1 1'.1.11: DAWN OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE.
The Dawn of Mediaeval Europe, 476-918. By the Rev. I. H. B. Masterman. (Methuen and Co. 2s. 6d.)—This is the first in order of time of the six volumes in which the "Six Ages of European History" are described. The historian who has this period to deal with is not to be envied, so obscure is the subject, of so dubious a value the authorities on which he has to rely. A few great men, great in themselves or made great by circumstances, appear on the scene,—Theodoric, Justinian, Benedict of Nursia, Gregory the Great, Charles Martel, Leo the Manliest, Pippin, and Charles the Great. Professor Magterman puts them before us with as much completeness as circumstances permit ; but he is largely occupied with the less grateful task of marshalling a crowd of minor personages, all necessary to- the story, but not interesting in them- selves. Great developments were going on during the period, chief among them the evolution of the Papacy. Nothing could be more important; but the reader can hardly escape a certain feeling of repulsion as he follows the story. There is the Donation of Constantine, for instance, in which the Papal claims were formu- lated. Professor Masterman will not call ita forgery, though he does not believe that it represented any act or thought of Con- stantine; but does he make the case any better, when he says that it represents "a tradition that was growing up at this critical pried when Reins had need of all the weapons, legal as well as material, that she could enlist in her service " ? The weapons were doubtless needed, and they had, if the play on the word may pass, to be "forged?' Experts in the textual criticism of Patristic literature can tell us how busy a trade it was. Whatever we may think about these matters, there can be no doubt that Professor Masterman has accomplished a difficult task very well.
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