Patriarch, together with an excellently-done history of the spread of the Benedictine Order and of the Apostolate of the Benedictines in England. Perhaps more might have been made of Pope St. Gregory's letters to St. Augustine, and the learned and skilful writer might have dwelt more distinctly on that most interesting feature in the history of the English Benedictines-their establishment by Pope Gregory the Great as a missionary, and even parochial congregation-then a novelty in the Church-and their confirmation and re-establishment as such by at least two other Popes before the Norman Conquest. But considerations of space, no doubt, prevented this.

This new translation of Dom Guéranger's well-known tract on the Medal or Cross of St. Benedict, is well done and beautifully got up. It contains one or two photographic illustrations, and also fine reproductions of the new Monte Cassino Centenary Medal, and the Centenary Cross of the English Benedictines.

Anglican Jurisdiction: Is it Valid? By J. D. BREEN, O.S.B. London: Burns and Oates. 1880.

THIS

THIS is a brochure of not quite one hundred pages, but we have read few contributions to the question which convey more information or give better arguments. Father Breen shows, by excellently chosen extracts and citations, first, that the Early Church acknowledged the Papal See as the source of "Jurisdiction;" secondly, that our own English Church, from its commencement, down to the change of religion, did the same; and lastly, that the Anglican theory is, officially, that the source of jurisdiction is the Crown. The question of jurisdiction has not yet occasioned quite so much stir as that of Orders among our Anglican friends, but it is beginning to assert itself. Father Breen's book is most opportune. Let Anglicans look at their Church as it is, not as they evolve it from their own consciousness. Three delicious citations given by the author, one from the "judicious" Hooker, another from Bishop Horsley, and a third from Bishop Van Mildertneither passages well-known-will materially assist them in this process.

BOOKS OF DEVOTION AND SPIRITUAL READING.

1. The Little Oremus. A Liturgical Prayer Book. London: Washbourne. 1879.

2. St. Joseph's Manual of a Happy Eternity. By FATHER SEBASTIAN, of the Blessed Sacrament. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 1879.

3. Visits to Jesus on the Altar. By the Author of "Reflections and Prayers for Holy Communion." Translated from the French. Vol. I. London: Burns & Oates. 1879.

4. Daily Bread: being Morning Meditations for a Year. By the late Rev. RICHARD WALDO SIBTHORP. London: Bemrose & Sons. 1879.

5. The Manna of the Soul.

By Father PAUL SEGNERI.
Burns & Oates. 1879.

Meditations for every Day of the Year. (Translation.) Vol. IV. London:

6. La Dévotion au Sacré Cœur de Jésus. Par le R. P. SCHMUDE, S.J. Traduit de l'Allemande par le R. P. MAZOYER. Paris: Poussielgue. 1878.

7. Moral Discourses. By the Rev. PATRICK O'KEEFFE. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 1879.

8. How to Live Piously. By the Rev. THOMAS MURPHY. Dublin: Duffy & Sons. 1879.

9. Meditations and Contemplations on the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Translated from the Spanish of the Ven. Luis of Granada, O.P. By a Member of the Order of Mercy. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1879.

10. Miniature Life of Mary, Virgin and Mother, for every day of the Month. Compiled by HENRY SEBASTIAN BOWDEN, of the Oratory. London: Burns & Oates. 1880.

11. The Pilgrim's May-Wreath. By the Rev. FATHER THADDEUS, O.S.F. London: Burns & Oates. 1880.

12. The Holy Ghost the Sanctifier. (Little Books of the Holy Ghost, No. 4.) By HENRY EDWARD, Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster. London: Burns and Oates. 1880.

13. Emmanuel; a Book of Eucharistic Verses. By the Rev. MATTHEW RUSSELL, S.J. Fifth Edition. Dublin: Gill and Son, 1880.

14. Madonna: Verses on our Lady and the Saints. By the Rev. MATTHEW RUSSELL. Dublin: Gill and Son. 1880.

15. Mary's Call to her loving Children. (Our Lady's Library.) London Richardson and Son.

16. The Raccolta, or Collection of Indulgenced Prayers. By AMBROSE ST. JOHN. Authorized Translation. Fifth Edition. London:

Burns and Oates. 1880.

