18 SEPTEMBER 1880, Page 25

CURRENT LITERATURE.

Great English Churchmen. By W. H. Davenport Adams. (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.)—Mr. Adams traverses familiar ground, but it is ground with which there are always new readers .seeking to be made acquainted. We have the lives of nine Churchmen here, ranged in three divisions,—" Statesmen," comprising St. Anselm, Thomas Becket, Stephen Langton, William Laud ; "Poets and Divines," of whom we have two, Hubert and Jeremy Taylor; and "Martyrs and Confessors," a title given to Tyndal, Latimer, and Ken. These divisions are rather awkward. Anselm, for instance, was much greater as a historian than as a statesman. He made a greater contribution te dogmatic theology than any teacher since Augustine. Becket and Langton may fairly deserve the title ; but Land was not a great Churchman at all, though circumstances made him famous. Of course, there are lives of all of these men, with which Mr. Adams's sketches could not pretend to compete. Nevertheless, be has put together a useful and readable volume.