21 APRIL 1923, Page 23

This is a scholarly and candid historical study of clerical

celibacy. The section on the psychology of the subject is less satisfactory ; and the suggestion that the only reasonable and safe course for Anglo-Catholics who feel that priests ought not to marry is the definite taking of celibate vows " is mischievous in the extreme. The English Church knows nothing of such vows ; the Dissolution of the Monasteries preceded the Reformation ; these engagements are Wanting in the essential condition of a vow that it shall be de bong nieliori, and are snares for souls.