attention will agree that the word has a narrower and a wider sense, but that in both cases the apostle was one who, being sent, whether immediately by Jesus Christ, as in the case of the Twelve and St. Paul, or mediately through man, as may have been the case with some of the others so named, was commissioned to preach and baptize and administer the Eucharist. In a word, to him was committed the active part in the continuation of Christ's work. Also, at least in the case of the Twelve, all will agree that the Apostle had what we now call jurisdiction, the active power of rule, authority and government over the Church in general. The Apostle, then, being sent with authority, was the voice of Jesus Christ, the bearer of the Word.

Over against them are all those who hear the voice, who receive the word, who are subject to authority. To all is given the Spirit, but not in all is He made manifest in the same way. Some receive the gift of healing, some of miracles, some of tongues, some of discernment of spirits, some of prophecy. Nor is there any necessity whatever to suppose that all the faithful were the recipients of those extraordinary gifts, that all were charismatics in the sense that all showed forth in visible or sensible form the entering into them of the Spirit. The Church of Corinth need not be taken as the norm of Christian communities; rather is there a presumption that it was a somewhat abnormal and troublesome community, that entailed upon St. Paul much detailed correspondence. There is just as much ground for supposing that the Thessalonians formed a typical, normal community, and they had to be warned not to despise prophecy. But, be this as it may, it is clear that prophets were prominent, so prominent indeed that St. Paul can class them with the Apostles as 'foundations of the Church, not founders; the distinction is a real one, though often overlooked.

Now, on the supposition that the charismatics were, comparatively speaking, few, that the great majority of the faithful were of the quite ordinary type, such as we know them to-day in any zealous, well-organized and earnest parish, we can find room for the prophet and an explanation of his functions that agrees both with a priori probabilities and with historical evidence. In any Christian community there will be found among the hearers some whose responsiveness to the inflow of the Spirit will be much greater than that of others. Their insight into divine mysteries,

their perceptiveness of divine purpose, their spontaneous and generous correspondence with all the impulses of grace are on a higher level than those of their fellows. They have in spiritual matters that which corresponds with what we call genius, and this must express itself. So we find these men and women standing out among the rest and rising above them as specially gifted in the understanding and then in the interpretation of the Word of life.

Though not apostles, though not 'sent,' as these were, though with no official appointment, yet they had a message for their fellow believers, which, as opportunity offered, they felt themselves divinely impelled to deliver: messages of comfort, strength, consolation, counsel, direction, explanation, in a word, of earnest and sure interpretation of some aspect of the Gospel upon which they felt an interior assurance of enlightenment. Thus the prophet represented what may be called the perfection of hearing, or receiving, or response, just as the apostle was the highest representative of the office of speaking, of giving, of active propagation of the Gospel; and as these two offices or functions are the two prime essentials in the spread of the faith, each being useless without the other, each supplementing and completing the other's work, St. Paul was expressing nothing but a simple and practical, though profound, truth, when he spoke of apostles and prophets being the foundation of the Church.

But still, what of the lists of ministers in 1st Corinthians xii. 28, and Ephesians iv. 11? Our author denies that they are in any way meant as lists of hierarchical dignities; he holds that the apostle is simply contending that there is a divine scale of value in gift, and that it is not the scale of prodigiosity, but of serviceableness; he is not comparing grades of "ministry," but spiritual values' (p. 159); he is not arranging office-bearers in a hierarchy. There is no space to set out his argument in detail, but I am certainly persuaded that he makes out his case decisively. His conclusion is one that will already be familiar to readers of Cornely's commentary on the 1st Corinthians in the Cursus Scripturae Sacrae, though our author works it out much more fully and more effectively.

This conclusion practically cuts the ground from under the feet of the advocates of the twofold ministry theory, since nowhere else in the New Testament can any real

evidence in favour of that theory be found, as Mr. Wotherspoon shows by a careful examination of all the other passages in which prophets and prophecy are mentioned. The literature of the sub-apostolic age is likewise proved to be equally unfavourable to this theory, and to point most strongly to the existence of an institutional ministry only.

