England and Rome. By T. Dunbar Ingram, LL.D. (Longmans.) Dr.
Dunbar maintains that the English Church was virtually independent of Rome even in pre-Reformation days,—that is, was so normally, though there were times, as in the reigns of John and his son, when political exigencies made English rulers admit claims which they commonly repudiated. It is, indeed, clear that a country which forbade the introduction of Papal Bulls without leave was not Ultramontane. Still, the claims of the Roman See were always being urged, and sometimes with success. The claim of the Roman Catholic sufferers under Elizabeth and James to the honours of martyrdom is also discussed. Dr. Ingram holds that what they bore witness to was the Pope's claim to dispense the subjects of heretical Princes from their allegiance. He quotes a remarkable document drawn up by secular clergy of the Roman Church in England in the early part of the seventeenth century, in support of this contention.
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