The Early Scottish Church : its Doctrine and Discipline. By
Dom Columba Edmonds. (Sands and Co. 6s. net.)—The object of this book is controversial. Dom Columba Edmonds seeks to establish the Roman character of the doctrine and discipline of the Celtic Church. He is introduced to his readers by "Aeneas,, Bishop of Aberdeen," as a famous champion of his cause. So responsible a person ought to be a little more careful than to say that the First Council of Arles was "presided over by the legates of Pope Sylvester." The president of the Council was • Chrestus of Syracuse ; the Bishop of Rome was represented by two priests and two deacons, who signed fifth. It requires a certain courage to speak of this and other early Councils as "Papal." Were, they "Papal" in the sense that the Vatican Council was " Papal "? It is not worth while to follow, the argument, which, indeed, wanders . into regions sufficiently remote from the "Early Scottish Church." There is a chapter, for instance, on the temporal power—recent events in China have a significant bearing on the claim—and-another on "The Cultus of Our Lady?? Our author will not allow that there are any extravagances, or, at least, any culpable extravagances. "The Southern nations express their devotional sentiments in one way," seems to us a very perilous apology, as does the remark that the "non-liturgical devotions depend entirely on the taste of each individual." We cannot but think that the doctrinal basis which underlies the phrase "Co-Redemptrix " is not sound. Nor, again, will Protestant readers feel anything but astonishment, nay, repulsion, at the phrase, taken from Liguori's "Glories of Mary," an authorised book of devotion : " Pulchritudine sua Deum allexit e cache."
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