THE CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY.* Tais.remarkable volume, a second impression of
which has already been called for, is the first instalment of a series of twelve volumes intended to cover almost exhaustively the whole range of modern history. These volumes will deal in succession with the Renaissance, the Reformation, Wars of Religion, the Thirty Years' War, Bourbons and Stuarts, the Eighteenth Century, the United States, the French Revolu- tion, Napoleon, Restoration and Reaction, the Growth of Nationalities, and finally, "The Latest Age." The conception is a great one, and worthy of the fine intellect of its author, the late Lord Acton. " To him is due," we are told in the editors' preface, "in its main features, the division of the work into the volumes and chapters of which it consists ; and it was at his request that most of the contributors agreed to take a specified part in the execution of his scheme." The late
• The Cambridge Modern History. Planned by the late Lord Acton, LL.D., Begins Professor of Modern History. Edited by A. W. Ward, Litt.D., G. W. Prothero, Litt.D., and Stanley Leathes M,A, Vol, I., The Renaissance. Cam- bridge : At the University Press. [lee.] Dr. Creighton in an invaluable "Introductory Note" to the work pleads with admirable, though not entirely convincing, force in favour of the syndicate method as applied to the writing of history. Despair, perhaps, lies behind his argument. Respectable competent historians there are many,—hewers of facts and drawers of deductions ; but the master-historian, encyclopaedic in his learning, Thucydidean in his prose, a man with an enthusiasm for truth and for humanity, unhampered by religions, social, or political prejudices, is absent That the age is waiting for such an historian, and will find him before many years have passed, it seems to us not reasonable to doubt If Gibbon was possible in such an age as that in which he wrote, it would, we venture to assert, argue a lack of faith in human nature to deny the possibility that a far greater than Gibbon—with an equal but more elastic gift of prose—may arise adequately to commemorate the great age which, opening with the European birth of nationalities and individualism, promises to close with an entire transformation of national conceptions, a nobler individualism, and a new world of science, philosophy, trade, and economy.
Dr. Creighton, however, felt that in a series of mono- graphs written round some "definite nucleus "—such as the central conceptions of modern history—there are ad- vantages which a work impressed with the genius of one personality lacks. The reader, we are told, " is free from the domination of one intelligence—a domination which has its dangers however great that intelligence may be— striving to express the multifarious experience of mankind in categories of its own creation." We frankly do not agree with this position, great as is the authority of the historian who held it. It is true that in a work like this the reader is nowhere dominated by a great central personality; but he is as liable to be misled by the views and prejudices of individual writers as any reader is liable to be misled by Gibbon's frank cynicism with respect to Christianity. In saying this it must not be supposed that we have any intention of belittling in the least degree the laborious work the first volume of which lies before us. It is indubitably a work of the highest value ; it represents great learning, great research, and the successive monographs are concentrated upon the leading ideas of modern history in a manner deserving of the highest admira- tion. But it lacks, noticeably lacks, the impression, the illuminating totality, of a great personality; it is obviously uneven in learning, in judicial force, and in style; and in places distinction of manner is looked for in vain.
The nineteen chapters of this volume are distributed as follows. Mr. E. J. Payne deals (in chaps. 1 and 2) with "The Age of Discovery " and " The New World." This section is well written; but we do not at all understand the attitude of the writer towards Roman Catholicism. Dr. J. B. Bury Regius Professor of Modern History, the most learned of living historians, deals with " The Ottoman Conquest " (chap. 3), a subject peculiarly his own. Mr. Stanley Leathes treats of "Italy and her Invaders" and Florence in the times of Savona- rola (chaps. 4 and 5). It is unnecessary to say that the work is admirably done, whether in describing the " blind and soul- less strife" amidst which "the scheme and equilibrium of the western world is gradually taking shape," or in painting the great personality of the Ferrarese friar. Mr. L. Arthur Burd deals with the Florence of Machiavelli in a chapter (chap. 6) of quite notable prose. Machiavelli has, perhaps, not been better described than in the phrase that he was able "to think upon a large scale." Dr. Richard Garnett (chap. 7) treats of "Rome and the Temporal Power." It is regrettable that the Florence of Dante's time is not dealt with in a previous chapter, as Dr. Garnett's valuable contribution would, one may venture to think, have found its place in the whole work more effectively if read in the light of the De Monarehia and the causes which, resulted in that wonderful essay. The analysis of the character of Pope Alexander VI. is invaluable. It is an honest reconstruction of history, and throws new light upon dark times. Mr. Horatio Brown (chap. 8) deals with Venice competently and well. The description of "that independent attitude towards the Curia which characterises the whole of Venetian history " is as important as it is interesting. " Germany and the Empire " (chap). 9) is from the able pen of Mr. T. F. Tont, Professor of History in the Owens College, Manchester. Here again we feel the need of an earlier chapter on the period when Dante thought and wrote. Chap. 10, in which Dr. Emil Reich deals with Hungary and the Slavonic kingdoms, is a brief but very able and highly significant monograph. Mr. H. Butler Clarke in chap. 11 deals clearly with the complex subject of " The Catholic Kings," and in chaps. 12, 13, and 14 the France, the Nether- lands, and the England of the Renaissance are placed before us with equal lucidity by Mr. Leathes, Dr. A. W. Ward, and Dr. James Gairdner respectively.
