A History of the English Church. By II. M. Spence,
C.D. (J. M. Dent and Co. ls.)—This is a volume of the "'Temple Primers." Dean Spence has performed the difficult task of com- pressing into the available space a fairly complete account of the subject, and the still more difficult task of holding the balance fairly. He recognises the good of the various influences which have gone to make up the English Church. We cannot, how. ever, accept his estimate of Laud as "a true Church Reformer,"— indeed, we should gather from his language, though he does not expressly say so, the greatest Reformer that the Anglican Church has ever bad. That he made the performance of divine service more orderly may be conceded. But he contrived to make the Church which he controlled more hated than it ever had been before or has been since. The passion of hate with which for the decade or so after Loud's death the Church was regarded is a thing which stands alone in English history. Surely High Churchmen could find a more worthy ideal than the man who tortured Prynne and flattered the profligate Buckingham.
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