tined to be a man of the age, and the precursor of events the most interesting and important to religion and to civilization.
There is no dignity nor payment which would not have been accorded to him, in the Romish Communion, had he written his History of the Church of France in the interests of the party called Ultramontane, that is, the Jesuit party. Like Fleury, he preferred to tell the facts as he discovered them to be, and for this, of course he has been persecuted. The censures of the Court of Rome led him to review his work with the earnest desire to amend it; but this reviewal, by his very effort to make it thorough, led him to conclusions which he had not anticipated. In the work herewith presented, we have the results. It is written in a style more attractive than the similar work of Barrow on the Supremacy, and on some interesting questions it throws new light ; while its originality, analytical power and illustrative force are everywhere conspicuous.
The reader must understand that the writer uses the word Catholic accurately and not in the vulgar sense. He employs it as it is understood in the Creeds, and as it is used by all scholars and theologians who write correctly. Thus, “the Catholic Church” is the Historic Church of Christ, preserving the orthodoxy of the Four Great Councils, and united in the Apostolic Episcopate. The Oriental Church is the original stock of this great
