THE CHURCH IN THE NETHERLANDS.*

WE like the form of this book, its paper, print, and size; and we like still more its spirit, for it is that of "sweetness and light," and " maketh for righteousness" throughout. We were under the impression that the publishers only published books of the "Sacerdotal school ; " but we find in their cata- logue the names of writers of all schools. We remember the days when each school had its publisher ; especially that the " Evangelical " patronised Messrs. Nisbet and Seeley, and then their catalogues contained only books of a certain kind. Now we see that the former admits authors who can think, and do think, in "Thought," and the latter supply books on art, whereas the said school used to taboo both thought and art. Days are changed for the better.

The book before us is a picturesque country which we mean to walk through, holding by the hand the author of it as our friendly guide, and with him we hope to enter a church and pray, or a grand cathedral and reverently admire; here we shall stoop to pick a flower, there to enjoy the sweet scent of a bed of roses ; sometimes we shall have to witness painful scenes, at other times he will talk to us of lively incidents. As we enter, he sensibly observes to us, "In tracing the history of a National Church, its rise and progress, its periods of stagnation and revival, we may notice how closely its destinies are interwoven with the natural characteristics of its people. Some natures are more prone to reverence this or

that principle of Christian faith and practice ; some nations are excitable and easily influenced, swayed by feelings which need but a breath to turn them first in one direction and then in another. Forms of error are prolific in certain soils, and special natural virtues seem to be indigenous. Again and

again the national character asserts itself; and neither the forcible arguments of the sword, the faggot, and all the stern horrors of persecution, can change the nation's mind, nor alter its determined course."

To this appropriate beginning we reply: "In all our travels the very same thought has passed through our minds, and especially in Teutonic and Celtic countries ; the only features which, it seems to us, are common to both, are architecture and music, and even in the latter we have observed how the Teuton prefers the solemn, and the Celt the lively. We have

been solemnly awed by the grand chorale which are so grandly given in the Lutheran churches, and sweetly overcome by the

delightful litanies to the Viegin, when the whole congregation, devoutly kneeling on their knees, sing their • Mater &mate, era pro noble,' and we have been, as it were, constrained to pray with them in the same words." Oar guide continues : "To mark this continuity in the history of a country is part of the philc- sophical study of national life ; and in no country is the national character more evident, and its continuity more remarkable, than in the history of the Church in the Nether- lands." Then he gives us a bird's-eye view of the whole country through which we are going to walk, but before starting we take another survey, and we see at a distance 'the nameless horrors of the Inquisition, persecution raging with fierce hate, its defenceless victims, the roll of martyrs witnessing their confession with their Aslood." Now the English guide turns to his English companion, and remarks :

"The history of the Church of Holland possesses a peculiar interest for Englishmen, inasmuch as from this country the light of Christianity first shone on Holland, for a devoted Englishman, St. Willebrod, was the real founder of the Church of Holland."

It is always pleasant to read surmises about the travels of St. Peter and St. Paul, however mythical they may be ; the myth in the Old Testament, and even in the New, adds interest and apparent strength to the oak round which it has been allowed by the Great Inspirer to cluster. Our friend re-

marks to us :—" It is supposed that St. Paul must have passed

through Belgium to reach Britain, and, further, that he was accompanied by St.. Peter, who also sent certain disciples to

evangelise the province and rescue the barbarous peoples from heathendom." To which we rely :—" Let as suppose it, and picture to ourselves St. Paul and St. Peter walking on ahead.

We will overtake them and listen to their conversation." How energetic they both are, how St. Peter thinks that every- thing is done, that the barbarous inhabitants are rescued by the combined preaching of them both under the all-powerful

