reasonable caution in the selection of their candidate for training, assure themselves that he possesses a real fitness for work abroad, and make their grants for his support depend on the progress he makes at the Missionary College, they will do much for the extension of Christ's Church. Let them take a bold and decided course, and 'let down their nets for a draught' not only in our national schools, but in those of which Bishop Broughton has spoken as nurturing many well fitted for work abroad. There is much, as we have seen, to fill us with hope. Forty years ago it was sometimes affirmed to be a defect in the religious revival at Oxford that it had not lifted missionary zeal to its proper level in the Christian life.

1

The work accomplished by Edward Coleridge furnishes an answer to this statement. His singular career of self-devotion and zeal in behalf of our Colonial empire, when the extent of our Greater Britain' was but little apprehended, deserves to be better known than it is. Now that its extent and its greatness are more appreciated, may we not hope that men will be raised up to prove themselves worthy of the confidence in the future of our Church which the restorers of S. Augustine's so strikingly displayed, and of all none more eminently than the bearer of the honoured name of Coleridge, who sleeps in the churchyard of Mapledurham ?

ART. VI.-GASCOIGNE'S 'THEOLOGICAL

DICTIONARY.'

Loci e Libro Veritatum. Passages selected from Gascoigne's Theological Dictionary, illustrating the condition of Church and State, 1403-1458. With an Introduction by JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS, M.P. (Oxford, 1881.)

THE publication of a contemporary work illustrating the ecclesiastical history of the fifteenth century-perhaps the most obscure period of English Church history-is a real boon to the historical student. To a certain extent, indeed, Gascoigne's Theological Dictionary was known to students

1 Besides giving freely himself to the dioceses of New Zealand, Newfoundland, Sydney, and Tasmania, Edward Coleridge through one conversation with Miss Burdett-Coutts was instrumental in obtaining upwards of 35,000l. for the Sees of Cape Town and Adelaide.

before Mr. Rogers' publication. Extracts from it are given by Lewis and by Hearne. But these quotations are but of slight extent compared with the considerable size of the work itself, and touch only a few points. The book recently put out by the Clarendon Press contains a much larger, fuller, and more complete exhibition of Gascoigne's work, though even this is but a selection, and much still remains unpublished. We may assume, however, that Mr. Rogers has selected the passages likely to be most interesting; and inasmuch as Thomas Gascoigne had a most portentous fondness for iteration, and even in the published selections repeats himself with most provoking perseverance, it may well be that the publication of the whole work would be superfluous, and that in the volume before us we have all that we need to wish for. The text is printed by the Clarendon Press in a beautiful type, and the Introduction prefixed by Mr. Rogers is very able and interesting. Altogether the volume is a decided acquisition to our historical libraries. Taking it as our text, we propose now to endeavour to show what was the ecclesiastical state of England during the half-century in which it was presided over by the House of Lancaster; before the commencement of the troubles of the Wars of the Roses, which had the effect of banishing all hope of improvement, until at length in the vigorous hands of Henry VIII. things began to mend. In estimating the value of the extracts we are about to make it must be premised that the writer was a devout Churchman, and without the slightest taint of 'Lollardry,' and also that as Chancellor of Oxford, and personally acquainted with many of the leading prelates of the day, he had good opportunities of judging of the matters on which he touched. Mr. Rogers thus sums up the author's religious views:

'Gascoigne hates heterodoxy because he thinks it conceit; but what he loves is piety and charity, a holy life, a good example, a clear conscience; and, in the parochial clergy, frequent preaching, open hospitality, and a desire to extend education.

'The personality of Gascoigne is that of a well-connected, fairly opulent English priest, who was stored with the learning of his age, was honoured by his contemporaries, was orthodox in his beliefs, but unsparing in his condemnation of those who did not reach what he believed to be the standard of public and private duty.'1

It may be added that he was clearly a man of so simple a mind that occasionally his utterances read like those of a

1 Introduction, pp. lx, lxi.

child, but that he had a spice of bitterness withal, as his constant attacks on Bishop Pecock (whom he did not in the least understand) amply testify. It is clear, however, that Gascoigne was both an honest man and a competent witness, even if we have to make some deductions for personal feelings, as in the case of Bishop Pecock. What, then, does this orthodox doctor and respectable ecclesiastic tell us of the Church of the first half of the fifteenth century? The tale is a very dark one, and is scarce relieved by any touches of light. And first with regard to the Pope in his relations to the English Church. Are these relations in Gascoigne's view salutary or otherwise? It must strike anyone acquainted with the opinions of Bishop Grosseteste, that Gascoigne's views as to the relations of the Pope and the Church in the fifteenth century are almost precisely similar to those advocated with such vigour by Grosseteste in the thirteenth century. Grosseteste is, indeed, Gascoigne's favourite author, and he constantly appeals to his authority. Gascoigne does not attack the office of the Pope, or impugn his authority or governing power, but he exhibits in most startling colours the abuses and mischiefs which flowed forth from the exercise of this power in England, and which, had Gascoigne's mind been as logical as it was honest, must have led him to the conclusion that there was no hope of safety for the English Church save in a complete severance from this evil foreign influence. To show these abuses we may take three special points, viz. (1) the Papal grants of indulgences; (2) the Papal provisions, or appointments to benefices in defiance of the rights of patrons; (3) the Papal exactions or levies of money under different pretences from the English clergy. As regards indulgences nothing can be stronger or indeed more terrible than Gascoigne's account of their misuse: and assuredly Mr. Rogers is not wrong in saying that the scandals were as great in England during the fifteenth as they were in Germany in the sixteenth century, and had the time been ripe for it Peter de Monte's sale of indulgences in 1440 was as provocative of secession as that of Tetzel nearly eighty years afterwards.'1

