bible students by his "La Bible et les Découvertes modernes," the fourth volume of which has just been published. The vision of the Cherubim with which the book of Ezechiel opens is, it is well known, full of difficulties and mysteries: so full, a note in our English Douay tells us, that the old Hebrews, according to St. Jerome, would not allow any to read it until they were thirty years old. And it has remained obscure since to readers of more than twice thirty. No wonder, then, that Rationalists, as M. Vigoroux says, used to laugh at it as too bizarre for divine inspiration. Strange to say, however, modern Assyrian discoveries have so changed the tactics of the objectors that they now reject the "pretended vision" of Ezechiel as a description pure and simple of those Assyrian works of art that, by their novelty to him and their magnificence, had deeply impressed the imagination of the Hebrew writer. The aim of the present articles is to show that God, when He revealed Himself to His prophet Ezechiel, made use merely of the imagery that the prophet had before his eyes in exile-somewhat as Mr. Gilbert Scott (in his recent work) cleverly and forcibly contends S. John, in his great vision of heaven, had before him an idealized Christian temple. God in revealing Himself to His prophet made use-as a means of manifestation of the sights around Ezechiel at the time. The points of resemblance between the vision of the Cherubim and the Chaldean inonuments are too numerous and striking to deny them. But it must also be well noted that if the prophet has borrowed from Chaldean Art, he has in no wise copied it. If it be just, and even useful to an understanding of the vision, to recognize the resemblances, it is no less necessary not to exaggerate them. The seer has only made use as a point de départ of what was before the eyes of the Hebrews exiled with him. God wished that, like all the sacred writers, he should borrow his colours, figures, metaphors, his " imagery," as the English say, from objects around him and well known to his readers. The sacred author acted together with God; his copying is not servile; but by new and original combinations he has expressed, by means of his symbols, exalted and sublime truths which it belongs to theologians to expound to us. The greater part of the emblems that he has given us we find scattered here and there through Assyrian sculptures and bas-reliefs, but nowhere do we find them all together united as they are in the vision. Thus we find the man, the bull, the lion, and the eagle constantly used as religous symbols; we find winged bulls and lions with human faces-but nowhere any monument in which all these characters are united in one. Neither do we find Kirubi provided with the human hands and the four wings of Ezechiel's cherubim, yet we do find human figures with four wings and winged lions with human hands. As to the movements of the mystic animals, it is evident that it is peculiar to the vision shown by God to the prophet. Readers familiar-as who is not ?-with the colossal Assyrian kirubi, or winged bulls with human faces, and nirgalli, or winged lions with human faces, in the works of Layard, in the British Museum or the Louvre, will follow the Abbé Vigouroux's lengthened comparison of these with the mystic animals of the prophet's vision with great interest. A visit to the Assyrian Museum at the Louvre, he says, will elucidate the language of the vision more readily than commentaries—the mere sight of the winged bulls explaining the mystic creatures of the first chapter of Ezechiel better than the ex professo treatises of Kaiser and Hufnagel. The men painted in colours on the walls of Ezech. xxii. 14, 15, are there; the verses are, in effect, a technical description of the palace walls of Khorsabad; indeed, M. de Longpérier, in his Guide to the Museum, for his description had only to copy these words of the prophet. The 10th verse of chapter viii. can equally be seen. The writer's comparison of the "vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezech. i. 26-ii. 1), in his second article, is still more interesting. The light thrown on the meaning of such words as amber (hasmal electrum of the Vulgate) in that passage is noteworthy. = If the colossal and brilliantly decorated chef-d'œuvres of Assyrian art, he says, strike with such awe the Arab excavators who find them in their ruined desolation, what impression must they have made on the impressible Jews who trod their vast spaces in the days of living magnificence? But the prophet was an artist, who painted to the ear of the exiled Jew with the very figures and details whose splendour seemed unrivalled, a picture of the grandeur and magnificence of the true God, the God of his fathers, beyond even the grandeur and magnificance of the Chaldeans. The