itself a cure for sin, are denounced; and Neercassel's Amor Pænitens, and S. Charles Borromeo's Instructiones, are recommended for general adoption. The shifts and subterfuges of Probabilism, which have found an able exponent in Liguori, are then severely handled; and the theories of the Casuists respecting the subjection due to Princes are shown to be not consonant with sound reasoning or Holy Scripture. The Canons of discipline promulgated by the Synod are marked by good sense and a wise discretion, aiming rather at the due correction of offences according to the Divine law and the restoration of sinners, than at the mere carrying out of high hierarchial views or ultramontane theories.

On the conclusion of the Council the acts were published, and a copy of them sent to the Pope, Clement XIII. Many Prelates in France, Italy, and Germany, received the notice of the Council's proceedings with great applause, and the Pope himself declared the Acts to be "very good." But a congregation of Cardinals, ignorant and prejudiced, were not so lenient, and a very harsh and intemperate condemnation was the result.

The episcopate of Meindaert's successor, Walter Michael Van Nieuwenhuisen, brings us almost to the commencement of the present century. In the fifth year after his elevation to the archiepiscopal see, the great enemies of the Church of Utrecht met with their due reward. By the Bull Dominus ac Redemptor Pope Ganganelli suppressed the whole order of the Jesuits, and put an end to their ceaseless machinations and intrigues. Besides this, a great moral support was afforded to the Dutch communion by the publication of translations of Pereira's valuable work, Tentativa Theologica, now well known to English readers, and by various testimonials of approval received from dignitaries of Italy and an ecclesiastical council in Spain. Hopes also of a reconciliation with Rome, so often entertained, and as frequently disappointed, were again revived on occasion of some intercourse between the Archbishop and the Pope respecting a forged letter of Meindaerts, which had been concocted by the Jesuits in order to cast discredit upon the orthodoxy of Juan de Palafox, whose claims to canonisation were then being examined. But the preliminary demands of Rome were, as usual, of such a nature as to preclude the hope of any satisfactory settlement, and Pius VI., into whose hands the matter fell, was utterly opposed to the claims of the national Church. So that the good old Archbishop Van Nieuwenhuisen was taken to his rest without seeing the dearest wish of his heart any nearer fulfilment than when he entered upon his high office.

The storm which passed over Europe at the close of the last century, the proclamation of the Batavian Republic, and the invasion of the French, did not interfere with the quiet proceedings of

the National Church. John Jacob van Rhijn, then Pastor at Utrecht, was elected Archbishop, consecrated by the Bishops of Haarlem and Deventer, and duly excommunicated by the captive Pope. It was the moment when the French Church was trembling on the verge of destruction, and the constitutional prelates of that country met with full and touching sympathy from their brethren in Holland. The uncanonical outrage then inflicted upon the entire French communion, the annihilation of the ancient bishoprics, and the reconstruction of the whole territorial system of the dioceses, by the sole authority of the Pope at the instigation of the secular power, aroused the warmest indignation in the breasts of the adherents of the suffering Church of Utrecht. The complete evidence however of the connection between the two parties is not at present forthcoming. On the decease of Van Rhijn, the Government, now in the hands of Louis Bonaparte, forbade the Chapters to proceed to the election of a successor. In abject submission to the mandate of an upstart potentate, the Chapters took no further steps for nearly six years; and the Bishop of Haarlem dying in the interim, the fortunes of Utrecht again hung upon the life of one man. But on the expulsion of the French in 1814, Willebrord Van Os, a prudent, gentle, yet brave old man of seventy years, was raised to the Archiepiscopal See, and the little communion, numbering now little more than five thousand souls, while Rome in the same country counted its adherents at one million, again formed a firm and self-supporting body. Unrecognised by the State, and experiencing periodical attacks from the Papal court, the National Church in 1823, and again in the following year, endeavoured to negotiate an union with Rome; the aged Bishop himself used every effort by letter and verbal communication to express his reverence for the Holy See, and the universal desire of the communion of which he was the head for the favourable notice of the successor of S. Peter. We need not say that this appeal was as fruitless as had been those which preceded it.

