Christian lawyer, well read in ancient charters, deeply versed in ecclesiastical history, and with a keen eye to judge present action by past experiences, that he felt his strength and used it ungrudgingly in the cause he had at heart.

This taste for historic and antiquarian research, with ever a practical result in view, soon showed itself in the young Fellow of Merton. He saw how the ancient spirit of his college had passed away, and how laxity had crept in through lapse of time, as he then thought, but rather by change of religion, as we know, and as he afterwards understood.

We need scarcely add that his suggestions were coldly received, and the reform he sought to bring about came to nought. Soon we find him on most intimate terms with Mr. Gladstone, who was then busy upon his celebrated treatise on "The State in its relations with the Church.” Several letters are given which show how completely Mr. Gladstone placed the manuscript in the hands of Mr. Hope; not merely that he might read it carefully and correct wherever he thought fit, but even to determine whether it should be published at all. This correspondence, as indeed all the many and long letters (some fifty in all), which are herein published between these two intimate friends, are full of interest, and throw much light upon the characters of both. Of course the interesting correspondence extended far beyond the work which the rising statesman submitted so deferentially to the young lawyer. It embraces many of the leading subjects of the period, which, outside party politics, exercised so much influence upon the Established Church, and drove so many to the True Fold.

There was the foundation of the Protestant Bishopric of Jerusalem, which was the first shock to his confidence in the Anglican Church, as it was indeed to many others. The (late) King of Prussia had, with the help of M. Bunsen, welded together the two great sections into which the Protestantism of his kingdom was divided; and while his hand was in, he resolved to effect another fusion with the help of England; and the outcome was this famous Bishopric of Jerusalem. The Catholics were united, and so were the Greeks; why should not the Protestants be similarly as one? It could hardly be spiritually, seeing how their formulæ of faith differed, but why not outwardly at least under one Oriental head; and as Jerusalem was a

common centre for all creeds, why not have a Protestant Bishop to rule over all who felt disposed to accept him and his ministrations? To make matters smooth the nomination was to be alternately by the English and Prussian Crowns, and the Archbishop of Canterbury was to have jurisdiction over the Bishop "until some other relation might be judged expedient. German subjects might use their own Liturgy; candidates for ordination were to sign the thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England; and those destined for German congregations were to sign in addition the Augsburg Confession. An Act of Parliament got over the difficulty of an Anglican Bishop ordaining persons who were not British subjects: and in due time the unholy alliance was completed, and a gentleman whose faith (even in Anglican eyes) was sufficiently unsound, was sent out to add another element to the distractions under which Jerusalem suffers, and to enjoy in the society of a charming wife and family the consolations which his mongrel mission-which did not affect to be a diocesecould not afford him.

Mr. Hope used his powers of argument against this queer scheme. He saw the Archbishop of Canterbury, who told him that he hoped in Jerusalem "the holders of all kinds of Protestant opinions might exist amiably together under the protection of the proposed Bishop." Upon which I asked whether his Grace meant that if a Socinian congregation were to desire to place itself under the protection of the Bishop of Jerusalem, this might be permitted? To which (as nearly as I can recollect) he replied: "Such a case is not likely to occur, but if it did I should say yes." No wonder Mr. Hope and his companion exclaimed, almost simultaneously, that this was a more fitting office for a Consul than for a Bishop. Nevertheless the scheme was carried out, and a heavy blow and a great discouragement was happily given to those who clung so tenaciously to the Establishment, and who needed many such before they let go their hold upon what they once loved if not wisely yet too well. These useful knocks came rapidly enough to do their work. The appointment of a heretic to the Bishopric of Hereford, the thrusting of a denier of baptismal regeneration into a parish against the protest of the Bishop of the diocese, the suspension of Dr. Pusey, the deprivation of Mr. Ward of his University Degree, the retirement of Mr. Newman from St. Mary's, all these showered down upon Mr. Hope, and he flies from

them to foreign travel-but in vain. Then the end of the struggle draws near. The leaders drop off one by one and disappear from the well-known places; a chill comes over the anxious hearts which they had so long sustained. The then lost ones re-appear; but no longer desponding, no longer in doubt, for they have found elsewhere what they had in vain sought at home. Elsewhere? surely not, "at home," surely not; for that elsewhere is now the home, and that home is now the elsewhere. They enjoy in the Church what they once vainly sought for in schism; and there they, one and all, find the true Home which is the Church of God. Happy disappointments which have so joyous an outcome, blessed trials whose end is peace.

Upon this inner life of Mr. Hope-Scott the author of the Memoirs has principally dwelt; wisely judging that such is the true life rather than that outward, professional one which the world sees and by which it so misjudges

men.