17. Solid Virtue. By the Rev. Father BELLECIUS, S.J. Translated by a Member of the Ursuline Community, Thurles. Dublin: Gill and Son.

1879.

18. The Life and Miracles of St. Benedict. By ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. From an old English Version by P. W. (Paris: 1608). Edited by Doм EDMUND J. LUCK, O.S.B. London: Washbourne, 1880.

1. The Little Oremus is a "liturgical" prayer-book, and those who know the larger work from which it is compiled will be prepared to find considerable transcriptions from the Breviary and the Ordinary of the Mass. It is truly an admirable little manual of Catholic prayer, full of devotion and solidity, and without a line of nonsense or mawkish sentiment.

2. Those who have made the acquaintance of Father Sebastian's former manuals will be prepared to welcome St. Joseph's Manual of a Happy Eternity. It is compiled primarily for the brethren of the Association of the Bona Mors, and therefore a large part of the book, amounting to a third, is taken up with the Mass and Office of the Dead, and various prayers. The other two-thirds consist of a number of pious and fervent considerations in preparation for death. We observe that the Latin text and citations are not free from misprints. The book carries the imprimatur of the Archbishop of Dublin.

3. These Visits, translated from the French by an anonymous translator, are apparently translated very well. Any one in search of a new and attractive work of the kind, either for private devotion or to give away, might do worse than send for this one.

4. The Daily Bread of the late Rev. Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp derives a peculiar interest from the fact that its author died, at the great age of eighty-six, whilst it was passing through the press. Father Sibthorp's career was not an important one, except to himself, and his temporary lapse from Catholicism, though it grieved many, caused little harm to the Faith at large. He was a man of some power, and of some eccentricity. Like many original men, he could not do himself justice in print; perhaps because bright ideas are of little use without both artistic power to frame and environ them, and also patient labour to carry them through. Father Sibthorp, however, could labour. The present work, written in extreme old age, under the constant attacks of painful and wearing illness, is a proof of this. Readers will not perhaps find these lucubrations either very devotional or very striking. They are the thoughts of a man well-informed, well read in Holy Scripture, shrewd and sensible. But they have that fatal vagueness on such subjects as grace, the interior life and Christian perfection, which distinguishes the spiritual treatises of Protestants. Those, however, who knew the author will treasure them, and the excellently done biographical introduction, as a memorial of a friend.

5. We content ourselves with drawing attention to the fourth and concluding volume of the English translation of Segneri's "Manna dell' anima," and congratulate the translator, whoever he may be, on the completion of what appears to be a most genuine and readable version of a book which is equally remarkable for its wealth of divinity and its classic literary form.

6. The French translation of the work of Father Schmude on the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a small but valuable addition to books of devotion. The biographical details in relation to the Blessed Margaret Mary, with considerable extracts from her own forms of prayer, seem admirably adapted for giving the pious reader the genuine spirit of the devotion. Father Schmude's own chapters on the love and sufferings of our Lord are moulded upon the Exercises of St. Ignatius, and, therefore, not a line is vapid or superfluous. It would have been well if the author had tried to present our Lord's sufferings in a more winning light. There seems to us too much stress laid on the theory of "substitution," not at all in any way that is the least unorthodox,

but to the exclusion of what seems to us a most true philosophy of the Passion-viz., the view that suffering was accepted to intensify the love and worship of the Sacred Heart. We should also have been glad of some notes on the genuine and veritable way to represent in painting and sculpture that Sacred Heart which Blessed Margaret Mary was given to see. The book is a little carelessly edited. St. Gertrude of Eisleben was not the sister of St. Mechtildis; and St. Francis of Sales did not die in 1625.

7. The Rev. Father O'Keeffe's Moral Discourses will be found useful for spiritual reading, and also as "aids" to the clergy; for they are full of Scripture, well-arranged and to the point, whilst their language, though plain, is dignified and eloquent. They range over the principal topics of what is called the Via Purgativa. There are a few sermons which have special references to abuses, or evil habits prevalent in Ireland. Father O'Keeffe is well advised in laying it down emphatically that the "pledge" of abstinence is not a vow, but a serious resolution made to a priest (p. 186). The author seems well acquainted with the standard writers, whom he reproduces without servility or direct quotation.

