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In reading these resolutions it must appear strange that the most intolerant censor should not be satisfied with the emphatic expressions of an unconditional submission to the authority of the Pope. Nevertheless, the reference to the freedom of science kindled the wrath of the Pope, who castigates in his brief the learned scholars without restraint. The following are some of the most salient points of this remarkable document:

"We could not help being extraordinarily astonished at seeing the convocation of the above-mentioned congress made and published in the name of some individuals, in such a manner that nothing is to be found which came from the impulsion, from the authority, and from the mission of the ecclesiastical power, to which alone it belongs, by proper and natural right, to watch over and direct doctrine, particularly in matters relating to theological questions. Certainly this is a thing, and you know it, quite new, and altogether unusual in the Church."

"We cannot conceal that we have suffered considerable uneasiness; for we fear lest the example of this congress, assembled without ecclesiastical authority, may serve by degrees to bring about an attack on the right of spiritual government and of legitimate teaching, which, in virtue of the divine institution, belongs of right to the Roman Pontiff and to the bishops who are in union and in accord with the successor of St. Peter; and that by reason of this trouble thus introduced into the government of the Church, the principle of unity and of obedience in matters of faith may one day be weakened among many. We feared also that in the same congress there might come to be uttered and sustained opinions and systems which, especially by the publicity which would be given to them, might place in peril the purity of Catholic doctrine and the duty of submission."

"Even when the submission due to the divine faith is the only question, it is

not to be restricted to those points which have been defined by express decrees of œcumenical councils or Roman Pontiffs and of this Apostolic See; it would be necessary further to extend it to all which is transmitted as divinely revealed by the ordinary body of instruction of the whole Church dispersed over the universe, and which, for this reason, Catholic theologians, with universal and constant consent, regard as belonging to faith. But as the question is of the submission which is due in conscience from all those Catholics who give themselves to the study of the speculative sciences in order to procure to the Church new advantages by their writings, the members of the congress ought to recognize that it is not sufficient for Catholic savans to accept and respect the dogmas of the Church of which we have just spoken, but that they ought also to submit themselves both to the doctrinal decisions which emanate from pontifical congregations, and to the points of doctrine which by common and constant consent are held in the Church as truths."

It is sufficiently evident from the terms of the letter that the Pope is not only seriously alarmed at the results arrived at by the congress, but that he and his advisers dread still more the permanent establishment of any such independent power within the Church. According to its present plan, the 'congress is to assemble annually for the discussions of questions connected with the welfare of the Church. The Pope accordingly condemns the very notion of such a conference as unauthorized, having been assembled without the express authority of the Holy See. He thinks it calculated to injure the integrity of the faith, as well as to weaken the implicit obedience which Catholics of every order owe to the authority of the Church.

ART. IX.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY.

THE large circulation which the work of Renan has found in France and elsewhere is probably the chief motive which has induced Dr. Strauss to prepare likewise a work on the same subject for the people, (Leben Jesu für das Deutsche Volk. Leipzic, 1864.) Strauss has over Renan the advantage of greater learning. He was one of the first who, by attacks upon the authenticity of the

Gospel record and the divinity of Christ, gave an impulse to the extensive critical literature of the last thirty years on the New Testament and on the primitive history of Christianity. Though removed from the theological chair of a Protestant university and from the pulpit of the Church, in both of which a man of his views had certainly no right to remain, Dr. Strauss has evidently continued to devote a great deal of time to reading the recent literature of the New Testament,

and to continuing in general his own in- ! vestigations. The fruit of these studies he gives in the volume above referred to. The book bears on its face the signs of great learning and profound study, and on this account is likely to produce a more lasting impression than the work of Renan. On the other hand, the Frenchman is much superior to the German in point of style; and it is already evident that the work of Strauss will have nothing like the circulation of Renan's work.

The present position of Strauss with regard to the origin of Christianity does not materially differ from that which he held thirty years ago. The report which was circulated some months ago about his conversion was without any foundation. He still denies the historical character of most of the events in the life of Jesus and the primitive history of Christianity. Yet he is compelled to make important concessions to the many apologetic works which have been published since the appearance of his larger Life of Jesus, in 1835.

