History of the Church under the Roman Empire, A.D. 30 - 476.
By the Rev. A. D. Crake. (Riiington.)—Mr. Crake describes his volume as "the result of an attempt to render the history of the early Church interesting to the general reader, and to bring it within the comprehen- sion of the young Churchman." We do not see that either object is attained with any remarkable success. The real aim of the writer is to impress "the young Churchman" with notions about the early Christ- ianity which suit the theology of Mr. Crake and his school. As far as literary merit or learning is concerned, the volume has no pretensions whatever, but for assertions of the audacious kind, meant to serve an obvious purpose, it is sufficiently remarkable. "Special vestments," says Mr. Crake, for instance, "were probably in nee from the days of St. John." Can he have read Mr. Marriott's book on this subject ? What he has read or not read cannot, however, be of much importance. Imagine a man setting to work on such a subject as this who talks of Juvenal as being, with the "gay Horace," one of a pair of "genial scoffers" (Juvenal " genial !")—and of Antioch as having been built by "Antiochus, the great persecutor of the Jews,"—a slight mistake of about 130 years !
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