with practical unanimity, to put up with these rather than reconstruct Congregation on a narrower and less liberal basis.

But if the difficulties which .confront the University in devising a scheme for the reform of Congregation are thus formidable, and the divergence in the points of view which any attempt to deal with them would disclose is thus serious, even more thorny and difficult still is the question of the reform of Convocation. Convocation is a body which consists of all Masters of Arts who have kept their names on the books of any college or hall, or of the non-collegiate body, and also on those of the University. The functions of this body, apart from that of choosing burgesses to represent the University in Parliament, are not in ordinary quiet times very important or very effectively exercised. Measures which have been approved by Congregation, even after long and heated discussion, are usually accepted by Convocation almost as a matter of course. But though its powers are dormant, they are still there; and questions of principle on which a considerable division of opinion exists within the University itself, are in the last resort referred to, and settled by, Convocation. It is unfortunate that the last considerable question on which the judgement of Convocation was invoked was a religious one; and the members of Convocation summoned up from the country expressed themselves with more vehemence than the importance of the question at all warranted, and treated their opponents with less courtesy than these latter, many of them distinguished men, had a right to expect. This untoward incident brought Convocation into ill repute, and gained for it a name for illiberality and fanaticism which its previous recent history had done little to justify. On many points it has shewn itself a by no means illiberal or unreasonable body. It accepted a compromise on the vivisection question, for instance, which has stood the test of time, and which seems fairly to embody the more enlightened feeling of the country on the matter. The opening again of the different University examinations to women has been carried in Convocation by large majorities; and the refusal to admit them to degrees was due to the

action of Congregation, not of Convocation, though the latter would probably have reinforced the decision of Congregation. The writer does not himself doubt that were the abolition of compulsory Greek in Responsions decided on by a preponderating majority in Congregation, Convocation would either acquiesce in the decision, or would only resist it were it sure that it had the opinion of the majority of the educated classes in the country at its back.

The case then for a reform of Convocation cannot, we conceive, be regarded as urgent, or at any rate is not so urgent as the more vehement reformers would suggest. Yet that some change is desirable must, we think, be admitted; only here again there is at present the greatest diversity of view as to what direction that change shall take. It has been suggested, for instance, that Convocation should be made far more representative than it is at present of all who have taken the M.A. degree by lowering or altogether abolishing the payments to the University and colleges necessary in order to keep a name on the books. Dr. Fairbairn has quoted the example of the Scottish Universities to shew how possible it would be to make such a change, and how desirable, if possible. But the authorities on University finance would at once cry out that the introduction of such a change would upset the equilibrium of its financial system; and the College authorities might not be able or willing to submit to such a diminution in their resources as the abolition or serious lowering of post-graduate fees would involve. Then, again, it is maintained that the present arrangement is absurd in allowing anyone who has taken the degree of B.A. to proceed to the degree of M.A. after the efflux of a certain time and on the payment of certain additional fees. But the proposal made by the 'Oxford tutors' to restrict the M.A. degree to those who have qualified in the art of teaching has very little except an antiquarian argument to recommend it, and certainly has obtained very little general acceptance. Another proposal which has been put forward, viz. to make the M.A. degree a mark of some superior intellectual distinction beyond that which is necessarily implied in taking the

B.A. degree, would not only have the defect of lowering the value of the B.A. degree, and so of disposing a larger number of qualified persons than do so at present to abstain from taking it, but might have also the result, not of increasing but of diminishing the number of those who would take the M.A. degree, and so of still further reducing the already too limited number of members of Convocation. There are many other questions which might be started in this connexion on matters which still require for their satisfactory solution much reflexion and discussion, so that to attempt to settle them offhand would be almost to invite failure and disaster, or at best to produce a state of things which it would require another Commission in a short time to set right.

The conclusion then to which this survey has led us on the whole matter is this: that in most departments of University activity the University already possesses both the power and the will to reform itself, and that a Commission is, therefore, in these respects superfluous; and that where legislative change may be needed, opinions are still so divided and the difficulties involved in the questions still so far from solution, that its appointment at the present moment would be premature.

SHORT NOTICES.

W. A. SPOONER.

I. BIBLICAL AND KINDRED STUDIES.

Historical Criticism and the Old Testament. By Père M. J. LAGRANGE, of the Order of Friars Preachers; translated by EDWARD MYERS, M.A., Priest of the Diocese of Westminster. (Catholic Truth Society.) 2s. 6d.

