“Quod si Episcopus hujusmodi Missae praesens non erit, vel absolvere nequiverit, celebrans finita Missa, accedet ad cornu Epistolae altaris, ubi in plano, deposita planeta et manipulo accipiet pluviale nigrum et stans in dicto cornu Epistolae versus ad altare expectabit finem responsorii”.... It is evident from all this what answer is to be given to the fourth question, viz.: that in all cases the celebrant, and no other priest, should give the absolution when the bishop is not present. NOTICES OF BOOKS. _Adjamenta Oratoris Sacri, seu, Divisiones, Sententiae, et Documenta de iis Christianae vitae veritatibus et officiis, quae frequentius e sacro pulpito proponenda sunt_, collecta atque ordine digesta opera Francisci Xaverii Schouppe, S.J. Brussels, Goemare, pp. 543. 1865. From the materials here collected and prepared by Father Schouppe, the preacher may build his discourse with ease and advantage. And yet, though the materials are placed ready to his hand, the work will still be all his own. The author does not undertake to supersede labour, but to lighten the preacher’s fatigue by lending his friendly help. He supplies matter for the discourse, he even traces the outline of its form, and then leaves to the preacher himself the task of construction. In the opening pages he addresses himself to the question, _how is a priest, especially a young priest, to render himself a useful and even a perfect preacher of the Word of God?_ In answer to this question, he touches in a masterly way on these two points, 1. What is a preacher of the Gospel, and what is the perfection that belongs to him? 2. By what process may a preacher attain to this perfection? Part of this process consists, of course, in the preparation of the sermon, and it is to facilitate this preparation that the work before us has been compiled. The author reduces to fifty heads the entire cycle of subjects suited for pastoral exhortation, embracing in this number whatever can serve to bring the sinner to justification, to guide him in the path of a Christian life, and to conduct him to Heaven. He gives on each of these fifty subjects a treatise which is a marvel of brevity and fulness. So judicious is the arrangement of the texts bearing on the subject; so clear and full the statement of the case; so simple the division of the arguments, that each of these little treatises makes the reader complete master of the subject of which it treats. On the more important subjects, and on those which require more frequent handling, the author supplies many and different divisions or outlines of sermons, thus guarding against the monotony that arises when a subject is presented often under the same form. One other merit we would signalise in this work. It deals with the wants, defects, and vices of the men of our own times. The books of sermons which are to be found on the shelves of the clergy generally belong to an extinct period; the exhortations they