Without controversy ecclesiastical biography could scarcely exist and it is the exasperation of conflict unresolved and of continuing debate that adds piquancy to the genre. This is well illustrated by two substantial studies of churchmen that appeared before the public in the last year.* It is curious to note that only thirty-five years elapsed between the death of Luke Joseph Hooke, a man who attempted to interpret the method of the Enlightenment to Catholic orthodoxy in eighteenthcentury France, and the birth of Herbert Alfred Vaughan, a child destined to effect a curious amalgam of recusant fervour, ultramontane commitment and missionary enterprise.