New-York tribune., 1910-06-22
Literary .Nete,s and Criticism

Papacy and the influence OF the Roman
communion upon the civilization of West
ern Europe are the chief subjects Of the
present work. The author provides gen
erous bibliographies, and he is consider
ate toward the general reader in that he
does not strive TO he obscure or omnis-
cient. With regard to st. Peter AND the
Church, Professor Flick says that the
presence and death of the apostle in
Rome may be accepted as an estab-
lished fact st Peters unique leader
ship. his activity In founding the Church
d: Rome and his naming of successor
!, no in time became the Pope may all
be granted without involving the asser-
tion that Christ chose Peter TO be the
head of a definite, divinely planned
Church. or that the apostle, conscious of
a great mission. went 10 the. capital of
the empire and there organized the only
true Church on earth. The organization
of the omnipotent hierarchy of the Mid
die Ages, developed froEQ a handful of
outlawed, prosecuted Christians in Rome.
miraculous as it appears. was but the in
evitable product Of recognizable condi-
tions and forces. Measuring the in
fiuence of monasticism in Western Eu-
rope, the author is convinced that in
spite of the injurious effects of its ascetic
! world flight il fulfilled a genuine need
and performed an important service for
civilization by extending rapidly the
great humanizing and spiritualizing en-
ergies of organized Christianity. Pro-
fessor Flick devctes chapter to a
period which he thinks historians
neglect. the period, namely, of the pio-
neer activities of the Church, from the
sixth to the tenth century, the age that
witnessed the conversion of the British
Isles, the Franks, the Germans the
Scandinavians and the Slavs
The title of Jeremy Taylor's famous
treatise on tolerance, whose theory has
reached us without the recommendation
of his example" is adopted by Canon
II. Hensley Henson for his lectures, at
Yale in 1909. on the Lyman Beecher
foundation. The Liberty of Prophecy
| ing The demand of the Church for
literal acceptance of the creeds the
part of the clergy is an attempt to Sc
cure by preliminary pledges a guarantee
of the preachers accurate theological
thinking. and. seeing that theology is in
continual fiux. SCanon Henson considers
the demand irrational What the Church
must insist on taking from the preachers
whom it commissions is the pledge Of
personal discipieship, and the preachers
are themselves solemnly bound to make
that pledge the test of. their own sin
cerity in preaching. The difficulties be-
setting religious teacher who ventures
on interpretations at variance with pre-
vailing fashions are not slight, and the
author thinks that with all our supposed
growth in tolerance there are few visible
safeguards against outbreaks of perse-
cution. Fanaticism is not a spent force.
nor need we be surprised to see within
few years an occurrence Of religious
panic. The rank and file of Christian
people. in England at least. are only
beginning to realize the changes effect
ed by the application of historical and
literary criticism to the New Testament:
but when they understand what is i'm
which is spoken about with so much
confidence but with SO little reflection,
they will be vehemently disturbed. Then
the familiar situation will have returned.
There will be a short cut to popularity
for any able preacher who chooses to
make himself the mouthpiece of the
popular fears and the apologist of the
popular prejudices-
A contribution toward the reconStruc-
tion of Jewish history is made by Pro-
fessor Charles c. Torrey, Of Yale Uni
versity, in his Ezra Studies" In modern
Biblical science the Babylonian exile has
been given the central place and made
the dominating factor in both the relig-
brews. A sharp division is made between
the prophetic" period ending with the
exile and the illegal" period which fol-
lowed. the latter being considered alto
gether inferior to the former. This, ac-
cording TO Professor Torrey, is a thor
opment of life and letters and religion in
Jerusalem, after the great calamity. con-
tinued to be a genuinely native develop
ment, in which foreign elements played,
as they always had, a relatively small
part The religion of the people of Israel
was more liberal and more spiritual in
the fourth century than it had been in
the fifth. and more so in the fifth century
than it had been in the seventh.