The stock of literature on the Waldenses has received an addition by a new critical edition of the old catechisms

of the Waldensians and the Bohemian Brethren, (Die Katechismen der Waldenser und Böhmischen Brüder. Erlangen, 1863,) by Dr. von Zezschwitz, accompanied by learned essays on the relation of these two denominations to each other and to the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. The author thinks that the origin of the Waldensian catechism falls about into the year 1498, and that it was made use of in the compilation of

that of the Bohemian Brethren. The

latter, according to the opinion of Zezschwitz, was compiled between 1520 and 1522; and only the second part, distinguished from the first by long and intricate answers, proceeds from Lucas of Prague, who hitherto has been commonly regarded as the author of the whole catechism.

The recent attacks upon the fundamental doctrines of Christianity continue to call forth a number of popular apologetic works. "Six Lectures on the Person of Jesus Christ," (Sechs Vorträge über die Person Jesu Christi. Ingoldstadt, 1863,) delivered in Stuttgard by Herman Weiss, are recommended in the theological papers of Germany as very

able.

A Protestant clergyman at Speyer, Bavaria, Th. Culman, has commenced the publication of a new manual of Christian Ethics, (Die Christliche Ethik. Stuttgardt, 1864, vol. 1,) from a novel point of view. He is an ardent partisan of the peculiar mystic philosophy and theology ("theosophy") which recognizes its chief representatives in Jacob Böhme, Baader, Schelling, (his second system,) and Schaden. He defines ethics as the science of asceticism, or the science of the Christian rules of life, by the observance of which mankind are redeemed from sin and perfected into the image of God.

A new popular biography of Calvin has been published in honor of the tercentenary of his death, by Paul Pressel; (Johann Calvin. Elberfeld, 1864.) The author is already favorably known by other works on the history of the Ref ormation of the sixteenth century.

A fourth volume of Polenz's "History of French Calvinism," the best work on the Reformed Church of France, is also announced. It continues the history of French Calvinism to the death of

Henry IV.

One of the most important works in Roman Catholic literature of Germany is the "History of the Apologetic and Polemical Literature of Christian Theology," by Dr. Werner, (Geschichte der Apologetischen und Polemischen Literatur der Christlichen Theologie. Schaffhausen.) The third volume has recently appeared.

Another Roman Catholic work on

Church history is a monograph on "Hilarius of Poictiers, one of the prominent Bishops of the Church of the Fourth Century," by Professor Reinkens.

A new collection of Essays on some of the most difficult passages of the Old Testament has been published by F. Böttcher, (Neue Exegetisch-Kritische AchLeipzic,

renlese zum Alte Testamente. 1864.) The work will be completed in three parts. A similar work, published by the same author in 1849, has secured for him the reputation of an able exegetical writer.

FRANCE.

The literature on the History of French Protestantism, of which we gave a survey in the last number of the Methodist Quarterly Review, has recently

received a very valuable addition by a work by Professor de Felice, of Montauban, on the "History of the National Synods of the Reformed Churches of France." (Histoire des Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Reformées de France. Paris, 1864.) The work contains forty chapters. The first contains a brief and lucid survey of the entire subject. The second is a comprehensive sketch of the condition of the Reformation in France until the first National Synod. It is followed by three chapters, on "The First National Synod, held at Paris in 1559;" ;" "Some Remarks on the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches," and a "Brief Summary of their Discipline." The following twenty-seven chapters trace the History of the National Synods to 1659, the time when an interruption of sixty-six years commences, which forms the subject of the thirty-fourth chapter. In the next four chapters (thirty-four to thirty-seven) the eighth national synods held in the Desert from 1726 to 1763 are treated of. In the thirty-eighth chapter we find a new interruption of eighty-five years. The thirtyninth chapter is devoted to the Protestant General Assembly, which met at Paris in 1848. The fortieth, and concluding chapter, contains a recapitulation of the whole, and the inferences which the author draws from the history of the synods. Each of the chapters devoted to the history of one of the synods consists of two parts, the history of the synod being preceded by a survey of the chief political events of the time in which the synod met.

The work of Professor de Felice has a special importance at a time when the ministers and laity of the Reformed Church are almost unanimously memorializing the French government for the restoration of the General Synod.

