Lives of the Saints. March. By the Rev. S. Baring-Gould.—Mr.
Gould continues with unwearied industry to epitomise the vast litera- ture of saintly biographies. In the volume now before W3, St. Gregor" the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssen, and St. Thomas Aquinas are the
chief of more than two hundred names. The fifth of March brings Mr. Baring-Gould to the biography of B. Peter of Castelnau, and to the general subject of the Inquisition. Of course he falls foul of the Albigenses, on whose behalf we would only suggest that, like other heretics, they have been condemned on the statements of their oppon- ents. He accuses Raymond of Toulouse of having "ordered, or con- nived at," the murder of Peter. Neander, who certainly displays a more judicial temper than Mr. Baring-Gould, says that the Pope (Innocent ILL) attributed the crime to Raymond, but was afterwards compelled to acknowledge the groundlessness of the accusation ; and
-, Dean Milman, also one of the most candid and trustworthy of historians, remarks that " strong contemporary evidence, as well as the probabilities of the case, absolutely acquit the Count of Tou- louse of any concern in this crime." The Dean quotes his authorities, and notes that 44 all modern writers, D. Vaisette, Capefigne, Hahn, even Hurter more doubtfully, exculpate Raymond." It may seem hard to recommend to Mr. Baring-Gould any reading additional to the vast mass which he has to get through, but it is really necessary, when he deals with questions that have an historical importance, to be more careful. And again, it is all very well to reduce the number of victims of the Inquisition of Toulouse to fifty, but what of the massacre of Boziers, where twenty thousand—some say fifty thousand—were massacred f "0 justiseitua divinae dispensa- tionis mensal-a l" says one of our author's darling monks, while ho makes what Dean Milman properly speaks of as an absurd charge of heresy against the Albigenses, the absurd charge being of coarse implicitly accepted by Mr. Baring-Gould, as indeed is every monstrosity invented by the malice or ignorance of their enemies.
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