Our author rounds off his inquiry with a section on the continuance of prophecy in the Church. Into this there is no need to go. His remarks are often very suggestive, but here he is at a distinct disadvantage, owing to his actual position outside the true Church.

I think that what has been written is enough to justify the opinion expressed at the beginning of this paper, that this book is a valuable addition to Catholic apologetics, and if any of my readers are induced to make closer acquaintance with Mr. Wotherspoon's work, I feel sure that they will endorse that judgment.

B. V. MILLER.

IRISH RECORDS IN ROMAN LIBRARIES

IT

BY REV. P. O'NEILL

It goes without saying that an Irish ecclesiastical historian cannot hope to secure any measure of finality in his work until he has examined the documents relating to Irish affairs contained in the libraries of Rome. But it is equally true that no individual could ever succeed in going through the thousands of volumes of manuscripts which might possibly yield him important information, even if he were prepared to make a personal visit to Rome, to undergo the expense of a protracted stay in the city, and to spend much of his time in the preliminaries of learning where to go in search of his materials, and of gaining admittance, sometimes none too easily, it would seem, to the various libraries. Such a worker would consider himself fortunate if he were able to verify his references, and to ascertain some particular facts of which he already had some knowledge; and he might sometimes stumble upon an occasional piece of valuable evidence merely by accident. But much would inevitably escape him, and his labours would avail little or nothing to lighten the task of subsequent investigators, who would be obliged to go over the same ground in search of matter not already utilized, but contained in volumes already examined. There would thus be a great deal of overlapping, which, in such circumstances, with few labourers for a great harvest, should be, as far as possible, avoided.

Obviously, what is needed is that all the Roman libraries should be examined systematically and exhaustively, and that the results of the investigation should be made available to all students of history. A work of such national importance is one which a government might be expected to undertake some governments, I believe, have actually undertaken it for their own countries. But we in Ireland have no reason to expect that such a luxury should be

permitted to us. Fortunately, however, the deficiency in State aid is made up for by unselfish individual effort, and we owe it to the patriotic industry of the Rev. Dr. Hagan, Vice-Rector of the Irish College in Rome, that the contents of the Roman libraries which have a bearing on Irish history are now in course of publication in the Archivium Hibernicum.

Of the documents already published it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that alone they would suffice to give a very complete and vivid picture of the period to which they refer. While reading these papers, one feels that one moves again amid the scenes of the Nine Years' War, following its course from victory to defeat in the letters of O'Neill and O'Donnell to Rome. One can trace the sad sequel in the redoubled efforts at persecution, and in the flight of the Earls, which prepared the way for extensive confiscations and plantations; while all the time abundance of information is supplied regarding the state of religion, in the letters of the Irish chiefs and ecclesiastics, but most of all, in the Relationes Status, or official reports on the state of their dioceses, made periodically by the Bishops. Varied as they are, all these documents are characterized by that invaluable personal note for which the historian so eagerly seeks, in his efforts to form a true estimate of men and of times.

Dr. Hagan began his researches among the volumes of the great Borghese collection. Here, he tells us, are to be found reports, petitions, correspondence, consistorial diaries, minutes of meetings, and such other documents as the Cardinal, whose name the collection bears, would have been entitled to receive in virtue of his office. The first instalment of papers refers to the Nine Years' War.3 Few periods in Irish history possess such attraction for the student as this, when Hugh O'Neill, Hugh O'Donnell, Maguire, and others of the Irish chiefs made such a determined struggle for civil and religious liberty against the forces of Elizabeth and the Reformation. The victories of Clontibret, the Yellow Ford, and the Curlieu Mountains, and the failure of all the efforts of Essex seemed for a time to indicate that the

1 The late Father Costello, having completed the collection of the Annats of Ireland from the Roman archives, was unable to secure their publication by the Government, except under conditions to which he could not agree. The Annats are now being published by the Catholic Record Society.

2 Archivium Hibernicum, vols, ii-v.

• Ibid., ii.