Pastor Puaux, the author of a History of the French Reformation, in six volumes, has published a popular "Life of Calvin," (Vie de Calvin. Paris, 1864,) in honor of the tercentenary of the death of the great Geneva Reformer. Of Merle d'Aubigné's "History of the Reformation in Europe at the time of Calvin," (Histoire de la Reformation du Europe, au temps de Calvin,) the third volume has been published. The Geneva Committee on Religious Publications has issued, in honor of the tercentenary, a new popular edition of

"Bungener's Life of Calvin." "The Life of Calvin," by Theodore Beza, has also been published in a new edition, and called forth a very unfair article in the Journal des Debats, from Sylvester de Sacy.

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The agitation produced by the work of Renan still continues. Renan himself has issued a popular edition of his work for the masses of the people, which has likewise found a very extensAnother writer of the ive circulation. same school, Mr. Peyrat, has published Elementary and Critical History of Jesus." (Histoire Elementaire et Critique de Jesus.) Among the best new works written against Renan are that of Father Gratry, one of the most respected French writers on philosophy, and one of the first pulpit orators of France, and Abbé Freppel, already favorably known by several works on the primitive history of Christianity. Guizot is also reported to have prepared a work directed against Renan, under the title of "Religious Meditations."

E. de Pressensé, the learned editor of the Revue Chretienne, is one of the most prolific as well as the ablest writers of French Protestantism. His latest work on the "Church and the French Revolution" (L'Eglise et la Revolution Française) has been received with great applause by the literary press. His work is a History of the Relation of Church and State, from 1789 to 1802. It is divided into four books, whose contents are as follows: Book I. "The Constituent Assembly; Debates on Religious Liberty, on Church Property, on the Civil Constitution and the Oath Imposed upon the Clergy; Effects of these Measures in the Country." Book II. "The Religious Contest during the time of the Legislative Assembly and the Convention, in these assemblies and among the people." Book III. "The Regime of the Separation of Church and State; Restoration of the Altars." Book IV. "The Concordat; Its Religious Bearing and its

Effects."

"The Idea of God and its new Critics" (L'Idee de Dieu et ses nouveaux Critiques) is the title of a new book pub. lished by Mr. Caro, already known by a number of other philosophical works. Mr. Caro belongs to what is called in France the new "Spiritualist School,” which, in opposition to Pantheism and

Materialism, defends the personality of God and the spirituality and immortality of the soul. Descartes, Malebranche, Fenelon, Bossuet, Laromiguière, Cousin, Jouffroy, Jules Simon, Saisset, are among the writers whom the author regards as the main pillars of the spiritualist school, and whose arguments he defends and supports.

The "Spiritualist School," of which Mr. Caro is one of the representatives, has, of course, nothing in common with what we generally understand by "Spiritualism." This latter school has, however, also found some followers in France, among whom is M. Caselli, who published last year a volume, entitled "Reality, or the Agreement of Spiritualism with Principles and Facts." (Realité; ou, Accord du Spiritualism avec les Principles et les Faits. Paris, 1863.)

Mr. F. Huet, a chief representative of the Gallican party in the Roman Catholic Church of France, has issued a work in two volumes, entitled "The Science of the Spirit," (La Science de l'Esprit.) In this work, which the author says is the fruit of twenty-five years of study, the author unites into one system all the parts of the Science of the Spirit, hitherto dismembered into several distinct sciences under the names of metaphysics and logic, psychology and ethics. Mr. Huet had previously written works on the "Social Influence of Christianity." an "Essay of Catholic Reforms," a "History of the Life and the Works of Bordas Demoulin," his fellow-laborer in behalf of reforms in the Catholic Church. He warmly defends the principal tenets of a Christian philosophy, in opposition to the attacks of modern anti-Christian schools.

ART. X. - SYNOPSIS OF THE QUARTERLIES, AND OTHERS OF THE HIGHER PERIODICALS.

American Quarterly Reviews.

AMERICAN QUARTERLY CHURCH REVIEW, 'April, 1864. (New York.)— 1. Intercommunion of the Eastern and Anglican Churches. 2. The Two Theories of Civilization. 3. Positivism. 4. Some Thoughts about so-called Grecian Churches. 5. The Outwardness of our Popular Religion. 5. American Lutheranism and the Episcopacy. 7. Private Munificence in Parishes and Church Charities. 8. The Fultonstreet Prayer-Meeting and the Daily Service. 9. Ante-Revolutionary Church and Clergy.

