which may yet afford a better basis for the union of Chris tendom than Papal recognition. The investigation of these questions must be made in many fields. Many learned R. C. treatises invalidated by faulty premises. of this in the had received such inadequate treatment: What are the essentials of priesthood and sacrifice? And we may surely be permitted to hope that when this question has been fully worked out, a better basis for the reunion of the divided Churches of Christendom will have been found than could possibly have been furnished by the mere recognition by the Bishop of Rome of the claims of the Anglican priesthood. The investigation of these questions must be pursued in many fields, the chief of which are Holy Scripture, Liturgics, Patristics, History, and Theology. Further, special care must be taken to examine the foundations upon which theories are built up. Hitherto, most of the Roman works upon these subjects, though exhibiting great learning and most patient research, have been invalidated by being based upon certain assumptions or premises which, although long accepted as indisputable, have been greatly weakened, if not positively overthrown, by the recently acquired evidence of antiquity, and especially of Liturgies An illustration and Ordinals. We have an example of this in the discovery that what was held by the great majority of Roman theologians to be the "form" in the Sacrain Holy Order. ment of Order, is not found in the ancient Roman Ordinals; and that the definition of sacrifice which has generally been put forth in Roman text-books cannot be traced farther back than the thirteenth century. This definition is no longer maintained by a large number of the most brilliant theologians of the Roman Communion. controversy as to the "form" V. The question of the Eucharistic Sacrifice debated with A notable exception must, however, be made in the case of certain schools of Catholic theologians in Germany, who during the past thirty years have investigated, with painstaking research and in a most liberal in Germany. spirit, the whole question of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. great diligence They have ventured to go outside of the old beaten and liberality paths, and, breaking free from the fetters of longaccepted but untrustworthy tradition, have accumulated a vast store of valuable material, from which a sounder theory of sacrifice is being constructed. Indeed, to the abundant treasure which they have gathered this work owes much. Three German schools: 1. The extreme school of Thalhofer, started in 1870. industry. These theologians may be grouped in three divisions. There is, first, the new and extreme school of Thalhofer. In 1870, in his work Das Opfer des Alten und des Neuen Bunden, he put forth a theory somewhat similar to that held by the modern school in our own Church, though far less radical. In 1887 and 1893 this work was followed by two volumes entitled Handbuch der Katholischen Liturgik (Freibourg im Breisgau); and in these three works his position is supported with great learning and industry. Indeed, one may venture Its learning to think that almost every conceivable argument in and literary favour of a celestial Sacrifice, from which the Eucharist derives its sacrificial character, and which is the completion or culmination of our LORD's redemptive work upon the Cross, may be found in these volumes. That they are little known in England seems to follow from the fact that those Anglican writers who take this view do not refer to the works of Thalhofer nor use his arguments. He has many followers in Bavaria, among the most distinguished, perhaps, being Dr. Franz, to whose work, Die Eucharistische Wandlung und die Epiklese der Griechischen und Orientalischen Liturgien (in the Second Part), it may be sufficient here to call attention. But little known in England. On the opposite side the most able opponent of 2. On the oppothis school was the Jesuit Professor at Innsbruck, site side the works of Stentrup. 3. Between these the treatises of Scheeben and Schanz; and in France, of Lepin, Ferdinandus A. Stentrup, who devoted a great part of the second volume of his Soteriologia to the examination and refutation of Thalhofer's arguments. Between these stand the brilliant names of Scheeben and Schanz, who, while by no means accepting Thalhofer's most radical positions in regard to our LORD'S sacrificial work in heaven, admit that His heavenly offering, while not an actual sacrifice, is a virtual sacrifice. A summary of their conclusions, rather than of their arguments, may be found in Wilhelm and Scannell's Manual of Catholic Theology, which is based on Scheeben's Dogmatik, and is probably the only English work which touches on this subject. They do not, however, notice the Thalhofer school, although it doubtless had its influence upon the work of Scheeben and Schanz. Unfortunately, neither of these wrote in Latin. Scheeben's Dogmatik, however, can be had in a French translation, published by Palmé, Paris.