St. Thomas of Canterbury. By Robert Hugh Benson. (Mac- donald
and Evans. 2s.)—This is a volume of the "St. Nicholas Series," edited by Dom Bede Camm, and appears with the
• imprimatur of the Censorship. Father Benson tells the story of St. Thomas picturesquely and effectively. His point of view is not ours ; but we have no wish to deny that some of the aspects of character and of principle which, he presents to us accord with the truth. The popular favour with which Becket was regarded is a testimony of very great weight. The people thought that he championed their liberties, and they thought right. But that he stood for principles which ultimately are fatal to liberty is not less true. He did well to check the tyranny of Kings ; but he would have established a tyranny of priests, which is ten times worse. However, the question is too big to be argued here. One detail may be mentioned. It is scarcely fair, we think, for Father Benson to say that when the King demanded that clerks should be subject to the ordinary Courts of Justice he was asking that they should be twice punished, first by the ecclesiastical, and secondly by the lay tribunal. That could have been easily arranged. The fact was that the criminous clerk, as long as he was subject to the Church Courts only, escaped with trivial penalties. The monstrous offence of solicitation in the con- fessional, for instance, was often treated with a Scandalous leniency. Heresy was the only offence that was severely dealt with.
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