The Eastern Churches and the Papacy, by Dr. Herbert Scott
(Sheed and Ward, 10s.), is a detailed and critical survey of a
complex subject, which won for its author a Research Doc- torate degree. It deserves close study and merits far more
space for analysis and discussion than a paragraph can give. It deals with a controversy very much to the fore at the present time, and the reader will find (perhaps to his surprise) that Dr. Scott often reaches conclusions favourable to the claims of the Church of Rome to a primacy of early, even of the very earliest, date. " I believe," writes the author, " that the evidence of the second and first centuries, such as it is, will be found identical in character—Rome will be seen claiming authority, and expecting or demanding obedience—and for the same reasons ; that the bishop is the successor of St. Peter, the chief of the apostles, the leader appointed by Christ." This is a bold thesis, and brings the writer, inter alia, into conflict with Bishop Gore and with Professor Merrill, who tried to prove that St. Peter never was in Rome at all. There
is an excellent Bibliography and Index. * * * *
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