Historic Oddities and Strange Events. By S. Baring - Gould. (Methuen and
Co.)—The two most important papers in Mr. Baring-Gould's volume (the . second series, our readers may be rerainded) are those entitled "The Patarines " and "The Ana- baptists of Miinster." In the former of those two, we have a description of the fierce battle that was fought in Milan in the eleventh century concerning the marriage of the clergy. "In the eleventh century," writes Mr. Baring-Gould, "nearly all the clergy in the North of Italy were married." Ravenna even boasted a married saint, St. Severna. (The note which the author adds is, we do not doubt, perfectly true ; but the want of punctuation makes it unintelligible.) The Popes were strongly set against this practice, and in Milan they enlisted on their side the services of a body of Manichrean heretics, who went by the name of " Patarines." The story of the struggle is very interesting, and will probably be new to many readers. The Anabaptists who followed John of Leyden are more familiar personages. But here, too, much may be learnt from Mr. Baring-Gould's pages. The reader, however, must remember that he is not friendly to the German Reformers. "A Swiss Passion-Play" is a curious story of fanaticism of a very deadly kind. It belongs to the present
century, but it seems more appropriate to the fourteenth. "Some Accusations against Jews" is a paper especially interesting in days when there is a recrudescence of the old feelings of hatred against them. The attempted robbery of the dead related in "The Coburg Mausoleum" is a very ghastly narrative. Alto- gether, this is a remarkably interesting volume.
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