* More recently, a French theologian has given us a most valuable contribution to the whole question of sacrifice as it is summed up and fulfilled in our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. In 1897 M. l'Abbé M. Lepin, Doctor of Theology, and Director of the Seminary of S. Sulpice at Issy, near Paris, put forth a work entitled L'Idée du Sacrifice dans la Religion Chrétienne. Following that illustrious school of French Oratorians in the seventeenth century, whose works even now remain a storehouse of dogmatic and ascetic theology, M. Lepin traces, in the work of the Incarnate Word as the representative of all creation, and especially of the human race, the fulfilment in time and in eternity of the great law of sacrifice which seems to be as innate in the human heart as the knowledge of GOD itself. The *This does not contain the last three books on "Grace," "The Church and the Sacraments," and the "Last Things." author regards our Blessed LORD first as the Representative of all creation in that glorious work of adoration for which the world was made, and in which every creature finds at once its true end and supreme happiness; and secondly, as the Restorer of the human race, whose nature He so perfectly assumed. He then shows that in this twofold work the law of sacrifice finds its true interpretation and fulfilment-in the work of restoration, until the end of time; in the work of adoration, continuing through all eternity. In Part III. of his book M. Lepin treats of the Sacrifice of our Blessed LORD at the Incarnation, during both His hidden and public life, at the Passion, at the Resurrection and Ascension, and in His life of glory in heaven; and he ends this Part with the consideration of the Sacrifice of our LORD in the Holy Eucharist. The whole work is most helpful and suggestive; and in his treatment of the celestial Sacrifice in its relation to that of the Holy Eucharist, M. Lepin preserves that theological balance which is disregarded by so many modern writers; and, while treating with much beauty the accidental relation of the Eucharist to our LORD'S life in glory, he clearly asserts its essential relation as a sacrifice to the one Sacrifice on the Cross.* M. Lepin's work was preceded in 1894 by a most use- and Vacant. ful pamphlet, entitled Histoire de la Conception du Sacrifice de la Messe dans l'Église latine, the work of Dr. Vacant, a Professor in the Seminary of Nancy. Brief as this little treatise is, it contains a most scholarly and judicious examination of all the principal theories of *In Appendix G will be found a correspondence with M. Lepin on this subject, in which he states with great clearness his position in relation to the opinions of certain English divines to whose writings his attention had been called. In England Dr. Priesthood" ample of con structive treatment of priesthood, but we have practically nothing on the E. S. the Eucharistic Sacrifice from the sub-Apostolic age to modern times. From an historical standpoint this little work is invaluable and should be read by all interested in the subject. In regard to the question of priesthood, the most important contribution of our own Church in this direction is Dr. Moberly's Ministerial Priesthood, which, while supplies an ex- only claiming to be an introduction to the subject, devotes itself almost exclusively to an investigation of the principles and meaning of Christian Priesthood as exhibited in the New Testament and in the writings of the sub-Apostolic age. Many writers have pointed out that the same sort of treatment is needed in discussing the nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, but so far no one in our Communion has contributed any serious work on the subject. Indeed, with the exception of pamphlets, occasional papers, portions of chapters in works upon the Articles or general treatises on theology, our Church in recent times has produced practically nothing upon this subject, which is so prominently before men in the controversies of to-day. The largest treatise on the Eucharistic Sacrifice is a little book, entitled The One Offering, by the Rev. M. F. Sadler, published some twenty years ago, and chiefly intended to show that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is recognized by the Church of England in the writings. of her principal divines, as well as in the works of the Fathers. The only book on this subject Sadler's "One Mr. Kidd's work confined to mediæval doctrine. A most admirable little treatise, by the Rev. B. J. Kidd, published two years ago by the S. P. C. K., confines itself to the medieval doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, in relation to the thirty-first Article of ReThe subject is ligion. There is also a brief treatment of the Euchartouched upon istic Sacrifice under the heading of Article XXXI. in |