THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM.
The Development of Roman Catholicism. By John A. Bain. (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier. 2s. 6d.)-The point which Mr. Bain makes is that Roman teaching has not remained the same, that it has developed, and in a wrong direction. The answer to this is, of course, the theory of development. But this theory is capable of unwelcome applications, as, for instance, in Modernism. We cannot follow Mr. Bain into the details of his argument. Perhaps the most convincing, if we are to take one out of his twenty-four chapters, is that in which he deals with the "Deification of Mary." Without holding the Roman Church generally responsible for all the extravagances of which some of her members are guilty, it is enough to point out that the title "Co-Redemptrix," used as it has been by persons whom it is impossible to disavow, implies a dangerous heresy. Redemption is the chief aspect in which man is taught to view his relation to God, and that a creature should be associated in it with the Three Persons is surely indefensible. And when Liguori declares that no one can be saved but through Mary he is drawing a logical conclusion from the word.
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