infinite beauty and greatness of their God was taught them through the beauty and greatness before their eyes. That God should have revealed truths to Ezechiel, under these images and symbols, offers no difficulty; it is, on the contrary, in keeping with God's way in His revelations to Moses in the book of Exodus, to David in the Psalms, to Daniel, and to S. John. The writer concludes: It is right, however, to acknowledge that the progress made of this kind, in the interpretation of the Sacred Books is only secondary; if Assyriology has dissipated clouds and cleared up doubtful points, its service is limited to that. The sense of the prophecies remains the same. What the Fathers and old commentators wrote and taught remains true. If some superficial changes be introduced in the manner of representing the mystic creatures, nothing essential has to be altered, and we may repeat to day, with Catholic tradition, that this vision shows what is the glory of God and His sovereign dominion over all creatures. IN GERMAN PERIODICALS. By Dr. BELLESHEIM, COLOGNE. I. Katholik. N the May and June issues Professor Probst, of Breslau University, writes on "The Liturgy of the African Church in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries." Like many other countries, Africa witnessed during this period a reformation in the liturgy, although it was far less extensive than the reforms elsewhere. But, unlike other countries which were called upon to struggle against Arianism (which heresy gave rise to a change in the Preface in the Mass), Africa had to oppose only the schism of the Donatists, and hence preserved the old form of the preface, which was a prayer of thanks to Almighty God for his creation and providence. Our author next reconstructs the African liturgy from the writings of S. Augustine, an extremely difficult task, owing to the destruction by the Vandals of whatever liturgical books of the Catholic Church they happened to meet with. Again, the writings of S. Fulgentius, the disciple of S. Augustine, point to the "epiklesis," or invocation of the Holy Ghost, after the consecration of Our Lord's body and blood in the Mass. According to S. Fulgentius, the Holy Ghost descends on the altar not personally, but through his graces, to sanctify, not Our Lord's body and blood, but the mystical body-viz., the congregation. Professor Probst, in concluding his able article, says: "This is the form of the African liturgy during the fourth and fifth centuries. A copy of its liturgical books no longer exists a fact to be deplored all the more, as this liturgy, far more than any other, would have given to us the oldest Mass-rites in the Western Church." Nürn The July issue contains a study, from the pen of the Rev. berger, of S. Boniface's work, "De Unitate Fidei." That the apostle of Germany wrote a work bearing this title is generally known, from his biography edited by St. Willibald. The work was a detailed profession of faith, which he gave to Pope Gregory II. before his consecration. Some fragments of it are contained in the "Collection of Canons," by Cardinal Deusdedit, which Mgr. Martineau, from a Vatican manuscript, published at Venice in 1869. But Herr Nürnberger was happy enough to discover in a Vatican Codex (4,160, fol. 49), another fragment, hitherto unknown, of St. Boniface's work. All the writings of St. Boniface breathe his intense love for the centre of unity and his zeal for the purity of clerical life. The Rev. Beissel contributes an able article on the history of the "Episcopal Crosier." He commences with the staff as a sign of authority in the heathen world and Old Testament history, and advances hence to the crosier of Christian times. For centuries, the crosier was a staff, bearing on its top a globe, or a globe with a cross, or a transom. The ultimate form was a crook or crosier. A staff, with a globe on the top, is still preserved in the treasury of Cologne Cathedral; and, according to the legend, it came from St. Peter, who sent it to St. Maternus, the first bishop of Cologne. The same July number of the Katholik contains an essay on "Dante's Ideas of Pope and Emperor." The author very strongly vindicates the great Catholic poet from the charge of being an enemy of the Holy See (whatever may be his opinions about the persons of several Pontiffs) and still more from the charge of supporting the spirit of revolution, or of the so-called Reformation. I contribute to the same number a long critique of Fr. Bridgett's "History of the Holy Eucharist in England," and Dr. Lee's "Church under Queen Elizabeth." 