but they do not know what she really is-Scriptural and primitive.'i. 98.*

Other passages to the same effect might be quoted in abundance; but we shall content ourselves with one more:

'An excellent English clergyman, a friend of ours, was spending a few days last Lent with the Benedictines of Monte Casino: he found several of the Fathers interested about our Prayer-Book; they came more than once to his room to talk with him about it; and at their request, he left his Italian copy with them. One day he asked one of these good men, "Do you think that your and our branches of the Church will ever be reunited?" Yes, I do," replied the Benedictine, "though neither you nor I will live to see that day; but," he added, "meantime remember that what you of the Church of England can best do to promote reunion of the Church is, not to join us, but to help us in our attempts to purify ourselves." L. M. H.,' 49-50.

66

The work which we would recommend is not proselytism, nor is it chargeable with that insular' and exclusive character which foreigners very commonly impute to our ideas, 'as if this little isle had been created to serve as a model for the universe.'‡ For in the first place, our Prayer-Book is not insular' in its origin, as is known to all who have looked into its history; and this will be clear at a glance to the Roman Catholic Clergy, when the opportunity of comparing it with the forms of their own Church is afforded by the Latin Prayer-Book, which Dr. Jacobson is to edit for the Anglo-Continental Society.§ But, further, our object in putting before the Italians our Prayer-Book, and such other books as may enable them to understand our Church, is not to reduce them exactly to our model, not to impose an Anglican reformation on them (for this we know that they will not accept), but to place within their reach such helps as we have to offer in order to their reforming themselves. It is by acting in this spirit that we may expect the Italians to meet us. 'Great good may be done,' said one who is described as an ecclesiastical dignitary, well known as a scholar and theologian,' 'in the present condition of Italy, by disseminating accurate information respecting the Reformed Episcopal Church. We shall never become Anglicans, but we may be helped by your experience in our own national reforms' (Anglo-Cont. Rep. p. 20.) And this is all that we need hope or wish for. Let the Italians take more or less from us-let them, if they please,

*For the effect of the English Prayer-Book on this writer, while yet a priest of the Roman communion, see pp. 12-14 of the pamphlet (No. 22).

† See Anglo-Cont. Rep. p. 21; Wordsworth, p. 23. Beyle-Stendhal, Promenades dans Rome.'

SAs to the desirableness of such a publication, see Wordsworth, i. 191.

make

make more of the Roman Bishop's dignity than we should do, provided that they stop short of a spiritual supremacy-let them settle the relations of Church and State on a different footing from our settlement-let them have as much more of ceremonial than is usual among us as may suit their national character, so that the substance of religion be not sacrificed to its form and outward show-let them even differ from us on many doctrines, provided that these be not of the essence of Christian faith-in all this the principles of the English Church would teach us to see no cause for a breach of unity, or for a want of perfect charity and brotherly feeling towards them.* we rejoice to know that any reformation which may take place in Italy will be able from the first to profit by lessons which in our own country were not learnt until after a long and painful experience that the Italians will have from the very beginning of such a reformation the advantage of understanding the rights of conscience, the impossibility of enforcing religious belief, the sinfulness and the miserable fruitlessness of attempting to make men think as their rulers think, by compelling them to outward conformity.

And

As to the reforms which are needed in the Italian Church, while we believe that they ought to reach, and eventually must reach, much further than to matters of discipline, it is clearly with these that they must begin. All witnesses concur in telling us that, while the Italians are ready for questions of this class, which they have felt pressing on them, they are not yet ripe for the discussion of theological doctrine.† To such questions are addressed a series of learned letters, which have lately appeared at Turin, and are published in English in the 'Colonial Church Chronicle.' The first of the series are those from a Dignitary to a Statesman,' on the appointment of bishops (No. 16); and these have already been followed by letters on the celibacy of the clergy, the use of the vernacular language in Church-service, the administration of the Eucharist in both kinds, the extent of the Roman Patriarchate in ancient times, &c. The argument in these papers is mainly historical, and, as the Italians have always been taught to rely on history and tradition, no better way can apparently be found to their convictions than by showing them what history and tradition really teach. And this will apparently be among the chief objects of a newspaper which is now projected, and for which the support of able writers

The difference between the objects of English churchmen and those of 'the so-called Protestant propagandism' is well appreciated and defined by Count Tasca in a passage quoted by the American Reviewer, p. 252.

† See e. g. Wordsworth, i. 250, 291; ii. 255, 275, &c.

both

both here and in Italy is said to be engaged. This paper takes its stand on the same points of practical reform which we have already mentioned in connexion with the project of 'La Chiesa e l'Italia;' and the prospectus of it promises that the subjects of controversy shall be discussed in a candid, courteous, and conciliatory tone,' after the manner of a periodical which was published for some years at Dublin under the title of "The Catholic Layman." That such a tone-a tone wholly unlike that of the many publications which have been sent forth by the more violent reformers of Italy-is the only one from which real good can be expected, we need not take the trouble to argue. But it seems worth while to cite here a recent case in which, although the scene was in the heart of India, the actor and narrator was by birth a Neapolitan subject, and therefore one whose evidence may be especially valuable as to the best way of approaching the Italian mind.

