Life of William Laud. By the Rev. W. L. Mackintosh.
(Masters and Co. 3s. 6d.)—This is the second volume of the "Great Churchmen Series." In secular matters, whero it is possible to see matters clearly without the distorting medium of an ecclesiastical atmosphere, Laud was a deplorable failure. As an ecclesiastic he is said to have "saved the Church." Doubtless there is some truth in that; the Church might have been so Puritanised as to lose its continuity. But he certainly went near to destroy it. Never was the English Church so hated as it was when Laud had been in power for some years. And it is quite possible that it may have to be saved again from the consequences which come more or less directly from the Landian movement. But this is too large a subject to discuss. Mr. Mackintosh's book is a curious one. He can be bitterly prejudiced, and he can be candid. We may take Laud's conduct in the matter of the Earl of Devonshire's marriage as an example. It is emphatically condemned; but then we are told that such behaviour would not have astonished us in Cranmer, and that Laud had been influenced by the loose teaching of Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Zwinglian factions. The lash is applied fairly enough to the friend, but it is ingeniously contrived that the enemy should feel the sting. Ono word more must be added. "Like all Anglo-Catholic divines of his day, Laud called himself a Protestant At the present day even the moderate school in the Anglican Communion would resent its application to themselves." Is Mr. Mackintosh aware that the American Church, directly descended, by the way, from the Scottish, calls itself officially the "Protestant Episcopal Church" ?
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