2. Historich-politische Blätter. The most important contribution is a series of three articles by Dr. Falk, a parish priest of the Mainz diocese, on the foundations and offices of "Cathedral preachers" in Germany during the Middle Ages. Wherever the Catholic Church was not prevented by public calamities or iniquitous laws, we find her fulfilling her divinely intrusted mission of preaching God's word. As far back as we can go in German history, we find that sermons were preached in the vulgar tongue. Dr. Falk shows, from the testimony of innumerable documents, that foundations were made in German cathedrals for providing eminent preachers of Catholic doctrine; and he traces the life of those pious and learned men who unwearingly fulfilled their sublime office. It was only a slander of the Reformers to attack the Catholic Church for having, during the Middle Ages, neglected the sermon. Mainz, Worms, Spire, Strasburg, Basel, Constanz, Augsburg, Würzburg, Regensburg, Bamberg, Trèves, and Merseburg had special foundations for the support of preachers. The office of cathedral preacher in Trèves belonged to the auxiliary bishops of the diocese till 1560, when the Jesuits undertook it. It is also a fact worthy of mention that the last bishop of Merseburg, a city near the place where Luther opposed the Catholic Church, on all great feasts entered the pulpit, "and the people came in great crowds and most diligently heard the Word of God." Bishop Adolfus, of Merseburg, died in 1526. The July issue contains a critique on the learned work, "Junilius Afrikanus," by Prof. Kihn, of Würzburg University. Hitherto Junilius Africanus has been generally regarded as a bishop of an African diocese. It is to Prof. Kihn's accurate and laborious research that we now owe an exhaustive biography of this author. He was not a bishop, but a layman who occupied a high office in the Roman empire, and, what very often occurred at that period, pursued theological and biblical studies. Professor Kihn opens his article with a long account of Bishop Theodore, of Mopsuestia, and the influence and importance of the exegetical school of Antioch, over which he presided. In the second part Junilius is considered as an interpreter, and his opinions on prophecy and inspiration are examined. The third part draws very instructive pictures of the large spread of Nestorianism in Persia, and of the schools of Nisibis and Edessa, the very strongholds of this heresy. Junilius, for seven years (545–552), was a "C quaestor sacri palatii" in Constantinople, and it was in this capital that he met with Paul of Persia, professor, and afterwards metropolitan, of Nisibis. This man provided Junilius with "The Methodical Introduction to the Divine Law." At the request of his countryman, Pirmasius, Bishop of Adrumetum, he translated this work into Latin, with the title, "Instituta Regularia." Professor Kihn shows that this title is the original one, and substitutes it for the title hitherto employed: "De Partibus Divinæ Legis." To the same number I contribute an examination of Br. Foley's fifth volume of the "Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus." 3. Stimmen aus Maria Laach.-Fr. Baumgartner describes Italy during the last three years. Fr. Wiedenman contributes a very well written article on the "Attacks of modern German philosophy on the doctrine of Redemption." The man who impiously recommends to Germany the systems of Monism and Pantheism is Prof. Von Hartmann, of Berlin University. He is kind enough to teach the German public the following doctrines:-" Real beings are the incarnation of the divine essence; the world's development is the history of the incarnation of the incarnate God, and likewise the way for redeeming God crucified in the flesh; morality is co-operation for shortening this way of suffering and redeeming.' One cannot help feeling disgust and annoyance at having forced on us by this author blasphemies unusual with even the most powerful and virulent enemies of the Church in the first period of Christianity. Prof. Hartmann clothes his ideas in a very fascinating form; hence the popularity he enjoys, hence the deplorable fact that his anti-Christian opinions are taken up by thousands of readers. Notices of Books. The Metaphysics of the School. By THOMAS HARper, S.J. THIS HIS second volume of a work, which impresses the reader and the scholar more and more in proportion to its growth, is concerned with the principles of Being, and with the four Causes. A less scientific description of its contents may be given by saying that it treats of the principle of contradiction, and of the constitution of bodily substance. The aim of Father Harper, the reader may be reminded, is to write Scholastic and Thomistic philosophy in English; in good English words and phrases, and with reference to English contemporary thought. If his terms are at times somewhat strange, and his phrasing a little uncouth, no one need be astonished or repelled. Science must have its technicalities, and scientific progress is im |