'The men of our day,' writes Gascoigne, 'say, "We need not be careful against any sin, but, if we feel inclined, may do it, just as if it were lawful. We have committed sin," say they, "and nothing has happened to us; and if we shall sin we have no cause to fear, because near to us is the kingdom of God, and Rome is at our door, and very easily and very quickly shall we get pardon of our fault, and remission of all penalty, if we give money to procure the Papal

1 Introduction, p. lxii.

indulgence"; and so they omit the acts of true penitence and the acts of due righteousness' (p. 118).

'Alas! men seek to obtain and receive indulgences from God by vile and trifling acts which man commands and grants, rather than by those which God ordains, and which reason and Scripture show to be good-namely, by drinking, taking a long draught from a cup from which men drink to such an extent that they are made drunk,' and think by that draught that they shall have plenary pardon from God of many and great evils. For men say nowadays that the Pope and the bishops have granted indulgences to those who visit certain places, and drink to the bottom of such a cup, and offer money in such a place, and they think that the other things necessary to the soul's health are not necessary, and need not be done by them' (p. 119).

'Just so sinners nowadays say, "I care not what and how many evils I have committed before God, because very easily and very quickly I can have plenary remission of every fault and penalty by absolution and the indulgence conceded to me by the Pope, whose writing and grant I have bought for fourpence or sixpence, or for a game at ball." For they who grant letters of indulgence run about through the country, and sometimes give a letter for twelvepence, sometimes for a good draught of wine or ale, sometimes for a game at ball if they be beaten, sometimes as a payment to a courtesan, sometimes for mere favour. Peter de Monte, who, about the year of our Lord 1440, collected a great quantity of money for the indulgences granted by Pope Eugenius, when he was about to embark on his return from England said to Doctor Vincent Clement, "By Heaven, Pope Eugenius shall never have a penny of those sacks full of money unless he shall first send me letters promising me the archbishopric of Milan”' (p. 125).

When such abuses were rampant it is no wonder that Gascoigne should have set down as one of the 'streams of Babylon'

'the false confidence which some have in indulgences granted by the Pope, or by men, which come not from God, because they have not the requisites for obtaining pardon before God. . . . For a man is not set free by indulgence from any necessary and due act which he is bound before God to do, but from the penalty which he would incur from the law or from the sentence of the judge. But he who deliberately rejects and despises all penance, appointed by the priest, I see not how such an one is truly penitent, or how he is capable of indulgence, or how he is prepared to sustain the punishment to be inflicted after death by God, who here refuses all enjoined penance. Oh, how often have I heard worldly and carnal livers say boastingly, "I fear not to rob men, to get gain as I please, to defraud widows and the poor; for however badly I shall act I can get plenary 1 The meaning seems to be that an indulgence is given as a prize to the man who shows himself the strongest toper.

remission of sin and of punishment by visiting such a church and by an offering of money. Oh, how blind are they who say such things. For how can he be loosed from chains who is still held fast in chains? How can he be loosed from sins who does not leave them, nor do the works required of him by God?' (p. 91).

It is evident that there could be no more absolutely demoralizing and destructive influence than such a misuse of indulgences as that which Gascoigne here condemns. The Pope's factor coming into a parish with his basket full of these mischievous documents was like a moral pestilence invading the land. Not only were the people encouraged in sin by the vain belief that for a few pence they could wipe away all their debts, but the clergy also, seeing the sources of their revenue interfered with by this extraneous and contraband traffic, were stirred up to an unholy rivalry in offering spiritual boons. Thus Gascoigne tells a story of a priest who in preaching declared that if anyone would give him or any of his household twopence, he would stake his soul for theirs before the tribunal of God. Shameful and shameless cupidity was rife, such as was exhibited in the archdiocese of York when it was ordered by the Archbishop that none should be absolved, however penitent, who did not contribute a fitting sum to the fabric of the cathedral church (pp. 121-123).

A subject which excites Gascoigne's indignation equally with the misuse of indulgences is the old and long-standing abuse of the overriding of the rights of patrons by the intrusion of Papal nominees into English benefices. The theory held by the Popes, and which was stated more boldly and more unshrinkingly by Martin V. than by any previous Pontiff, was that by virtue of the sovereign power and absolute authority belonging to the Vicar of Christ, all benefices of every sort by right appertained to the Chair of S. Peter. Patrons or founders might be allowed by concession to nominate, but whenever the original authority pleased to exercise his rights, then the right of the lesser and lower authority was vacated and ceased to exist. It is needless to say that this Pontifical view was never accepted in England either by clergy or laity. There had always been abundant spirited protests against it, such as those of Archbishop Edmund Rich and Bishop Grosseteste. There had been special Acts of Parliament passed to prevent it, such as the three Statutes of Provisors. Nevertheless the Popes continued to sell English benefices and English sees, and to draw a large part of their revenue from this abuse. As a matter of fact

VOL. XX.--NO. XXXIX.

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