Two Archbishops and a Great Victorian St. Thomas of Canterbury.
By Sidney Dark. Archbishop Laud. By A. S. Duncan Jones. Thomas Arnold. By R. J. Campbell. Great English Churchmen Series. (Maunillan. (is.) THREE further volumes of the series edited by Mr. Dark are to hand. The editor has himself elected to write about Archbishop Becket. At the outset he calls the Reformation " almost an unqualified calamity " and repudiates " inhuman impartiality." One is, therefore, not surprised to find the book a crescendo of praise of the militant archbishop. By all means let us honour the mediaeval Roman Church and her stalwarts ; let us see good in Becket. But overstatement proverbially ruins a case. Creighton, Mr. G. G. Coulton, Maitland, Hook and Stanley arc named by Mr. Dark only to be brushed aside. Even his mentor, Dr. Hutton, is hetd unsatisfactory in that Dr. Hutton is uncertain its to " the righteousness of the cause for which Becket gave his life." The reader is, moreover, bidden to take his stand with the "professional sceptic" if he will not accept the Canterbury miracles. Also he is asked to recognize that " in the English Church, that lie loved so well, St. Thomas of Canterbury is again revered, and on his Feast Day, English mon and English women do not forget to pray.: 0 Cod, Who for Thy Church's sake didst stiffer Thy Bishop Saint Thomas gloriously to 'be slain by the swords of wicked men : giant, we be:let/ell Thee, that all they who call upon him for succour may be profited by the obtaining of all that they desire."
It is the duty of the reviewer to say plainly that Mr. Dark's history is grotesque. Anyone who reads the book had better turn to the relevant chapter of " England under the Norman and Angevin Kings " for a corrective.- Here are two hundred pages that will do whatever is good in the Anglo-
Catholic cause great harm.
Mr. A. S. Duncan Jones is a different workman. But,
having himself paid so high a tribute to 'Dr. Hutton, he wilt not consider it unkind for one to ask whether this new book was called for. Dr. Hutton's small book on Laud should have sufficed. If Mr. Duncan Jones would reconsider his objections to Parliamentary government, even in the present day, and would undertake a real research on Laud, at Lambeth and elsewhere, he would meet a great need and would win gratitude. Parts of Chapter XI. arc worthy of a better setting. The sentence : He may have said Good-bye to his many eats "
is charming.
Dr. R. J. Campbell's book on Thomas Arnold has already
been placed on the Spectator Library List. Dr. Campbell has historical training and can put a case clearly. He is by no means unprovocative. What he says can be' related to that which has already been written of a great Victorian ; and it does materially assist us in arriving at an estimate
of Arnold's work. EDWARD B. POWLEY.
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