New-York tribune., 1903-06-30
THE ENGLISH CHURCH.
Its History IN Three Centuries.

H HESTP6E 9E yE kGIf kN S4EN4a GHgRfaaE aE r
The Macmillan Company
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY By James
Gardner, c B. Hon IL. D. syo. pp- 49, The
Macmillan Company.
These volumes. in the series devoted 10 the
English Church. edited by the Dean Of Win
chester, naturally duplicate. to a considerable
extent. the secular records that cover the same
period. So completely do the affairs and move
unents Of the Church and the interests OF re-
liglon dominate human interest throughout
these centuries that when the ecclesiastlcal
history has been written il will be found that
the task has naturally included all those inter
relations O. church and state that in fact
constitute the public life Of men, leaving little or
nothing for the pen Of merely secular an
nalist. But DR.. Capes and Dr. Gardner rehoer
some service nevertheless, by viewing t"e
worlds movements strictly as ecclesiastical
history. considered wholly from the ecclesias-
rjcal standpoint Yet neither Of them, 10 any
appreciable extent has adopted q philosophlcai
ar ipterpretstive method Of treatment, and the
result OF this restriction has left in tnelr VOL
urnes nothing more than a coherent chronology
of occurrences There are scarcely any esli-
mates OF character Notwithstanding the tempt
.ne opportuntty offered in the personages
brought TO the front in the record. There Is
almost no light thrown upon causes and mo-
.,ves and no attempt is made TO show the Sc
oueuce Of development from event to event or
from year TO year. The narratives II fact' are
as colorless as possible. and consequently lack
ing IN the charm and glow that give NaIue 10
work ike D'Aubigne's Reformation" and some
OF the best historical work OF Ranke
The first of these volumes embraces such in
feresting periods episodes as the BLACK
Plague the prosecutions of the Lollards and
the trial Of wicklif. The author regards the
fifteenth century as the very darkest In the
history OF the Church The conditions OF the
Church and its interior workings described
.u detail its routine of customs and obseTvances,
it's charities. rnonasteries. abbeys and pilgrim
sres The other volume by DR.. Gardner,
brings the history down TO even more interest
ing times. The author marshals before US, in
g long and colorless panorama, the figures OF
Henry VIII, with his DEGREES, murders ana
sntrigues; of the popes. cardinals ana arch-
b,shops who assisted or opposed him; OF VOL
sey. Somerset, Cranmer and Thomas Crom-
well: Anne Boleyn. Katharine and Bloody
Mary. He rehearses the scenes IN Which
martyrs like Ridley. Latirner and Sir Thomas
More and at last Cranmer himself, are con-
spicuous. and il is all related with a prosaic
rninuteness amounting TO little more than the
repetition OF history that has often been told
before.
II should be entirely possible TO construct
history of the English Church setting forth
Jnterpretatively. and in new lights. with a fresh
interest. the permanent relations Of the Church
10 the great historic factors with which IL was
correlated; viewing its human figures IN thelr
influences and reactions upon the Christianity
NJ their times, and exhibiting the ecclesiastlcal
establishment with some appreciation OF us
rroportionate Importance among the lnsutu-
tions that conserved and shaped the epochs
,,.re dealt with. But there has been IN 1hese
works no attempt at this kind or analysis anu
svnthesis The net result Is newly aii
collection of historical material coihpilsie
rather dry record Of ecciesiast'cal e'eii'S
.l,a r,eriods ira Tersed.