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THE

CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.

JANUARY, 1855.

ART. I.-1. Georg Calixtus und seine Zeit. Von Dr. ERNST LUDWIG THEODOR HENKE: ord. Prof. der Theologie zu Marburg. Erster Band. Halle. 1853. [George Calixtus and his Times. By Dr. E. L. T. Henke, Prof. of Theology at Marburg. Vol. I. (1576—1635.)]

2. Geschichte der synkretischen Streite in der Zeit G. Calixts. Von H. SCHMID. Erlangen. 1846. [History of the Syncretical Contest in the time of Calixtus.]

3. Georg Calixt und der Synkretismus. Von W. GARS. Breslau. 1846. [George Calixtus and Syncretism.]

4. Codex Liturgicus Ecclesia Universæ in Epitomen redactus. Tom. II. Ecclesia Lutherana. Curavit H.A. DANIEL, Phil. D. Societ. Hist.-Theolog. Lips. Sodalis. Leipsic. Weigel. 1848. 5. Historia Ecclesiastica Islandia. Auctore P. PETURSSON, Lic. The. Toparchia Snæfelnesensis et Hnappadalensis Præposito, pastore Stadastadensi. Copenhagen. Luno. 1841.

6. Die ursprüngliche Gottesdientsordnung in den Deutschen Kirchen Lutherischen Bekenntnisses, ihre Destruction und Reformation. Von D. Th. KLIEFOTH, Superintendenten, und erstem Dom Prediger zu Schwerin. Rostock. 1847. [The Original System of Divine Services in the German Churches of the Lutheran Confession, its Destruction and Reformation. By D. Th. Kliefoth.]

7. Den Danske Kirkes Historie efter Reformationen. Ved LUDV. HELWEG. Tom. I. II. Kjobenhavn. 1851. [The History of the Danish Church after the Reformation. By L. Helweg. Copenhagen.]

WE are about to turn a page of Ecclesiastical History, -we use that term in its largest sense,-which will disclose so large an amount of bitterness, rancour, and malice, that its spectacle would be well-nigh intolerable were it not for the zeal with

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which some few of its most eminent men did, even in the worst of times, labour for peace. It is unnecessary, we hope, that we should commence by vindicating ourselves from the charge of sympathising any further with the Lutheran and Reformed' divines, of whom we are to write, than in their endeavours, however, and however necessarily, futile, to realize the blessing of the Peacemakers; superfluous to say that we would not sacrifice one grain of essential truth for an indefinite amount of peace; or to protest with Bishop Andrewes, 'No Pax in terris, except it shall first be seen how it can stand with Gloria in excelsis.' But this may surely be understood, without our repeating it in every page;-and we wish the whole paper, like the bracketed part of a mathematical formula, to be influenced by this one paragraph, as that is by the symbols exterior to the brackets.

It will be necessary, in order that we should have a better understanding of the rise and progress of Syncretism, to give a glance over Europe, as it then lay divided between the Roman Church, rapidly recovering from the blow of the Reformation, the Lutheran body, torn into a thousand factions, and losing ground daily, and Calvinism, becoming, from the local religion of a petty state, a formidable rival to that Protestantism which, half a century before, had threatened to engulf Europe. Let us see under what auspices the seventeenth century opened.

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Clement VIII. (Aldobrandini) filled the papal throne. His own sanctity of life, his friendship with S. Philip de Neri, the learning which was gathered round the Vatican,-Baronius, Bellarmine, Muretus, Cluvius,-a galaxy of talent,-raised the court of Rome to a position worthy of its renown. The good fruits of the improved discipline introduced by the Council of Trent became every where visible. If the most illustrious cardinals' had not altogether undergone that most illustrious reformation,' which Bartholomeu dos Martyres, Archbishop Primate of Braga, declared to be their duc, at least the licence of the preceding century was over: and the names of Salviati, Santorini, and Como were great in their days, and are respectable in ours. Henry IV. of France abjured Calvinism: his kingdom began to breathe after the miseries of the civil wars; politics' became extinct; Huguenots declined in numbers and in influence; the fairest realm in the possession of the Roman Church, after trembling on the verge of disruption, returned to her allegiance. Marvellous energy in the propaga tion of the faith; in Japan, innumerable martyrs under the

1 The reader must bear in mind that, throughou this paper, we shall use the words Protestant and Reformed in their correct sense: the former for the Lutheran, the latter for the Calvinistic body.

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