• The Church in the Netherlands. By P. H. Ditehileld, MA. s.e. "The National Churches" $eries London: Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co. guidance of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul, not so sanguine, is reasoning and arguing, "not so fast, but I feel sure that in a f ew years our grand object will have been achieved." " Alas !" we remark, for we diffidently join in," you do not seem to know the barbarians of this country; their history since you left the earth shows them to be a most stubborn people ; all the persecutions of your successors, and all terrible wars stealthily prepared for and skilfully and extravagantly carried out, could not make them draw back one inch from their ground or from their own opinions." But with reluctance we leave St. Peter and St. Paul, and take our onward course, having learned that the Gospel was preached by some St. Peter or St. Paul 41 in the first century of our era." Having renewed our talk, we turn to accept a flower from the hand of a passer-by, and as it was so sweet, we asked the giver to offer one also to the two wayfarers we had left behind, who, as we looked back, regarded it with great satisfaction and encouragement, for this was the flower, the words of St. Leo IX.: "0 most dear Belgian fatherland, these are they through whom the Gospel of Christ shone upon thee, so that thou becamest a chosen generation, a Royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." Then, as we proceed on our way, Omar tells us : "I conquered them ; they are the bravest of all the Celtic tribes, and they probably owe their superiority to the presence among them of a Teutonic element, which added endurance and perseverance to Celtic daring." Now our guide makes a most important remark, which is, in reality, the key to the extraordinary conduct of the Walloons in the time of Philip II., who fought furiously against him and his General Alva, and eventually fought as bravely for him under his General Farnese. "The Northern and Southern inhabitants of the country have always differed greatly in character, polity, and religion. The Celtic tribes of the South were enveloped in the dark superstition of Druidism, with its priestly caste, its bards and prophets, its cruel system of human sacrifices, and reverential honours paid to founts, forests, hills, and lakes." We remark : "Every word you say is a volume of their history, not only of the past, but of the present. Go to Belgium, you see a different people —not that they have still a cruel system of human sacrifices —but the Catholic Church is stronger there than elsewhere; and though the Belgians may not be as the French say of them, Frenchmen stript of all their virtues,' yet they are very unlike the Dutch, their neighbours, in every possible respect." However, we must pass on further, or we shall not have time to see enough of the interesting and peculiar features of the country, or form a correct opinion of it, if we saunter along. So thinks our worthy editor, who whispers slily into our ears, —if he can whisper and be sly : "More of your go,' and less of your incoherency; you have only progressed as far as p. 7, when will you reach p, 387 P" So, with our companion's leave, we hurry on to p. 387, leaving the bouquets, the peasants, St. Peter, and St. Paul far behind us. As we are going along, he details to us many pleasant and many horrible scenes, gives us a list of the early Saints of the Netherlands, all of which may be found in his book. Now we meet Marcus Aurelius, the most Christian of Heathens, who got into hot water by the persecution of the Christians whom he never per- secuted; and then we pass away from the regions of romance to surer and still more interesting ground, the days of St. Athanasius, who came to Treves and stayed there three years, and was quite as contented as we with what he saw : "Happy Gaul ! happy Belgium ! happy Treves ! who so often received and hearkened to so great a defender of the faith, for all the Belgian Bishops stood firm." He wrote a history of St. Anthony, by reading which a gay officer of the court was instantly converted and sowed his wild oats. St. Jerome also stayed there, and St. Ambrose was born there. St. Martin here protested against the punishment of the heretics, as the Church did afterwards against their punishment by Philip II. and his devils. We have to skip over three centuries, and we find ourselves surrounded by eleven thou- sand virgins being barbarously killed by the savages on their way to Rome,—how many virgins now go on their way to Rome, and are killed on the way by savage Protestants P But this happened as we were in a dream, for on waking, our companion undeceived us by showing that " XI.M.V."= Undecim Martyres Virgines," and we were glad to get rid of our nightmare. It seems that in those days Irish mission- aries were more successful than they are now ; but in those days they were not Fenians. We arrive at the seventh century, the age of saints. St. Levenirs was a good letter-writer; like Cowper, he thanks his friend for sending him milk, butter, eggs; but, unlike Cowper, he inserts a Latin quotation.

What a bulwark against heathenism, savagery, ignorance, debauchery, were the monks from this time onwards for nearly six hundred years ; for out of chaos they created and sustained a world. Now began, also, the influx of faithful and eager missionaries from England to Holland. Pepin, in 742, ordered the priests to teach the people to say the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in the vulgar tongue. We hope he did not leave out the Ten Commandments, for if he did he may have been the cause of the vulgar in after centuries breaking those Ten Commandments so much as to require to be taught them by Luther himself, sometimes in a very vulgar tongue. However, much good came by the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, for, among others, Cardinal Mezzofanti, eleven centuries afterwards, learned many of his forty-odd languages from hearing the soldiers in the hospital at Bologna repeat the Creed and Lord's Prayer in their vulgar tongue. In the next century, we have a very graphic and interesting account of that remarkable man Charlemagne, who "fought against his own passions as bravely as he did against the hosts of the Saxons," and, we hope, with the same result. He helped the Church, and the Church helped him, which was but fair. Here we cull a flower by the way, given to us by some saint Faith is a voluntary act and not compulsory. You can draw a man to the faith, but not force him." Fighting bishops were dis- approved of by the Emperor, so fighting bishops became praying saints. Alcuin presented the Emperor with a copy of the "Revised Version "—his own, not that of Dean Stanley and his fellow revised-versioners —and the Emperor forthwith learned his Latin and Greek grammars, and no doubt bought a dictionary and a lexicon to see whether the version was "sound." During that age, we are informed, the Church "does not tear with her claws, but gently strikes with her wings," which she does now, and she drew up for the regulation of female canons rules compared to "a bouquet of flowers chosen from a fine meadow." A synod was held at Aix-la-Chapelle at which rules were drawn up, eighty of which referred to "the hours of shaving, bathing, eating fowls, fruit, dress, washing each other's feet," Ztc.

The accounts of the gradual increase of the Papal power, and of the struggle between Hildebrand and Henry IV., are extremely interesting. Bismarck would have written, we think, a better article than we upon this important subject. But the gem of the whole book is the chapter on the precursors of the Reformation, in which is shown that reform in the Netherlands originated in the bosom of the Church herself. We should have liked to accompany the author to the end of his journey, but as that part of the country has been so often explored by others, and the grand drama of the Reformation, the wars of Louis XIV., the doctrines and lives of the Jansenists, the vindictive conduct of the grim Gomarists, the part played by Napoleon as Pope of the Catholic Church, have been so frequently described, we reluctantly part com- pany with our pleasant guide.