New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-07-15
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Notes on a Sheaf of Recent
Publications.

the find TO be fully as valuable as was
at first supposed. The material is being
edited by Professor Henry A. Sanders, of
the University Of Michigan, and the first
OF the four documents. Deuteronomy and
Joshua, is now published by the Mac
milan Company. The original is here
after to be known as the Washington
Ms. 1, since II is destined for the Smith
sonian Institution. where 1t will be
placed with the companion collections IN
the gallery to be erected by Mr.. Freer.
DR.. Agnes Smith Lewis, an accom-
plished scholar, who after taking a doc
torate In philosophy at Halle-Wittem-
berg received the doctorate In laws from
ST. Andrews and subsequently the hon
orary degree Of Doctor Of Divinity from
the University OF Heidelberg. has
brought together the results OF much
research in an edition Of THE Old Syriao
Gospels. or Eyengellon da Mepharreshe"
civilians e. Norgate). 1t was In 1872
in company with her twin sister, Mrs.
Gibson. that DR.. Lewis came upon a
palimpsest Of the four Gospels In Syriac,
at the Convent OF st. Catherine, on
Mount Sinai. Taking advantage of later
4isits she has effected q more accurate
transcrlbing of the text. Commenting
on copyists' errors In early manuscripts,
and this palimpsest she thinks may
antedate Tatian's diatesseron, DR.. Lewis
thinks we can hardly blame those scrloes
of the second and third centuries when
we remember the great disadvantages
under which they sometimes worked
perhaps wandering about In sheepskins
and goatskins, Guiding all that the in
genuity of man and Of devils could do to
suppress them. AS II discerning the
modern successors OF those early heroes,
DR.. Lewis in her preface takes occasion
10 thank the proofreader and printers
for their careful attention to "a work
whose printing has lasted for nearly six
years"
A long forgotten document In the
Bodleian library has turned up in time
to serve the purposes Of tercentenary
commemorations by shedding fresh light
on the temper Of the movement in the
English Church which eliminated IN the
departure for Holland Of the inde-
pendents, who later came IN the May
flower to these shores. The discovered
manuscript is IAN Answer to John Rob-
,nsoD. the Brownst, on Separation from
the Church OF England" and 1t Is the
source from which Mr.. Champlin Bur
rage has collected in a pamphlet some
New Facts Concerning John Robinson
Pastor Of the Pilgrim Fathers CHenry
Frowde). The title has reference 10 the
pastoral oversight Of the exile church at
Leyden only, for Robinson never came 10
America. At the age OF twenty-five he
had become a master Of arts at Cam
bridge and a fellow of Corpus Christi
College. Besides definitely stating that he
lived in Norwich before his separation
from the Established Church. the docu-
ment shows that John Robinson con-
tinued for some time to serve as an
Anglican priest. Beyond this the manu-
script furnishes what Mr.. Burrage be-
lieves to be the only eXtant evidence ex-
pressed in Robinson's own words, OF the
truth Of a statement published by John
Bastwick in 1916 to the effect that ROD
inson's withdrawal from the Church or
England was not entirely voluntary, put,
TO O certain extent, forced. A further
item rescued for remembrance is that be-
fore the rise Of Robert Browne and Rob-
ert Harrison, leaders in independently
and both Cambridge men, there seems to
have been q type Of Congregationalism
within the Church In such parishes as st.
Peter Mancroft and st. Andrews. Nor
wich. BY purchasing the patronage
these churches had obtained the right to
elect their own ministers. It was prob
ably from his study and criticism Of
these two churches during his stay in
Norwich that Browne got many OF his
ideas on Congregational polity.
Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland's pious
labors In translating and editing with
introduction and notes THE Soliloquies
Of St. Augustine" Q.ittle, Brown & Coz
will bear fruit by bringing better into
view the man apart from the ecclesi-
astic. The Confessions" intimate though
they are, DO but give us the Bishops
recollections Of his youth. for they were
written after years Of absorption In the
exacting duties Of ecclesiastical function
and doctrinal debate. The "Soliloquies,"
on the other hand introduce us TO the
converted man ut the very moment OF
his conversion when, as Miss Cleveland
observes, he had not the self-conscious-
ness which pre-eminence as a church
father later forced upon him. The
"Soliloquies" can scarcely be said to be
known I'm English, for the one eXtant
translation is bound with other matters
in a volume not readily accessible TO lay
men. Since the thirteenth century
spurious substitutes for Augustine's text
have been in circulation. A medley OF
devout and ejaculatory sentences passing
for the "Soliloquies" was compiled by
hugo OF Sl NlCtoi' WIZ uic" "h '.i'
Confessions" and then composed an ap-
plication Of the saints rule. This was
the conglomcrate that the Saxon King
Alfred translated into the English Of his
day; but, says Miss Cleveland. what
with It's naive reflections and equally
naive interjectlons, this version, charm
ing and valuable as It Is. can for obvious
reasons only by excess OF mendacious
courtesy he called a translation OF Au
gustinc's "Soliloquio7," being far less rep
resentatiye OF Augustine than Of Alfred!