rative art placed before our eyes, but the work of Reform has advanced apace, and made stern warnings echo even through the soft voluptuousness of an Italian court. Calvin had unsheathed his ruthless sword, and proclaimed unequivocal hostilities with the Catholic Church; Luther, Erasmus, and Melancthon, had already raised their standard of Protestantism. It was in such stormy times that the lot of Olympia Morata was cast. In her our author imagines that he can trace a striking resemblance in character to Mary Godolphin; "both died early, leaving many sad hearts behind them, but bequeathing sunny memories." Our space will not allow us to follow her through the intrigues of a court, the disgrace of her banishment from it, the mingled clouds and sunshine of her married life, the harrowing events of a siege, or the final scenes of a peaceful deathbed. Her literary pursuits were of that almost masculine character of which those of our own Elizabeth partook; and she exercised her pen, among other studies, in translating into Latin a portion of the Decameron of Boccacio, nor did she scruple to aspire to the office of a critic.

From Italy we pass to the first dawnings of Reform in France in the reign of Francis I., where Reformers found a ready sympathy in the sister of the reigning monarch, who, however, never took the step of formal separation from the Catholic Communion. We will let Mr. Colquhoun speak of her in his own words:

"Her benevolence was genuine; her regard for the suffering Reformers deep and sincere. Her conduct to them was marked by an active friendship, which never varied, nor abated. Her dominions were always open to them; her court afforded them a shelter, her colleges taught their children, and her purse maintained their exiles. Again and again her influence was used in their favour strenuously, and with success. "-P. 432.

Her mantle descended upon her daughter Jeanne D'Albret, in whom the Reformation found a warmer and more undisguised supporter. She was born in 1498, and died ere the massacre of S. Bartholomew had drenched the streets of Paris with blood, and fixed a foul blot upon the Roman Church. She lived in stirring and eventful times; and her character is pourtrayed in the sketch before us with ability and fidelity.

It is almost time for us to part company with Mr. Colquhoun, and we do so with some regret. His language is easy and flowing, his style light and readable, and his investigation and verification of facts has evidently been patient and conscientious; and to those who are unacquainted with the period which he has chosen to chronicle, we are glad to be able to commend his book. We commend it, however, cum grano salis. If his facts are admirably arranged, and well digested, we can hardly say the same of his theories. He does not seem to us to recognise in the smallest

degree the evils of schism, nor to recollect that the law which our Blessed SAVIOUR left to His Church was a law of unity, of which the original type is to be found in the essential oneness of the Persons of the Ever-Blessed TRINITY. The magic word 'Protestant' seems a passport to our author's sympathies, and he seems to forget that it is the word "Catholic" alone, which has a place in the creeds of the Church Universal. Fully as we are prepared to admit the errors of Rome, and the food which they have ministered to the schisms of Christendom, we must yet protest against our author's implied identification of the English Church with those foreign reformers, who in rejecting Roman additions to the primitive creeds either rejected portions of those creeds themselves, or at least ceased to make them binding as tests of orthodoxy. If we had not known that such a course was contrary to the Divine Will in regard to these things, surely the scenes presented by Socinianism, and neologian heresy spreading like a canker through the foreign Reformed Communions would in themselves be enough to excite a suspicion that all was not right. We remember to have seen in a Chapel a painted window representing Martin Luther burning the Pope's Bull. To us we must confess it seemed almost like a desecration of GOD's House to introduce such a subject, and the reading of portions of Mr. Colquhoun's book tend to produce in our minds much the same feelings as the contemplation of that remarkable window. Bishops, Councils, Priests, all give way, and are as nothing in the balance against the opinions of a German Reformer, whose disciples are perhaps at this day wallowing in the depths of some soul-destroying heresy. We regret to have to speak thus, but we feel it a duty to caution our readers against giving too implicit a trust to the theories of Mr. Colquhoun. We must also demur to the propriety of the Title chosen, which does not give any clue to the purpose and bias with which the Sketches are composed.

THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF CHRISTENDOM.

1. L'Eglise Orientale. Par JACQUES G. PITZIPIOS. Fondateur de la Société Chrétienne Orientale. Rome. 1855.

2. La Russie, sera-t-elle Catholique? Par le Père GAGARIN. Paris. 1856.

3. The Future Unity of Christendom. By AMBROSE LISLE PHILLIPPS, Esq. London: Charles Dolman. 1857.

4. A Letter to A. L. Phillipps, Esq., on his remarks" on the Future Unity of Christendom." By the Rev. FRANCIS MEREWETHER, M.A. London: Rivingtons. 1857.

5. The English Church: some remarks on her position and policy, being a series of papers reprinted from the "Union" Newspaper. London: 1857.

6. Statement of facts issued by the Society for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom. London: 1857.

THE publications, the titles of which are given above, are but a very small proportion of those which have been recently issued in various parts of the Catholic Church, having reference to the future state of Christendom. It might easily be shown, even by a list of books, that the hearts and souls of men are now being led to a consideration of the present divisions and dangers which, as a matter of fact, afflict and hamper the rulers of CHRIST's Church, with the hope of proposing for general consideration and acceptance some remedy which is neither too fanciful in its character nor too extravagant in its probable results.

