PROGRESS OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 643 



of America, and allow me to join without counterfeit modesty also 

 France, where under the influence of the Ecole de Strasbourg and 

 of Renan, foremost after the renovation 1 of higher studies since 

 1870, the scientific production in the field of ecclesiastical history 

 has much increased. 2 The peculiar character of the present period 

 is the dreadful quantity of publications of all kinds which appear 

 every year in five or six different languages, so that it is more and 

 more difficult to be acquainted with the ever-increasing historical 

 production. The reproduction only of titles of the books, papers, 

 tracts, or essays, published every year, fills a whole volume. 3 Where 

 is, under such conditions, the man who may pretend to study by 

 himself and directly the whole history of the church? Each of us 

 is obliged to confine himself within the bounds of a special depart- 

 ment of the large field, and this excessive specialization is not favor- 

 able to the education of the mind nor to the formation of historical 

 judgment. It is of great importance that periodicals may provide for 

 our insufficiency by publishing serious and impartial reviews of the 

 largest possible number of new works. 



This superabundance of historical contributions not only results 

 from the extension of the area, where church history is cultivated. 

 It arises also and this is our second statement from the un- 

 contested triumph of the historical method in the religious field. 

 Scientific concurrence not only became universal like economical 



1 To be mentioned in the Strasbourg school : Edward Reuss, Baum Cunitz, 

 Ch. Schmidt, Colani, de Pressens6 (who followed afterwards another direction), 

 Albert ReVille, Auguste Sabatier. After the war of 1870 the French Protestant 

 faculty of Strasbourg was transferred to Paris by Lichtenberger and Sabatier. 

 There it has become what is called in the theological world the "school of Paris," 

 whose most authorized representative is now Mene'goz. 



2 Under the influence of Duchesne a young school of learned and free-minded 

 historians arose in the present French Catholic clergy, to whom belong men like 

 Abb6 Loisy, Lejay, Hemmer, Houtin, etc. There should also be mentioned the 

 contributors of the Bulletin Critique, the Revue biblique Internationale, edited by 

 the Dominican friars of Jerusalem, the Melanges d'histoire et d'archeologie, edited 

 by the Ecole francaise de Rome, the Revue d'histoire et de littfrature religieuses. 

 See also in Belgium the Anecdota Marcdsolana and the Revue Benedictine, edited 

 by the Benedictine friars of Maredsous, the Museon, the Revue de I'Hisfoire ecclesi- 

 astique, edited at Louvain by Cauchie and Ladeuze; and with the old Catholics 

 in Switzerland the Revue Internationale de theologie, edited at Bern, by Michaud. 



What will become of this interesting flight of free scholarship, which was in- 

 spired by Pope Leo XIII, if the spirit which seems now to be prevalent at the 

 Vatican gets the better? 



Independent of any denominational tie are in France the Revue de I'Histoire 

 des Religions, the BMiotheque de V Ecole des Chartes (for medieval history), and the 

 Revue de I'Orient Latin. 



There is no French Protestant periodical specially devoted to ecclesiastical 

 history; but the Revue de theologie et de philosophic, at Lausanne, the Revue de 

 theologie et des questions religieuses, at Montauban, the Revue Chrctienne, edited 

 by John Vie'not, at Paris, often publish historical papers. We ought also to 

 mention the Bulletin de la Societe de I'Histoire du protestantisme fran^ais, edited 

 by Weiss, and the Annalcs de bibliographic theologique, by E. Ehrhardt, in Paris. 



3 The Theologischer Jahresbericht, published in Berlin by the editor Schwetschke, 

 and the Bibliographie der theologischen Literatvr, by the same. We ought also to 

 mention here the excellent bibliographv, which appears everv fortnight in the 

 Theologische Literaturzeitung , edited by Professor Schiirer (Berlin, Hinrichs). 



