Cylchgronau Cymru

a chymedrol. Hyfrydwch yw cael cymaint o synnwyr cyffredin iach wedi ei gostrelu o fewn cyfrol mor fechan. Bywioceir y traethu manwl gan yr arddull ystwyth, gafaelgar. Er nad yw'r awdur bob amser yn llwyddo i osgoi'r demtasiwn i ddilyn ambell ysgyfarnog yma a thraw, nid yw hynny ond arwydd o'i frwdfrydedd a'i awch i wneud tegwch a'i bwnc. Optimist yw'r eciwmenydd wrth reddf, ond bu Griffith Roberts yn ddoeth i'n hatgoffa bod gwerth mewn 'sugno ysbrydoliaeth' o'r gorffennol er mwyn deall y presennol yn well ac er cymorth i wynebu'r dyfodol. [This small volume deals with those vexed theological issues which troubled and divided early Methodist leaders in England and Wales. The author fixes his attention on three major problems: the division which ordinations occasioned in Methodist circles; the doubts cast by Moravians on the necessity of good works; the ancient and well-rehearsed debate over election. The approach is largely chronological, and, though singularly thin on sociological insights, the book is enlivened by a smooth and winsome style. Mr. Roberts shares with John Wesley a catholic spirit, and he deserves praise for his sensitive treatment of a difficult subject. Hope springs eternal in the ecumenicist's breast, but the author is wise to bring us down to earth with the salutary reminder that only by a proper appreciation of the past can we understand the present and thereby further progress towards Christian unity.] GERAINT H. JENKINS Aberystwyth THE CHURCH OF IRELAND. ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM AND REVOLUTION, 1800-1885. By Donald Harman Akenson. New Haven and London. Yale University Press, 1971. Pp. xiii, 413.$15.00. During the past few years, the Anglican Church of Ireland in the nineteenth century has received a good deal of attention from historians, partly because of the centenary in 1969 of Gladstone's Act disestablishing that Church. Mr. Akenson's book is a thorough, detailed, and valuable contribution to these studies. There is an excellent bibliography, including a useful list of Parliamentary Papers-though it is a pity that the author chose to leave aside the polemical pamphlets, which may be difficult to use, but which represent by their very existence a contemporary fact of great importance. Mr. Akenson explains in his preface that his book sets out to examine the Church as an organisation, and not (except incidentally) its theology or spiritual life. He opens with a description of the structure of the Church of Ireland in the eighteenth century, illustrated with tables which represent an immense amount of patient work. He next discusses the state of the Church between 1800 and 1830, showing that it improved in a number of ways which can be expressed in figures (residency of the clergy, numbers of churches), as well as in some which cannot (the work and zeal of the