Early Chard:. History. By C. Merivale, D.D., Bean of Ely.
(Longmana.)—In four lectures, Dean Aferivale gives us a brief survey of the history of the Christian Church from the fourth to the sixth century, taking St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Leo the Great, and St. Gregory, as representing four clearly marked epochs. With St. Ambrose may be said to begin the union of Church and State. Noble as was his championship of the Church when he repelled Theodosius at the portal of Milan Cathedral, he was yet, as the Dean well observes, "sowing the seed of that spiritual arrogance" which subsequently culminated in the extravagant pretensions of the Papacy. In his lecture on Leo the Great he makes us understand how those pretensions were gradually developed out of what was then the dominant idea of the age,—that Rome held, and was destined to hold, an unique place in the world, und that this was an essential part of the divine plan and purpose. Sho was in fact, "the heir of all the ages,"—she represented cul- ture and governing capacity,—" rerum pulcherrima Roma." There- was further reason for the superior eminence of the Bishop of Rome. In the fifth century, "force had failed, military rule had collapsed ; " and mankind, feeling the need of another power, acquiesced in the supremacy of Leo, vidio from the year 440 nifty be regarded as deliberately contemplating; a primacy of the Christiim world. But, ambitions and zealous as he was, he
did not rise to the idea of evangelising the world beyond the frontier of the empire. Consequently, tho Church still remained half-Pagan, and shrank from any great spiritual effort. It was under St. Gregory, in the sixth century, that her missionaries penetrated into Gaul and Britain, and brought Franks, Angles, and Saxons within her fold. All this is admirably summarised in these lectures.
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