20 NOVEMBER 1897, Page 13

The Church of the Sixth Century. By William Holden Hutton,

B.D. (Longmans and Co.)—Perhaps the most interesting portion —at least to students of theology—of this volume is the defence, or, we might say, the encomium, of the Emperor Justinian as a divine. We think of him as a legist ; but it is probable that his theology was more properly his own than his law. The latter was worked out for him by others, who codified rather than created. In theology, when he found himself face to face with some great and difficult controversies, he worked and thought for himself. His orthodoxy, it is true, has been questioned, but Mr. Hutton is energetic in defending it. The chapter on the Papacy is another noticeable part of the volume. The relation of the Roman See and its occupants to Justinian does not favour the pretensions of Papal Supremacy; at the same time, the history is significant of the causes which were at work to make these pre- tensions so powerful. A final chapter—there are six, delivered originally as lectures on the Birkbeck foundation—deals with the subject of Christian art.