The present Archbishop is John Van Santen1 who was consecrated in 1825, and whose claims to the title have been partly allowed by the Government. Of this Prelate's conference with the Papal Nuncio, Capaccini, we have already spoken. Little more remains to be said. What we have been accustomed to call the Papal aggression in England was repeated in 1853 in Holland; new bishops were intruded into the sees already occupied by the national prelates, fresh dioceses were formed, and the scenes of popular clamour and noisy opposition, with which we are too familiar, were enacted with equal effect. The Archbishop of Utrecht and the Bishop of Haarlem, (Deventer at that moment being vacant) issued a calm and emphatic protest against this setting up of altar against altar, entering at the same time into the history of

VOL. XX.

1 He has died since this Article was written.

2 z

their separation, and stating the truth upon certain points which had been confused or misrepresented by the controversialists who had assailed their position. What GOD has in store for this portion of His inheritance, who can say ? It cannot be that this body of Christians has been preserved through so many and great perils only to be cast down now, when the assaults of infidelity and the renewed pretensions of Rome demand the utmost efforts of all those who hold the faith of undivided Christendom, in order to maintain pure and patristic principles. Churchmen in Holland may lay this comfort to heart. An Ecumenical Council would, we cannot doubt, find that their separation is not, any more than ours is, of their own making; that in upholding national rights, the persecuted Church acted in conformity with primitive practice; and that her orthodoxy in protesting against the Bull Unigenitus was as unimpeachable, as it was, when in late years she bravely opposed the novel doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

WORSHIP AND MUSIC.

The People in Church: their Rights and Duties, in connection with the Poetry and Music of the Book of Common Prayer. By JOSIAH PITTMAN, Chapel-Master and Organist to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. London: Bell and Daldy, 1858.

WERE it not for one long paragraph, which seems altogether out of harmony with the rest of the Essay, we should be able to bestow unqualified and very high praise on Mr. Pittman's volume. And if we spend more time upon the two pages which we disapprove than on the hundred with which we concur, we trust that the Author will understand that it is not from any love of finding fault, but partly because the views with which we agree, have often already been put forward in this Magazine, and partly because the statement which we are about to controvert, contains fallacies that are very generally received; but which we do not remember to have seen committed to print in so formal and tangible a shape.

Mr. Pittman shall, nevertheless, have full opportunity of stating his own most Catholic notion of Ritual Worship, in his own excellent language. And first as regards the origin and elements of Worship:

"The earliest records disclose four remarkable facts in connection with the worship of the true GOD, and these facts ought never to be allowed to escape observation. They are these: first, with respect to the language of worship, the subject-matter, in its highest form, is that

of poetry. Secondly, with respect to the vehicle of that poetry, the manner of its utterance, its highest form, is that of music. Thirdly, with respect to the persons engaged as celebrants of that worship, none are exempt. It is a division of labour in which all are to unitemen, women, and children. And fourthly, with respect to the manner of their co-operation, they are to ANSWER each other. Now, if we look into the pages of our Book of Offices we shall find these four elements of national worship running throughout the length and breadth of the volume. There is the poetry-and no poetry in the world can approach it in sublimity, pathos, beauty, and grace. There is the constant and unceasing reference to music, although the actual song be not in so many apparent notes comprised in the Book. There is a clear recognition of the principle that all parties present are to join in the Service; and to realize this result, there are the facts of the appointment of some one to lead, as the Celebrant, and a Chorus or Quire to govern the answer or response. In places wherein are no such Chorus or Quire, there is found a Precentor or Clerk to sustain the Vox precurrens, thereby effecting, as nearly as possible, something which shall stand as a living substitute for the higher fact.

