23 MARCH 1945, Page 22

The second volume of this work by two eminent Roman

Catholic scholars has the qualities of the first volume, which was reviewed at length in The Spectator, with the difference that, having left behind the New Testament, the authors deal more freely with their authorities. The value of the book consists very largely in the full quotations from original sources, which are specially useful in the excellent section on the "Apologists." The authors write lucidly, but they do not possess the literary gift of that greatest of modern Roman Catholic Church historians—Duchesne.