Mr. Hope-Scott was successful indeed in both, and not only played an important part in the religious struggle for truth, but was at the same time the leading lawyer of his day in what is perhaps the highest, certainly the most lucrative branch of the profession, the Parliamentary Bar. He is said to have received on one occasion a fee of ten thousand pounds. We may form some idea of his professional income by the amount of his known charities, for Mr. Ornsby states "on the testimony of one who knew the fact from his own personal knowledge, 'that in twelve or thirteen years (from 1859 or thereabouts) he gave away in charity of some form or other, not less than forty thousand pounds."

Mr. Hope-Scott's life is worthy of a careful study. It shows the Christian gentleman in the various phases of life; the diligent student, the fascinating companion, the earnest inquirer after the Truth, the diligent professional man, the thoughtful and open-handed friend, the tender husband and father, the considerate master. On all classes he made his impression, everyone who came in contact with him has a kind and respectful word to say. Mr. Gladstone fills page after page with his recollections, and Cardinal Newman contributes letter after letter to the collection from whose abundant stores the author makes his large but not too large selection. Mr. Ornsby has fulfilled his task with his usual (skill and refined taste. The chaste language in which the Memoirs are written is admirably in

VOL. V.

Y

keeping with the subject, for simple, earnest and manly should be all that is written about Mr. Hope-Scott.

The history of the period this life embraces has been written over and over again; but while such valuable materials are still in store, it is indeed well to bring them together, especially when, as in the present case, they are so admirably clustered around a worthy name, and illustrate therein the working of those principles for which the great struggle was made.

HENRY BEDFORD.

Κ'

THE HISTORIANS OF OSSORY.1

ILKENNY has been described by one of its own illustrious sons as "the fair city on the banks of the crystal Nore, where, if anywhere, the muse of Irish Catholic history has established a permanent shrine." This remark of Dr. Kelly, the late Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Maynooth College, is just and beautiful. We may add, too, that the Clio of the crystal Nore is of diviner birth than Jove's fabled daughter that haunted the Pierian Spring. Almost every century since it became the second city of the Pale, Kilkenny has produced or nurtured some distinguished ecclesiastical historian.

The list begins with John Clyn, a Friar Minor of the Franciscan Convent in Kilkenny, whose Annals have been published by the Royal Archæological Society. He flourished during the first half of the fourteenth century, and wrote his Annals in Latin. The poor man seems to have found much difficulty in Latinizing the uncouth Celtic names of the neighbouring tribes amongst the "Irish enemy," and hence it is not always easy to ascertain those to whom he refers. These Annals are especially full and valuable during his own lifetime, and he gives us much interesting information regarding the Pales-men of that period. He tells ns, for instance, how in 1324, or, according to Grace, in 1325, the good people of Kilkenny

1 The Analecta of David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory, by Patrick F. Moran, Bishop of Ossory. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son.

2 Transactions of the Ossory Archaeological Society. "Kilkenny Journal" Office.

had the satisfaction of seeing Dame Petronilla burnt for heresy and witchcraft. She was tried by Ledred, the Bishop, and Arnold Power, Seneschal of Kilkenny, with the sanction of the Justiciary of Ireland; and having been convicted of making charms from the brains of young children boiled in the skull of an executed thief, of offering sacrifice to the devil, and of similar nameless practices, she met her terrible fate at the stake.

Dame Kyteler and William Outlaw narrowly escaped at the same time. The former, according to the testimony of her accomplice Petronilla, used to "ride on an iron coulter whithersoever she willed through the world, without let or hindrance." (Grace.) The coulter must have helped her in the end; for had she not succeeded in escaping to England, she would certainly have shared the fate of Dame Petronilla. It was never heard of in time past that anyone was burnt for heresy in Ireland, says the chronicler ; and it is a satisfaction to know that the actors in this dreadful tragedy were all, without exception, Anglo-Normans, both judges and victims: some of the latter were, it is said, connected with the highest families in the land.

Clyn gives us also a terribly graphic picture of a great plague that visited Kilkenny, like the rest of Ireland, in 1349" A year beyond measure, wonderful, unusual, and in many things prodigious;" and "a year in which the penitent and the confessor were carried together to the grave." The poor man writes as if he were living, as indeed he was, amongst the dead; for there was not a house, he says, without more than one dead in it. leave parchment," he adds, "for continuing this work (the Annals), if haply any man survive." He died, it seems, next year, in 1350.

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John Grace, who appears to have been a Canon of the Augustinian Priory of St. John the Evangelist in Kilkenny, is said to have been the author of the Annals that bear his name; they have been also published by the Archæological Society. He flourished just before Henry VIII. confiscated the priory and the other religious houses in Kilkenny. His Annals, also written in Latin, are mainly interesting as geneological records of the great Anglo-Norman families, to one of which he himself belonged. For we must bear in mind that during these centuries Kilkenny proper was a purely Anglo-Norman city, that grew up around the beautiful Cathedral of St. Canice, under the shadow of the