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN AND THEOLOGICAL REVIEW, April, 1864. (New York.)-1. The Messiah's Second Coming. 2. The Political Principles of the Old Testament Prophets. 3. The Antiquity of Man. 4. Bulgarian Literature. 5. The Principles of Morell's Philosophy. 6. Paul's Allegorical use of the Mosaic Narrative. 7. Theories of the Inspiration of the Scriptures.

DANVILLE REVIEW, March, 1864. (Danville, Ky.)-1. The Nature and Extent of Church Authority. 2. The Nation's Success and Gratitude. 3. Baptist Revision of the Bible. 4. The Loyalty Demanded by the Present Crisis. 5. Disloyalty in the Church. 6. The Men of Danville. No. I. 7. New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. EVANGELICAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, April, 1864. (Gettysburgh, Pa.)— 1. The Patriarchs of the Lutheran Church from Halle. 2. Instruction in Christian Doctrine according to the System of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. By John Henry Kurtz, D.D., Professor in the University of Dorpat. Translated from the Sixth German Edition. 3. Paul, the Missionary Apostle. 4. The Christ of History. 5. The Battle of Gettysburgh. 6. The Confessors and the Confession of Augsburg. “

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7. Revivals. 8. Inspiration. Translated from Zeller's "Biblisches Worterbuch." 9. Lange's Theological and Homiletical Commentary on the New Testament.

FREEWILL BAPTIST QUARTERLY, April, 1864. (Dover, N. H.)---1. The Physician of the Body, and the Physician of the Mind. 2. Life and Times of Paul. 3. The Effects of the Fall upon Creation. 4. The Elements of Error in Human Life. 5. Geology and Revelation. 6. God among the Nations. 7. The Anglo-Saxon Church. NEW ENGLANDER, April, 1864. (New Haven.)-1. The Conflict with Skepticism and Unbelief. Second Article: The Mythical Theory of Strauss. 2. The Atonement as a Revelation. 3. Poland. 4. The Atonement. 5. What makes a Heretic? 6. America Vindicated by an Englishman. A Review of Rev. Dr. J. W. Massie's New Book on the United States. 7. Review of the Autobiography of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher. 8. Review of Weiss's Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker. 9. Charles Beecher's New Theory of the Work of the Redeemer. BIBLICAL REPERTORY AND PRINCETON REVIEW. (Philadelphia.)-1. The Works of Plato. 2. Latin Christianity. 3. Man's Place in Nature. 4. Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 5. The Superintendence of Foreign Missions. 6. Governor Winthrop. 7. St. Jerome. BIBLIOTHECA SACRA, April, 1864. (Andover, Mass.)-1. The Genuineness of the Fourth Gospel. 2. Charles Wesley and Methodist Hymns. 3. The Author of the Apocalypse. 4. Final Cause of Varieties. 5. Examination of Phil. iii, 11, and Rev. xx, 4. 6. Rise and Progress of Monasticism. 7. Egyptology, Oriental Travel and Discovery. The fourth is a brief but valuable article by Prof. Chadbourne, of Williams College, showing, especially with regard to vegetable species, that while abundant provisions are made clearly intended for the behoof of the species, there is a large surplusage as clearly intended for other benefit; especially for man, both as a physical and as an intellectual being. The potato, apple, and parsnip lay in provision more ample than their own needs, as if bound to provide for somebody besides themselves, and man is mostly the only pensioner that obtains their bounty. And the variations herein are produced for man by man, and are in the direction for his life and gratification. The rose varies, under man's cultivation, in the direction of beauty, sacrificing her own seeding-by a beautiful martyrdom--to develop and gratify his esthetic nature. Variation is, indeed, not so much of species as in species, there being probably limits which the specific vital force can never pass. But if there be no such limits then there is a limitless progress, both of the subservient and dominant species, of nature and of man, onward and upward beyond any assignable terminus. He is decisive against the Darwinian philosophy.

We consider the scientific discussion as to how animals and plants came upon this globe to be a matter of investigation as to facts. How that question will be ultimately decided we have no doubt. Biologists can throw light upon many dark points, but it is upon geology that we must mainly rely for facts. We have not yet seen any strong argument made out, nor do we believe that geology has yet given one whisper of satisfactory testimony in favor of the development theory. . . . We regard, then, the law of variation as a means of preserving the FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XVI.-32

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