THIS book is a translation of the second edition of Père Lagrange's La Methode Historique, which appeared in 1904. As is well known, the writer was appointed by Leo XIII. a member of the Biblical Commission which was entrusted with the duty of inquiring into questions of criticism in their relation to the Catholic faith; and few members of the Roman Communion are better qualified than he to speak with authority upon the subject which he has taken in hand in this volume,

Having in the first lecture prepared the way by dealing with the relationship of Church authority to the freedom of Biblical criticism, Père Lagrange goes on to trace the course of doctrinal development in the Old Testament. He emphasizes the value of the comparative study of Semitic religions for the right understanding of the religion of Israel, and cites the authority of the Fathers, and notably of St. Cyril of Alexandria, as witnessing to the rudimentary and meagre character of the earlier stages of Old Testament belief. A brief allusion to the origins of Israel's religion exhibits sound insight in perceiving that the theory which attempts to find a development from primitive animism must be rejected as inadequate in view of the fact that we have to seek the germs of Israel's own religion in the patriarchal age,' a period which is fully historical' upon the Babylonian side owing to the wealth of literary material of and about the age of Hammurabi which is continually being unearthed, and to the fact that the influence of this Babylonian civilization upon Israel can now be proved. Those ideas must be studied to understand the framework into which Israel fitted.' At the same time comparative study of Semitic religion serves to bring out and to emphasize the unique moral character of Israel's God.

The chapter which deals with the idea of inspiration as found in the Bible' proceeds upon lines which will be familiar to English students of the Old Testament. The 'admirable rules laid down by Father Cornely in his Introductio' deserve to be quoted in extenso :

'What St. Augustine teaches concerning natural sciences is true also of history: id eodem modo de historicis verum est, the Holy Spirit speaking through the sacred writers, did not intend to teach men things in no way profitable to their salvation. . .

...

'Many mistakes have been made, and are still being made, because Biblical scholars will not sufficiently take into account the aim and character of the Scriptures, and will treat them as though they were a Heaven-sent compendium of sacred and profane history.

'The interpreter ought to pay great attention to the manner in which the sacred writers give their historical accounts. For, as St. Jerome points out, "it is customary in Scripture for the historian to give the common opinion as generally received in his own day"; and again: many things are related in the Scriptures according to the opinion of the day in which the facts occurred, and not according to what in reality took place (et non

juxta quod rei veritas continebat)." This observation of the holy doctor is most important. He thus warns us not to press the words of Scripture to make them meet the present state of scientific knowledge, but to explain them in accordance with the ideas and intentions of the sacred writer. What a number of difficulties would never have been raised had all interpreters always kept St. Jerome's word of warning before them.'

Père Lagrange's remaining lectures are concerned with 'Historical Criticism and Science,'' Historical Character of the Civic Laws of the Israelites '-a chapter which contains in brief a useful comparison of the Code of Hammurabi with the Israelitish 'Book of the Covenant '-and Primitive History,' whilst an Appendix bears the title 'Jesus Christ and New Testament Criticism,' and deals with M. Loisy's L'Evangile et l'Église, in the form of an open letter to Mgr. Batiffol. As a whole, Père Lagrange's lectures are admirably fitted to fulfil their purpose, and the writer has written nothing to offend the susceptibilities even of the most unversed in the results of modern Biblical criticism.

Le Profezie d' Isaia, tradotte e commentate da SALVATORE MINOCCHI. (Bologna: Matteuzzi, 1907.) 6 lire.

PROFESSOR MINOCCHI is one of the greatest European authorities in matters of Old Testament criticism. His Italian translation of the Psalms, published some years ago, was marked throughout by a rare appreciation of both the spirit and the form of Hebrew poetry; and the commentary attached to that translation revealed a critical and historical insight as sound and thorough as that of the best German scholars. He added, too, to the value of his more scholarly work by the admirable series of popular lectures on the history of the Psalms and of the Messianic idea which he delivered before the Royal Institute of Higher Studies at Florence in the Lent of 1902. There was no question, therefore, of the heartiness of the welcome which Old Testament students would extend to his promised studies on the Prophecies of Isaiah.

But the book has actually appeared amid circumstances which cannot fail to enhance its importance. It was one of the last acts of the regretted Cardinal Svampa, Archbishop of Bologna, to accept the dedication of Professor Minocchi's book in a letter marked by all the charming modesty of that loyal patron of sound learning in his own Communion.