L. Lord, M. A., of the Boston Bar. New York: James Inglis & Co. 1869. 12mo. pp. 92. By Rev. Edward Payson Hammond, Religion and Life. By James Reed. New York. 1869. 16mo, pp. 85. The Better Life, and How to Find It. Boston: Henry Hoyt. 16mo. pp. 126. The Writings of Madame Swetchine. Edited by Count de Falloux, of the " French Academy. Translated by H. W. Preston. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1869. 16mo. pp. 255. HISTORICAL. A Brief Sketch of the Early History of the Catholic Church on the Island of New York. By the Rev. J. R. Bayley, Secretary to the Archbishop of New York. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. New York: Catholic Publication Society. 1870. 16mo. pp. 242. The Capture of Ticonderoga, in 1775. A Paper read before the Vermont Historical Society at Montpelier, October 19, 1869. By Hiland Hall. 1869. 8vo. pp. 32. Rameses the Great; or, Egypt 3,300 Years Ago. Tsanslated from the French of F. Lanoye. With thirty-nine wood cuts by Lancelot, Sellier, and Bayard. New York: Charles Scribner & Co 1870. 16mo. pp. 296. MISCELLANEOUS. Essay on Divorces and Divorce Legislation. With special reference to the United States. By Theodore D. Woolsey, D.D., LL. D., President of Yale College. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869. 12mo. pp. 308. Bible Animals: Being a description of every living creature mentioned in the Scriptures, from the Ape to the Coral. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S., etc. With one hundred new designs by W. F. Keyl, T. W. Wood, and E. A. Smith. Engraved by G. Pearson. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1870. 8vo. pp. 652. Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant: His Services and Characteristics, as sketched by Major-General B. S. Roberts, before the Faculty and Students of Yale College, by invitation, October, 1865; and again read to the Legislature of Connecticut, by special invitation, in 1966, at its session at New Haven, Conn. 1869. 8vo. pp. 19. Meteors, Aerolites, Storms, and Atmospheric Phenomena. From the French of Zürcher and Margollé. By William Lackland. Illustrated with twentythree fine wood cuts, by Lebreton. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1870. 16mo. pp. 324. Arms and Armor in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: also, a descriptive notice of modern weapons. Translated from the French of M. P. Lacombe, and with a preface, notes, and one additional chapter on arms and armor in England By Charles Boutell, M. A. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1870. 12mo. pp. 296. An American Family in Paris. With fifty-eight illustrations of Historical Monuments and Familiar Scenes. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1869. 16mo. pp. 319. Stories from my Attic. By the author of "Dream Children." With illustra tions. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1869. 16mo. pp. 269. White and Red: A Narrative of Life among the Northwest Indians. By Helen C. Weeks. With eight illustrations by A. P. Close. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 16mo. pp. 266. Two Lives in One. By Vieux Moustache. With a Frontispiece by F. O. C. Darley. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1870. 16mo. pp. 246. • Old Horse Gray, and the Parish of Grumbleton. By Edward Hopper. Respectfully dedicated to the Merciful Philozoist, Henry Bergh. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1869. 12mo. pp. 82. The Poems of Emma C. Embury. First collected edition. New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1869. 12mo. pp. 368. The Ballad of Edge Hill Fight; and other Poems. By John Lloyd, Esq. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1869. 12mo. pp. 83. The Veil Lifted; or, The Romance and Reality of Convent Life. Boston: Henry Hoyt. 1870. 16mo. pp. 247. Janet's Love and Service. By Margaret M. Robertson. New York: A. D. F. Randolph. 1870. 12mo. pp. 581. Mountain Patriots. A Tale of the Reformation in Savoy. Boston: Henry Hoyt. 1870. 16mo. pp. 363. A-pects of Humanity, brokenly mirrrored in the ever-swelling current of human speech. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1869. 12mo. pp. 55. How to Amuse an Evening Party. A complete collection of Home Recreations. 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With a Preface by Dr. Merle D'Aubigné. 16mo. pp. 152. THE NEW ENGLANDER. No. CXI. APRIL, 1870. ARTICLE I.-THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE AND THE COUNCIL OF THE VATICAN. Conciliengeschichte. Nach den Quellen bearbeitet von Dr. CARL JOSEPH HEFELE, 0. Ö Professor an der Universität Tübingen. Siebenter Band. I. Abth. Geschichte des Concils von Constanz. Freiburg im Breisgau: 1869. The Centenary of St. Peter and the General Council: A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy, &c. By HENRY EDWARD, Archbishop of Westminster. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1867. THE Council of Constance, which was in session during the interval between the years 1414 and 1418, was the most brilliant and imposing of the ecclesiastical assemblies of the middle ages. If the number of bishops present was not so large as at some of the other great synods of the Church, this difference was more than made up by the multitude of inferior clergy, of doctors and of jurists, and by the unexampled array of sovereigns and nobles. Pope and Emperor were both present, each with a numerous and dazzling retinue of officers and attendants. It has been pronounced the first example of a congress of princes in modern times, since there was hardly a kingdom or principality of the catholic world, however small or remote, that was not represented by princes or other deputies. A throng of not less than fifty thousand people, drawn by official obligation, curiosity, the love of gain or of pleasure, flowed into the city of Constance, to witness the doings of the Council. It has been truly said that a detailed description of the scenes that took place within and without the assembly, would afford a complete as well as vivid picture of the life and manners of the time. The occasion that called the Council together was of the gravest character. The abuses in the administration of the Church had grown to be unbearable. In Bohemia there was a formidable religious movement that threatened to result in the establishment of a new and powerful sect. Above all, the long schism which the Council of Pisa had unsuccessfully tried to terminate, demanded an instant and effectual remedy, if Christendom and the Catholic Church were to be saved from permanent division. It is to the proceedings of this Synod, that the new instalment of Hetele's copious work on the History of Councils is devoted. Hefele is one of the most learned and justly esteemed of the Catholic theologians north of the Alps. His work is one to which a Protestant, to be sure, must often take exception; yet, generally speaking, it is characterized by a spirit of fairness, and it is not probable that it contains any intentional perversion of facts or sophistry in argument. Hefele is frequently called a liberal Catholic; and so he is, in comparison with the Curialists or extreme ultramontanist party. On the particular question whether the Pope is, by himself and independently of the concurrence of a Council, infallible in matters of faith and morals, we do not find that, in the work before us, he distinctly avows his opinion. But he is far from being a Gallican, in the sense of the old Paris theologians, who exerted a commanding influence in the Reforming Councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, or in the sense of Bossuct, who followed in their track. In fact, he describes his own position as being a middle one, between the Gallicans on the one hand and the Curialists on the other. The Pope is neither above nor under the Council, but is the head of the Church; his relation being analogous to that of the head to the members of the human body. A Council without the Pope is incomplete. It is not an cecumenical Council. His assent to the dogmatic decrees of such an assembly is requisite, to give them infallible authority. Yet Hefele holds, as indeed does Bellarmine, that a Council might depose a Pope for heresy, inasmuch as a heretic is ipso facto disqualified from holding an ecclesiastical office, high or low. But in such a proceeding the Council does not act as an œcumenical assembly. Being cut off from the Pope, it cannot act in this capacity. We have the singular doctrine, then, that an assembly of bishops, which is incompetent, without the Pope's assent, to issue infallible definitions of doctrine, is still competent to put the Pope on trial for heresy, convict him, and degrade him from his office. Hefele shows his conservatism, also, in maintaining that a Pope cannot be deposed by a Council for personal misconduct. He may be a very bad man, but he cannot, for this reason, be deprived of his office. John XXIII., Hefele expressly says, could not have been lawfully deposed for his crimes. It was only heresy on his part that could authorize such a proceeding. The doubtful validity of his election is brought in, as another sufficient cause for removing him from his station. How far this theory is from that of the Constance theologians and of hosts of able and good Catholics in past ages, we need not stop to point out. In his History, Hefele is evidently biased by the theory as to the relation of the Pope to the Council, to which we have just adverted. He supports by feeble arguments the often refuted assertion that the Bishops of Rome convoked and presided over the early ecumenical Councils, including that of Nicæa. The proposition that the Roman Bishop convoked the Council of Nicæa, rests on no proof that has any weight, and is contrary to all the evidence and probabilities in the * Bellarmine, as will be explained hereafter, does not admit, for himself, that a Pope will ever be left to fall from the faith. |