"The music of the Church is chiefly vocal music, and vocal music presupposes the existence and constant use of poetry. The harmony of numbers in sound owes its progress, in no small degree, to the harmony of numbers in language. Song and verse have been married together from time immemorial, and it would be strange to find them divorced in the temple of their Creator. To bring man into the immediate presence of the Infinite Father of the Universe, GOD was pleased to make revelation of His will, and appoint certain definite acts which He required of man to do; and the earliest of these acts was that of sacrifice, the taking away of life; the holocaust, the destruction of the whole body. This order and form is supposed to be coeval with the time of our first parents, and of all worship it is the earliest. It must be presumed that man could not discover this rite, and that God did reveal it. There was an order of sacrificing which was pleasing to the ALMIGHTY, for such was that of Abel; and some other way which was not, and such was that of Cain. It is reasonable, then, to conclude there was a distinct revelation on the subject. It is admitted that in the Bible, with respect to this institution of sacrifice, no mention is made of its association with hymns and songs of praise; but we soon find poetry and music linked with these observances; and not only did the Hebrews bring together sacrifice and song, but in the most ancient systems of Paganism they appear together; and we know such Pagan observances are but corruptions of a purer and higher ceremonial existing in all probability even before the Hebrews were a nation. Sacrifice and song are found all over the known world; and it may be reasonably concluded there has been from the earliest times an original order which has presented these externals in a right manner, in a right spirit, and in a right direction. For it is difficult to conceive a revelation with respect to sacrifice which may be looked upon as a kind of super-rational act, and no direction whatever with respect to those super-moral acts which spring directly from man's communion with GOD.

Worship must be considered the consequence of the will of God, and it would be a mere act of obedience to adopt a course of action corresponding with that will. Sacrifice was the fruit of obedience, and we must conclude that praise and thanksgiving, homage and reverence, were no less so. Poetry and song were in existence and in familiar use, and to imagine that they were not associated with the praise and glory of the Creator is to imagine that two of the brightest and loftiest gifts peculiar to humanity had either been never thus associated, or that they had been immediately diverted from their true intent and application. It is manifest from the Book of Genesis that there were in the earliest times places set apart for worship. Cain and Abel came to the same spot-mention is made of the door to which the offering was brought; and of Cain it is said he went out from the presence of the LORD. Abraham went to the place where he stood before the LORD. Rebekah went to inquire of the LORD. Isaac blessed his son before the LORD. There was the holy ground, before entering which the shoes were put off. And one of the first acts of Moses was to set up a tent for those who sought the LORD.

"But we can point to the record of a celebration which is an accurate and distinct memorial of an order of worship existing from that time to this. Yet, from the very nature of things, it is impossible to suppose that this order was for the first time brought into action. At the early period alluded to true worship existed as a fact in the world, it had a well-known form, and the manner of that form was so familiar to a whole nation, as to be immediately realized upon a scale of unprecedented grandeur and magnificence. It will be in recollection that, after the children of Israel had been for 215 years bondsmen in the land of Egypt, the LORD appeared unto Moses, and made known His intention to release them. The result of the contest between the Governor of the world, GOD the Creator, and that mighty potentate in the world, Pharaoh His creature, is well known. After the destruction of the king and his host, there followed a national proclamation of the true GOD, in a form of worship, an order of praise and thanksgiving, which may be said to have continued in one constant stream from that time to this, with scarcely any variation of importance. It is the first authentic record of a nation's worship of the true GOD, and the form of that worship was the union of poetry and music, joined in by all present, and divided into verse and response. Nothing short of inspiration could have given birth to such a hymn,-nothing short of Divine direction could have crowned with triumph such a celebration. This is the record of the opening chapter in the history of God's chosen people, and the record is found in an early page of the Book of Holy Writ. The concluding pages of this wondrous Book reveal a form of worship remarkably similar to the celebration alluded to the subject of the first song is the great Deliverer, God, the Monarch of the world; the subject of the second is CHRIST, the Redeemer of the world. The antiphonic song of the Red Sea being only exceeded in grandeur and beauty by the antiphonic song of the great Crystal Sea.

"The order of this thanksgiving festival was that of poetry and song -poetry cut into short fragmentary portions, such as the verses of the