Franciscan Studies

BOOK REVIEWS 303 it treats of the doctrine on the Eucharist in that section of Patristic literature which is usually passed over in silence. The period embraced in this study extends from the death of St. Augustine (430) to the invasion of Africa by the Saracens at the end of the seventh century. As sources of his work, the author cites ten African writers, among them St. Quodvultdeus of Carthage (d. about 453) and Fulgentius of Ruspe (d. 532). Added to their writings are two anonymous discourses of probable African origin. The subject matter of the dissertation is distributed over three chapters. In the first chapter the author gives the teaching of the African Church concerning the consecration and various related subjects. Interesting in this chapter are the references to the names of the Eucharist and to the Epiclesis; the word Missa is used, but only in its original meaning of any liturgical function. Though an invocation of the Holy Ghost is mentioned, it should be understood, not in the sense of an Oriental Epiclesis, but rather as a prayer for the sanctification of the faithful through the Eucharist. The second chapter discusses the teaching of the African Church regarding the effects of consecration, the Real Presence, and Transubstantiation. While the postAugustinian authors do not directly explain either mystery, they without doubt suppose their existence. In the third chapter the author gives the reasons for the probability of the African origin of the aforementioned anonymous discourses, and points out that their use of the terms convertere and transmigrate shows a closer approach to the idea of transubstantiation. The author has handled his subject well, and is to be congratulated for his contribution to a knowledge of those Patristic writings to which little attention is generally given. D avid B a ier , O. F. M. St. Bonaventure College, St. Bonaventure, N. Y. A Basic History of the United States. By Charles A. and Mary R. Beard. (New York: The New Home Library. Pp. xxviii+508. $0.69.) This survey marks the close of the Beards’ efforts to interpret the course of American history. Based as it is on some forty years of study and research into American history, the work, on the whole, succeeds admirably in its analysis. To compress so much of our history in one volume is something of an accomplishment in itself; for the book is far more than an ordinary summary or outline. In detail, however, the result is not always so happy. The application of the beatitude "Blessed are the meek. . . ” to the English crown is hardly well taken; for the English crown was aggressive enough when its interest was roused and its strength permitted it to be. The quotation from Jonathan Boucher (p. 52) is rather ambiguous: for as the quotation stands without explanation, it might be taken in the good sense as a statement of the Chris­ tian duty of a citizen. In seeking an extreme regalist statement, the authors might rather easily have found something better. Deism certainly rejected "the Hebraic and Miltonic interpretation of the cosmos,” but it just as cer­ tainly cannot be credited with "substituting. . . the universal God of all man­ kind” (p. 63). It seems rather doubtful that the utilitarian ideas derived 304 FRANCISCAN STUDIES from the Enlightenment had as great an influence as the authors attribute to them. There are a number of statements of fact which might be criticized as inexact, but it would be captious to take exception to them in a volume which must survey so broad a field. One notable and surprising omission is the absence of all reference to the history of bigotry in this country; and nativism receives only one inadequate reference. This is the more surprising in view of the fact that the authors seem to be eminently fair in their presentation of questions affecting religion or nationality. The space given to the history of labor unions of the pre-Civil War period could easily have included some statement of the internal, and a better statement of the external, difficulties of the unions. To omit this last seems to overemphasize the importance of the movement within this period. The aims of...