BLACK AND ARMSTRONG, 8, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH. THE FOREIGN 7 849 QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.-Die Römischen Päpste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat, von Leopold Ranke. [The Ecclesiastical and General History of the Popes of Rome during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.] 3 vols. Berlin. 1834-1840. THE work before us in all respects evidences the great labour and unwearied toil bestowed upon it by its learned author. We can scarce help expressing both our regret and our pleasure that such pure sources of authentic information have been developed to one amply able to use them beneficially for all. We say regret, for who does not lament the limitation that does not enjoy the liberty of perusing MSS. amid numerous nations, on which but a few eyes could alight, calculated to use them with the faith of the annalist, the wisdom of the philosopher, and the piety of the believer. Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Rome, all have ministered to the immense mass of erudition before us. The Vatican, indeed, was not thoroughly searched, from some religious jealousy to a Protestant historian; but the Borghese, Doria, Barberini, and numerous other private records, possibly more valuable than all the public documents, were opened with great liberality to the northern stranger. A work, filling up an hiatus that had existed too long, has been the result of this laborious investigation. In various passages we are led to think the writer inclines to the Romanist, in others to the Protestant persuasion; yet he makes candid avowal in his preface of his Protestant views, with a spirit which we must love to see manifested in a writer of history his eyes are neither closed to the imperfections of his own party, nor unobservant of the bright qualities that have adorned many pious Romanists. Justice is dealt out with evenhandedness on friend and foe. The fault, the leading fault of Ranke, is a tendency to view Protestantism distinct from Catholicism. In effect they are the same. Protestantism and Romanism vary extremely, but the former does not essentially differ from Catholicism, which Romanism unquestionably does. The Confession of Augsburgh negatives no tenet of Catholicism. The still simplfession of VOL. XXV NO. LI. 13 Je 19 |