'Father Felix,' a Sicilian Capuchin whose family name is Miritello, having gone to India as a missionary, with the usual prejudices of his country and his class against Protestantism of every kind, found himself disturbed by the Papal decree in favour of the Immaculate Conception; for, although he held this doctrine as matter of opinion, he was startled at its being erected into an article of necessary faith. After much uneasiness, he asked the English chaplain at the station where he was, to lend him some books on the controversy between the Churches, and received from him Jeremy Taylor's 'Dissuasive from Popery,' and Professor Harold Browne's well-known and excellent Exposition of the XXXIX Articles :'

'When I went home, I felt a kind of uneasiness in opening the books; however, I prayed to God for light, and took in hand Jeremy Taylor. The very title-page indisposed me; I felt that it was too bad to call my religion popery, and read it with suspicion. I went on reading, but I found that there was generally in it a kind of misrepresentation-I should say exaggeration of some points of the Roman doctrines; and I felt that it was not fair to charge the adversary with consequences drawn from an exaggeration of his principles. So I stopped reading, and would have thrown away the book, had it been my own. I thought that nothing could be derived from reading Protestant books; "for," I said, "truth has no need of misrepresentation;" and I regretted having asked for the books at all. . . ... But [after two days] happening to open Professor Browne's work, and to read a portion, I find him so fair in representing the doctrines of the Roman Church, so faithful and guarded in his expressions, remaining a step behind rather than in advance of the

What was

truth, that it conciliated my mind and my heart. . . . more, I found each point strengthened by the authority of the Fathers.' ―pp. 23-4.

This, which was contrary to all his expectations, raised the suspicion that the patristic quotations might have been falsified; but at Agra Father Felix found the means of satisfying himself on this head, and, after a time, having on full conviction made up his mind to leave the Roman Church, he was received into communion by the Bishop of Calcutta, and is now a missionary of our own Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The effect of the two styles of controversy on his mind (not that Bishop Taylor is at all to be classed with the extreme opponents of Rome) may read a lesson to all who take part in the discussion of religious questions.

One reform there is which is necessary in Italy before all others-we mean a reform in the English Church. The aspect in which our Church shows itself in that country is generally anything but attractive. At Rome, indeed, while the Papal Government compels us to worship without the walls, and in a building which must bear no outward sign of an ecclesiastical character, there is full provision of frequent services and administration of the means of grace; and how highly this ought to be valued in a city where Romanism puts forth all its fascinations-where anything short of the full Anglican system would afford an opening for contrasts to the disadvantage of our own Church-we need not say. At Genoa, Dr. Wordsworth was much pleased with the service, and the excellent chaplain, Mr. Strettell, is now raising funds for the building of a church. At Milan, a little church has been given up by Government for the use of the English. But in one great Italian city, admission to the English service is only to be had by paying a franc and a half for a ticket; and, lest the buyer should get too much for his money, a printed code of regulations explains that this ticket, although nominally good for a week,' will not clear him for anything more than the Sunday of those few weeks in which there is any service on a week-day. another great city, we were assured that the chaplain had mixed himself up with a 'revival' in which all sorts of sects took part, and the chief performer was a highly excited footman! Dr. Wordsworth expresses a belief that in Italy more of English money is spent on the Vaudois than on the English Church (ii. 248); and both in this and in many other respects, there must be a very great change, if we do not wish our representations of our Church's character to be contradicted by the discreditable appearance which it too commonly presents in Italy.

Lee vol 115 hon 287

In

Perhaps

Perhaps this article may suggest to some of the many Englishmen, who at this season begin their southward flight, lines of inquiry and exertion which they might not have otherwise thought of. As to the limits within which active efforts in the cause of Italian reformation ought to be confined, we have spoken too plainly to be misunderstood; so that nobody can draw from our words any encouragement to insult or wantonly to interfere with the religion of the country, or to engage in any attempts at proselytism. But without anything of this kindand even if he be not ready or willing, like the doughty polemic of Westminster, to engage in a theological tilt with everybody that he meets, an English traveller in Italy, who turns his attention to the religious condition of the country, may be able to learn much, and even to teach something. If he take care to ascertain well what is to be done, and in how far he himself is fitted to take a part in doing it, he may help in his degree towards the purification of the Italian Church and the promotion of Christian unity.*

ART. VII.-History of England. Reign of Elizabeth. Vols. 1 and 2. By James Anthony Froude. London, 1863.

E hasten to introduce to our readers these remarkable

WE volumes, which shed new light-at times startling and

surprising light-on the annals of Elizabeth, that most important and critical epoch in the history of the world, especially in the history of England. They promise, if the continuation shall answer to the singular revelations of the first part, not less curious and instructive illustrations of the whole reign of our Virgin Queen. Often as this region has been traversed, beaten as it might seem into a dull and barren way by novelist, by poet, and by historian, it seems almost a new and unexplored country. We cannot say that the mists of intrigue and counter-intrigue are entirely dispersed, that the striking characters, conflicting with each other, conflicting with themselves, stand out quite clearly and distinctly; that some new perplexities do not arise; yet, on the whole, the times are developed before us more vividly and intelligibly than in any former history. We seem to know Philip, and Elizabeth, and Mary of Scotland, and Cecil, and Leicester, and Randolph, and Maitland, and Darnley, and Both

*The influence of education is an important element in the religious prospects of Italy. We regret that we cannot find room for any details or remarks on this subject, and must content ourselves with referring to Dr. Wordsworth's volumes, especially to the English Churchman's' Letter, pp. 71, seqq.

well