Chap. 15, that on "Economic Change," by Dr. William Cunningham, is probably the most important in the volume. A history of the economic changes that accompanied, and perhaps precipitated, the new age conveys more to the mind than the story of many pageants or even of many intrigues. It is pleasant to find that the name of Sir Richard Jebb is among those who have contributed to this Modern History. The clearness of his style and the ease of his learning make his article on "The Classical Renaissance" (chap. 16) one of the gems of the book. This chapter, with that which succeeds it—" The Christian Renaissance," by Dr. M. R. James—not only make admirable reading, but are filled with learning and illuminating thought. These chapters, with that of Dr. Cunningham, are certainly the most valuable, as they are the most striking, contributions to this history. There are two small points in which the chapters on the Classical and the Christian Renaissance': seem open to criticism. The influence on the Renaissance of Greek classicists such as Photius, Suidas, John Tzetzes, and Eustathius is a factor that is almost entirely neglected; while the earliest work of Rome in the cause of Western education is not mentioned. Yet Canon XXXIV. of the Concilium Romanum promulgated in 826 A.D. by Pope Eugenius and entitled " De Scholis Reparandis pro Studio Literarum," is of prime historical importance, and foreshadowed the great educational decrees of the Third and Fourth Councils of Lateran and the Council of Vienne.
Chap. 18, on "Catholic Europe," by Dr. William Barry, seems to us to be open (despite its admirable prose-style) to very considerable criticism. It is difficult, for instance, to understand the phrase : " The Holy See felt itself engaged in the necessary and therefore just enterprise of recovering its temporal independence." It is certainly unhistorical to speak of " a view unknown to earlier ages and impossible to carry out in practice,—that of the superiority to the Pope of the Church in Council assembled." The use of the word " heretics " in serious history is offensive to the historical ear. The historian must smile when he is told that the rules of the Inquisition "allowed of easy retraction." We cannot agree that the Imitation of Christ has been since 1441 " the recognised guide of every generation in the Western Church"; nor can we admit that St. Augustine "formed the intellect of mediaeval Europe." Dr. Barry paints a picture of the Roman Church which in no way indicates the state of things that actually existed. No idea is give us of the amazing infidelity, the jesting profanity, that emanated from the Papal Court, of the blasphemies that astounded Erasmus. The real story of the relation of the Papal Courts to the Renaissance in the days of Alexander VI. and Leo X. is essential to any true conception of the Re. naissance. We do not find that story in Dr. Barry's work. Mr. Henry Charles Lea in his admirably written essay (chap. 19) dealing with "The Eve of the Reformation" is quite frank about "the Holy See" of the Renaissance: it " could inspire neither respect nor confidence," and " Rome had become a centre of corruption whence infection was radiated throughout Christendom." The impartial reader should apply Mr. Lea's evidence to Dr. Barry's statement,—" that the clergy as a body were throughout this period corrupt or immoral, is an assumption unsupported by definite evidence." Such extraordinary contrasts of opinion tend to destroy the unity of the work, and to create the feeling—for the most part the quite unjustifiable feeling—that the history is unreliable. Great editorial care will be necessary in this respect in the " Reformation " volume.
It only remains to say that this volume concludes with a most admirable bibliography, and is produced with the skill and care which distinguish the Cambridge University Press. A certain disappointment must be felt that the work of men like Dr. Rashleigh; Sir F. Pollock, and Professor Maitland is absent from this book; but we must presume that they were not available.
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