There is scarcely a single country which can be mentioned, subject to the Roman Pontiff, in which earnest-minded men are not attempting to solve the difficult problem of how to re-unite the scattered portions of God's ancient heritage and bring them back again to the state which is so earnestly desired by all who truly believe in the great promises of the Gospel Dispensation. It is clearly evident that the present disorganised state of Christendom is one reason why the Faith has so slight a hold upon the nations of the earth, why Infidelity and Rationalism, in countries where Catholicism once possessed a powerful sway, now run rampant. It is utterly impossible to look around even over those kingdoms which are more immediately known to us, and fail to perceive how many evils exist for which no remedy seems forthcoming-most of them arising from the anomalous position in which the various religious bodies stand either to other. Why, in Ireland and our own country of Western Europe, and in the south-eastern and eastern portions of the same continent, is altar set up against altar and bishop 3 M

VOL. XX.

against bishop? We know here too well by a sad experience, the baneful results of such miserable contentions as existed, when the Pope, ignoring the ancient dioceses, commissioned a new hierarchy to intrude upon a country already possessing lineal descendants of the Apostles, a ritual, a jurisdiction, the Sacraments. And what took place here, had been carried out some two centuries ago in the sister isle with consummate success, and more recently has been effected in the Church of Holland. In the East likewise, where the Oriental Church had developed her resources, and carried the glad tidings of salvation northward and southward and westward, where the successors of Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Athanasius had continued to teach the unalterable truths which their forefathers in the Faith had handed down for preservation, perpetuation, and use, the evil leaven of schism was at work full early. We need not even briefly recapitulate the struggles, divisions, failures, and successes, first of this school and then of another, until the final, and as it still appears, irrevocable schism of the eleventh century was completed; and, during a series of years immediately succeeding, more securely consolidated than could have been desired even by the Enemy of souls. The bitter hatred of either side towards the other, the manifest misrepresentations which were made, the unfair imputation of motives, the malignant slanders, and the perfect line of demarcation which each side gloried in keeping up, and appeared verily to be proud of, is not unfortunately a record of past events but of present and existing evils. Seven centuries have rolled by, kingdoms have risen and fallen, nations have known power and lost it, thousands upon thousands of immortal souls have been called into existence, and their time of probation is gone, while the Church has in many places-and especially in those where the conflicting claims of rival prelates were most frequently discussed— sounded the trumpet of truth only in an uncertain manner, and grasped the souls of her children with a feeble hand.

And is it not so still? There may, most truly, have been years and periods in which, owing to the merciful goodness of GOD, and the holy lives of His Saints, some wonderful effort has to be recorded, some miracle of grace to be spoken of with thankfulness and awe. If on the one hand so many centuries have been dark with the evils of division, there have on the other, been glimpses of a brighter day and a richer harvest, to compensate anxious hearts for their present afflictions, and to prove to weary souls the harbinger of a more glorious dawn. How many, in quiet cloister and sacred cell, sert up their heartiest petitions to the Throne of Grace that GOD would be mercifully pleased to avert the coming storm of heresy and misbelief and protect the heritage of His SoN. When the many indications, for example, that were abroad years before Luther was born, of the great revolution in thought which took place in many parts of the Continent,-of the evils of change which were about

to be made manifest,—were there not numberless faithful children of the Church who prayed that the storm-clouds might be dispersed and that the threatening evils might ere long pass away y? Of their attempts to avert the difficulties that beset them, none can now tell. Of the plans formed and matured, which circumstances refused to have put into operation, we know nothing. No doubt thousands were as anxious then as now, for unity and peace, for the end of sorrow and the death of discord; but Satan and evil men, who joined him with cordiality obtained the upper hand, and fresh schisms were the manifest but miserable result.

And is there a single country in Europe, let us ask, where the evil effects of disunion are not at the present moment most obviously apparent? Surely not, and we can readily learn the accuracy of this statement, by the sure and certain test of facts. Independent of the present double Ecclesiastical aspect, which our own country must present to foreigners, Christians of the Roman rite and Christians of the Anglican, each with a contradictory claim,-let us only bear in mind the reasons why the Queen of England is unrepresented at Rome, and the Head of the Papal States without an ambassador at S. James'; or let us for a few moments contemplate that Ecclesiastical figment which gives to the Home Secretary or the Bishop of London a power of granting jurisdiction to Anglican Chaplains in continental cities, and we shall readily perceive that the existing evils are neither small nor unimportant. Again; let us look at the various modes by which statesmen of the present day are manifestly hampered by the want of Christian union, and we shall not be long before we begin to consider the question of a future and final settlement of the point, when "Ephraim shall not vex Judah nor Judah Ephraim."

And surely there are not wanting most palpable indications that men's minds are turned in the direction of a desire for Unity. The treatise by M. Pitzipios on the Oriental Church is one of these. The author was formerly a Greek Christian, but after having spent much of his time in connection with Roman Catholics, finally and openly joined the Latin Church. After his conversion, however, he wholly lacked that bitterness, which in most cases, we fear, exists more or less with that class. On the contrary, he retained a certain affection for the body upon whom he had turned his back; and was the means on many occasions of commencing an intercourse between the priests and rulers of both communions. He seems very speedily to have been possessed of the desire to attempt the reunion of the two bodies, and to have been ever hopeful of a favourable result. In his volume, the main portion of which is devoted to a consideration of the exact identity of doctrine, save one or two points, between East and West, he lays down three preliminaries as absolutely necessary for reunion. The first is, the clearing up of the manifold misunderstandings which exist on both