The Five Wounds of the Holy Church. By Antonio Rosmini.
Edited, with an Introduction, by H. P. Liddon, D.D. (Rivington.)— Antonio Rosmini (1797-1855) was a compound, more remarkable in his days than now—and it is scarcely common now—of Ultra- montane theologian and Italian patriot. His motto might have been the same as Covens's, "A Free Church in a Free State," only, to his mind, the freedom of the Church meant liberty to yield an implicit obedience to the Pope, and the freedom of the State would have to be limited by the practical application of its fellow-principle. The work which Canon Liddon has here edited is devoted to a statement of the evils which, in the anther's view, beset the Church, and to a statement of their remedies. The first wound is, in the author's view, the lack of sympathy in public worship between the clergy and the flocks which they serve. The second is the
want of education in the clergy. The third is the spirit of division which separates the Bishops from each other, and from the clergy and the people. The fourth and fifth have to do with the appointment of the Bishops by the secular power, and may be taken to include what is commonly known as Erastianism. The system of concordats would, it will he seen, find little favour in the eyes of Rosmini. Gallicanism and the religious independ- ence of nations generally offend his principles. To Gallicanism, indeed, he attributes the powerlessness of the French clergy to repress the frenzies of the Revolution, a suggestion to which the editor very rightly demurs. Louis XIV. had left very little Gallicanism behind him in France. Much that Rosmini has to say will com- mend itself to English Churchmen, though his extreme Papalism will offend all, or nearly all, and some certainly will see a safeguard of freedom in the State control to which he objects so strongly. Vigorous champion as he was of Papal supremacy and of the Tem- poral Dominion (other Bishops must be unworldly, but the Pope, if he is to perform his functions properly, must ever be a great Prince), he fell under the suspicion of the ecclesiastical authorities of his Church. Two of his works, "The Constitution according to Social Justice" and "The Five Wounds of the Church," were condemned by the Congregation of the Index. This ban was afterwards taken off. Canon Liddon has furnished the volume with an excellent preface.
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