8. The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin has given his imprimatur to an extremely useful little manual which is intended to teach plain people How to Live Piously; to keep them regular and fervent in the practice of daily prayer, and of Mass, in the use of the Sacraments, and in the observance of the law of God. Father Murphy, of Mountmellick, an experienced parish priest, has arranged, in some fifty brief instructions, practical and easy methods of every Christian duty. The work is enriched with numerous forms of prayer, and is altogether one that we should be glad to see in use in every Christian family.

9. The translator of these Meditations from Luis of Granada has made very free with her author. We are not acquainted with either of the two modern Paris editions which she says she has used; but it is somewhat difficult to follow her in the Madrid edition of 1756. She omits in one place, and inserts new matter in another, whilst there is here and there an awkwardness in the English, which seems to betray a French origin. Still, having made this protest from a literary point of view-for Granada is a Spanish classic-let us add that the little volume will be found to provide a large amount of most devout consideration and prayer on the Passion of our Lord. Useful instructions in meditation, likewise drawn from Granada, are prefixed; and the translation is fairly good.

10. A little book which contains a Life of the Blessed Virgin divided into thirty-one sections, on the model of the "Miniature Lives of the Saints," will be welcome to many. Father Sebastian Bowden has compiled it in the pious and practical spirit which is familiar to those who know the former work.

11. The Franciscan Father who has composed the "Pilgrim's MayWreath" has carried out with fair success a very happy idea. For each day of the month he has given the story of some celebrated English shrine or sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin. Those sanctuaries

are now deserted, and those shrines have well-nigh disappeared; but it is not only touching, but also stimulating to faith and piety, to read how, in every corner of the England of bygone days, wonders had been vouchsafed in answer to prayer, and splendid monuments of piety had conmemorated them. The stories are taken from wellknown and obvious sources— (why, by the way, does the author insist on abbreviating, past recognition, the titles of the works he quotes?)but there are no glaring mistakes. Besides the story, each "day" of the month presents us with a "consideration" on one of our Lady's virtues, and an “example"-the latter not always of the most authentic.

12. Of Cardinal Manning's most charming and useful little volume on the Holy Spirit, we need only say that it contains in a short compass, and with admirable perfection of literary expression, a complete course of practical divinity and exhortation on the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. It is a work which will be found indispensable to preachers, retreat-givers, and devout readers alike. Special attention may be directed to the "Prayers" at the end of each section; prayers in which each word means something and each clause is in its place and sequence, and in which is to be experienced that subtle rhythmical feeling which is never absent from the great liturgical prayers, but which none but a master of language can impart.

13, 14. These are two books of pleasing devotional verse by a Jesuit Father, a nephew of the late Dr. Russell, of Maynooth. They will be found valuable for devout reading and for recitation. Their literary power is considerable.

15. Mary's Call is a little book approved and strongly recommended by the Bishop of Nottingham. It forms part of a series of books of devotion, written or edited by the Sisters of the Convent of the Maternal Heart of Mary at Nottingham, called "Our Lady's Library." The present volume, whilst putting before the reader the usual considerations connected with our Blessed Lady and the practice of Christian virtue, is intended to promote prayer for the dying.

16. This new and beautifully-arranged edition of Father Ambrose St. John's translation of the Raccolta has been made conformable, by additions and corrections, to the latest Roman edition (Propaganda 1877). It is a manual so well known and so necessary in every Catholic household that we need do no more than announce this, the fifth, edition, and remind the reader that the translations here given of the Indulgenced prayers are "authorized as equivalent to the originals, by a Rescript of the late Pope, dated February 3, 1856.

17. This translation of the admirable treatise of F. Bellecius, S.J., on Solid Virtue deserves a most hearty welcome. There are few books of spiritual reading and direction which are more entirely satisfactory. Hitherto the work has not existed in an English dress. The present version has been made from the French, but a comparison with the original Latin proves that the sense has been well preserved. There is a short but interesting preface by Archbishop Croke:

18. One of the Cassinese Fathers at Ramsgate has thought it well to reprint that portion of the old English translation of the "Dialogues VOL. XXXV. NO. I. [Third Series.]

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