Some Aspects of the Reformation. By John Gibson Cazenove, M.A.
(Ridgway.)—We have read Mr. Cazenove's essay with great pleasure. It was suggested, as the writer tells us, by Dr. Littledale's notorious lecture on " Innovations." It treats that writer with a courtesy which he cannot be said to have deserved, but which makes the rebuke to hie intemperate folly the more effective. It is pretty well known by this time that the Reformation was not a return to Primitive Christianity, which, perhaps, was scarcely desirable ; that it was still less the establishment of an ideally perfect order of things ; but to describe it as an unmitigated evil, and to say that the men who promoted it were unredeemed villains, is sheer frenzy. Mr. Cazenove, who brings to his task a learning that folly justifies his dealing with it, shows what needed to be done by the Reformation, and what was done. The condition of the pre-Reformation Church is reviewed, with the general conclusion that had not some change been made Christianity itself could hardly have survived. To make such a review fairly, to strike the balance between good and evil, is a specially difficult task, and Mr. Cazenove acquits himself in it very well ; nor does he fail in what is possibly still more difficult, the estimate of the results of the movements, an estimate which has, in a great measure, to be made from an observation of the present. We do not occupy the same stand-point as Mr. Cazenove, who is a High Churchman ; we might object to some of his estimates ; we differ from several of his conclusions ; but a more thoroughly just and candid view of the subject we have never seen. Such a book, coming from such a quarter, inspires us with fresh hopes ; we thank Mr. Cazenove heartily for it, and recommend it as heartily to our readers.
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