Alexander, W. A. A Digest of the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, from its organization to the Assembly of 1887, inclusive, with Certain Historical Notes. Richmond, Va.: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1888.

Antonio Rosmini Serbati, who was born at Rovereto in the Italian Tyrol, in 1797, was well equipped in spirit to make a good use of the advantages which fell to him as the son of a noble family and heir to a large estate. From the period of youth the zeal and devotion of his serious nature were given to religion and philosophy. Among the standing memorials of his service to the former is the Institute of the Brethren of Charity. His ambition to promote the latter is attested by a group of writings which vies in bulk with the contributions of the most prolific of modern philosophers.

In reciting the symptoms of popular discontent in Massachusetts at the time of his recall, in 1774, Governor Hutchinson uses these words: “The people had been persuaded that their religion as well as their liberties was in danger. It was immaterial whether they had been deceived or not: the persuasion was the same; and this was what would cause them to go all lengths, and to surmount the greatest difficulties.” (Hist., vol. iii., p. 455.)

The worth of contemporary documents for the writing of history needs no discussion. The zeal of Americans in searching out and accumulating such material has steadily increased since the opening of the present century. Historical societies have sprung up representing States or portions of States, groups of States or the nation, particular denominations or the Church at large. Such societies exist for the sake of collecting and preserving contemporary documents, or of securing specially prepared papers to elucidate particular points of history, or to stimulate to greater diligence in the historic field. Thousands of valuable documents have thus been rescued from oblivion or destruction, and many of them published, leading to new investigations, fresh expositions of history, and still further discoveries.

Special attention has been called recently to the life and work of the Apostle Eliot by the observance of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of his first preaching to the Indians. New facts have been brought to light by recent investigations in respect to his life and work. It is quite possible at this time to form a more intelligent idea of his missions, and of their results, than it was even a generation ago. He is no longer regarded as an isolated missionary, a gifted and saintly man who stood quite apart from his environment; and entered upon a work which the men of his time did not appreciate; but rather as one who sought to carry out in definite and practical ways a missionary idea, which the Puritans had long before accepted, and which number of other men among the Colonists were also seeking to carry to successful results.

Labadism was a late product of that spirit of reform which inaugurated the Protestant systems. Theologically it belonged to the school of Calvin. In its spirit it was conformable to that sentiment of ideal brotherhood, which has ever been a favorite mode of representing the fellowship of Christian believers.

The relation of John Wesley and early Methodism to the Church of England is one of the disputed questions of Church History. It has practical interest as well on account of the repeated attempts to induce the Methodists to return to the Church of England on the ground of the alleged unflinching loyalty of Wesley to the Church, and especially on account of his alleged High-Church notions. From documents lately printed some think that the common notion that Wesley maintained strictly evangelical notions after 1738 must be revised. It is therefore of interest to inquire what was Wesley's real attitude toward the Church of his fathers.

In this paper I propose to discuss only the period before 1100 A.D., only the Latin classics, and only the western part of Christian Europe. The later centuries would need a special discussion, as early in the twelfth century new factors were at work which modified materially the study and influence of the classics. I mention the Latin classics, although what is said will in general hold true of the Greek classics as far as they found any students. But in the case of the latter, there was during these centuries an additional reason for neglecting them. In the tenth and eleventh centuries a knowledge of the Greek classics might have given rise to the suspicion of schism, as the knowledge of Hebrew caused a suspicion of Judaistic principles. The limitation to the west of Europe calls for no comment, and is made only to avoid any possible misconceptions.

The jurisdiction of the Roman See is, and always has been, a point of controversy, not merely between the adherents of that see and all other Christians, but even among those who look with reverence akin to devotion to the successor of St. Peter. It is not merely a legal question, it is essentially a theological question, and as a doctrine it must be de jure divino. Accordingly, it has been discussed with that acrimony which as from a psychological necessity is characteristic of so many theological disputes. But discussion of the development of the doctrine and practice does not necessarily involve polemics. For a doctrine may be true or false, and to show this is a matter of exegesis and systematic theology, but to show that as finally stated it was the result of a long development is not to touch upon the question of its truth at all. Thus one may ask as to a doctrine closely connected with that we are to discuss, does the teaching of the Church as stated in the Bull, Unam Sanctam, appear in the second or third century as an article of belief required to be held by all Christians as a condition for receiving the sacraments? To show that it does not so appear, is merely to show what nearly every one acknowledges as to almost any doctrine not involved in modern polemics, that in the earliest ages they were not formulated with any great precision, in fact were expressed in forms sometimes afterward regarded as even heretical.

In a consideration of the ninth century we realize that the Frankish world was bound to the old Roman world by more potent ties than those of memory. As we study the so-called superficial continuations of Roman institutions we discover that they are not dead and worthless relics, but living things. They grow even as we examine them. They strike deep roots into the very heart of Frankish institutions.

The Society of Friends took its origin in England, and it is therefore natural that slavery did not attract much attention from its members until some of them emigrated to countries where slavery was an established institution. Like the members of other denominations, these seem to have taken slavery as a matter of course, and some fell into the habit of owning slaves themselves, and when slaveholders joined the society they retained their slaves.